Managing Domestic Violence in the Workplace

Managing Domestic Violence
in the Workplace
W. Barry Nixon, SPHR
Workplaceviolence911.com

W. Barry Nixon, SPHR
• Executive Director, National Institute for Prevention
of Workplace Violence, Inc.
• Creator of www.Workplaceviolence911.com (the
leading source on the Internet for comprehensive
information on workplace violence)
• The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport
(published every other month; get free subscription)
• Contact Information: wbnixon@aol.com or
Telephone – (949)770-5264

Definition - Workplace Violence
National Institute for the Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.
• Acts of aggression or violence including assaults, threats, disruptive,
aggressive, hostile, or verbal or emotionally abusive behaviors that
generate anxiety, that occurs in, or are related to the workplace and
entails a real or perceived risk of physical, emotional and/or
psychological harm to individuals, or damage to an organization’s
resources or capabilities whether intentional or not.

Violence in the Workplace
 21st Century – more than 10,900 people murdered at
work
 21st Century – average homicides at work 779 per year
 Five Year Average – suicides at work 259 per year
 Annually over a half million people report violent
victimizations while they are working or on duty
See the 2013 Workplace Violence Fact Sheet at
www.WorkplaceViolence911.com for statistics on workplace violence.
NOTE: Data from 2001 exclude fatalities resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks.
SOURCE: US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2000-2010

Why Should You Be Concerned?
• Domestic violence is increasingly becoming a
foreseeable workplace risk.
• An incident on your premises will disrupt
productivity, impact your firm’s reputation and
distract management’s attention away from focusing
on company goals.
• From a risk management perspective, inaction on
this growing workplace issue will introduce
unacceptable human risk and potential cost.

Women and Violence
• One in four women has been the victim of severe
physical violence by an intimate partner.
• Approximately 42.4 million women in the United
States have experienced rape, violence, or stalking by
a partner in their lifetime.
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs-fact-sheet-2014.pdf

Incidents of Domestic
Violence in the Workplace
• 16 % of organizations had an incident of domestic violence in
the past 5 years; 19% had an issue in the past year, and 22%
did not know.
• Intimate partner violence resulted in 22% of the 648
workplace homicides among women at work in the U.S. from
2003 to 2008.
Source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Injury Control
Research Center at West Virginia University (WVU-ICRC) Research

Domestic Violence’s Impact on Workers
• Disruptions at work are common for victims of
domestic violence:
– 96% report experiencing problems at work,
– 74% are harassed at work by their abuser,
– 56% are late to work,
– 54% miss entire days of work, and
– 28% leave work early.
Employer Liability for Workplace Violence. Crime Victims’ Litigation Quarterly, 2(4), 10-12.
National Center for Victims Crime.

The Cost of Workplace Violence
• The cost of workplace violence is estimated at $121
billion per year in the United States, and non-fatal
assaults result in 876,000 lost workdays annually.
Source: Business Insurance magazine, April 4, 2014

Businesses Costs to Ignoring
Impact on Victimized Workers
• “The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic
violence is estimated at $727.8 million, with over 7.9
million paid workdays lost each year.”
• Wrongful death actions against employers who failed
to address an employee’s risk of domestic violence
on the job have cost up to $850,000.
NIOSH

Calculate The Cost of Domestic
Violence to Your Organization
• The Domestic Violence Calculator was created
to help you identify the potential cost of
domestic violence to your organization.
Domestic Violence Calculator ©Texas Health Resources;
https://www2.texashealth.org/dv/

OHSA Approach
Plan Prevent Protect

The NIX Model
for Managing Violence Prevention
Plan Detect Prevent Protect
Copyrighted Materials: National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

The NIX Model
for Managing Violence Prevention
• Plan – Management provides leadership; strategy,
plan and resources; drives implementation
• Detect – focus efforts on understanding and
discovering ‘at risk’ behaviors for individuals and
violence prone trends for organizations.
• Prevent - anticipate and deal with possible
problematic situations before they escalate into
problematic behaviors or conflict actually erupts.
• Protect – implement measures to contain issues,
resolve hostilities and activate crisis response plan.

The NIX Model: Plan
• Management Leadership:
– Create Threat Management Team; assign key
personnel from Security, Safety, HR, Legal,
Operations, Occupational Health, Finance, etc.
– Develop a comprehensive strategy and
implementation plan
– Assign responsibility for implementation to C-Suite
Executive
– Establish goals and objectives with clear reporting
and management review process

Zero Incidents
The target of an effective workplace
violence program is injury prevention. By
focusing on reducing “at risk” behaviors
and practices, organizations can attack and
remove the root causes of injuries and
intervene before incidents happen.
Plan Detect Prevent Protect

Cost of Doing Business
“Prepardedness is not a luxury; it is cost of doing
Business”
The 9/11 Commission Report

Reduce Business Cost
According to OSHA, all the research and best evidence points
to one conclusion:
"Employers that invest in workplace safety and health can
expect to reduce fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. This will
result in cost savings in a variety of areas, such as lowering
workers' compensation costs and medical expenses, avoiding
OSHA penalties, and reducing costs to train replacement
employees and conduct accident investigations. In addition,
employers often find that changes made to improve
workplace safety and health can result in significant
improvements to their organization's productivity and
financial performance."

Business Continuity
• Business Continuity represents assurance that an
enterprise has the ability to continually meet their
commitments, i.e., “run the business” ……. no matter
what.
• Business Continuity should be a part of an firms
strategic and operational planning.
• Workplace violence prevention (including domestic
violence) should be a part of your Business
Continuity plan.

Ultimate Goal
• The ultimate goal is to eliminate incidents of
violence.

The NIX Model: Detect
• Identification of vulnerabilities and risk
• Organization policy, process, procedure and
management practices assessment
• Bolster employee relations monitoring,
incident tracking (security violation reports,
OSHA 300 logs, EEO/Employee complaints,
etc.) and intervention processes
• Bolster employee reporting processes

Detect
• Human Resources knows pulse of workforce, early detection
of problems, employee relations issues, complaints, etc.
• Threat/Incident investigations and assessment geared
towards identifying underlying ‘root causes’ of issues and
learning from incidents to continuously improve early
detection.
• Enlist employee support to enhance employee reporting
• Monitor employee relations issues, complaints, EAP reports
for patterns, trends, hot issues, etc.
• Implement ‘hot line’ or other anonymous means
of reporting key information

Past Behavior Provides Powerful
Insights Into Potential Future Behavior
• Drug Testing
• Employment Screening
• Reference Checking
• Pre-employment testing – integrity,
honesty, violence prone

Threat Assessment Begins
Before You Hire an Employee
• Jan 2011 Police and the Montgomery County State's Attorney's
Office report that Keith D. Little, a Suburban employee who
reported to Brockington, was charged in his murder.
Brockington was Little’s direct supervisor, and that had
reprimanded Little on several recent occasions and his
performance appraisal denied Little a raise.
• Police uncover court records indicating that Little was charged
in 2005 with murder of a co-worker inside a secured facility in
Washington, D.C., though he was never convicted. Court
records described the motive for the murder as the victim
accusing Little of stealing tools from the workplace.
Source: http://gaithersburg.patch.com/articles/murder-at-suburban-hospital-timeline-of-events-2
Copyright 2011 - National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

Infinity Screening
Post hiring screening can help identify
threats to the organization during the
employment life cycle of an employee.

The Headline You Never Want to See!
Employee of XYZ Company Charged With Knocking
out his Girl Friend in Elevator in Hotel (and a video of
the incident goes viral.)

“Workplace Violence Prevention
is Everybody’s Business”
• Organizations need to focus on addressing the factors that
deter employees from reporting threats or acts of violence and
engage them in being part of the solution to preventing
workplace violence.
• Invest organization resources and time on increasing employee
awareness of importance of reporting threats and incidents.
• Ensure reporting procedures and contact information are clear
and are widely understood.

Why Invest in Improving Reporting?
• It’s quite simple. You will never be able to hire
enough security people to effectively secure the
work environment, consequently, you have to
engage the rest of the organizations’ personnel to
become part of the extended security force.
Workplace Violence Prevention
is Everybody’s Business!

Threat Intervention
• Organizations must establish an array of possible
interventions to address identified ‘risk:’
 Pre-identification Risk Assessments
 Supervisor has dialogue with employee
 HR has dialogue with employee
 Referral to EAP
 Fitness for Duty Assessment
 Formal Threat Assessment
 Contact Law Enforcement

There are Hundreds of Eyes at Your Firm.
Engage All of Them.
IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.
Tell a Supervisor, Call HR or Security or Police.
Source:NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Recognizing
Early Warning Signs
Copyright 2011 - National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.

The NIX Model: Prevent
• Human Resources
• Anger management coaching and counseling
• Proactive use of EAP
• Stay Safe @ Work plan
• Law Enforcement or Security Consultant meet with potential
aggressor to assess level of danger and to put the person on notice
• Termination and other adverse action planning
• No Contact/Restraining Orders/No Trespass Orders – individual and
workplace
• Education and Training (warning signs, staying calm, taking reports
seriously)
• ‘Think About It’ Time-off
• OffBoarding

Prevent
“ If you can anticipate it, you can plan for it”

Security Conscious Culture
Cultural expectations and patterns of behavior guide
what people consider to be appropriate conduct and
they guide what people do.
Burill, C.W., & Ledolter, J., Achieving quality management through continual improvement, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

Prevention Outweighs Reaction
• People and organizations are reactionary by nature
• Organizations have to find ways to override this
natural state so that their people will think and act
differently
• Organizations also have to come to grips with the
reality that HR, Security and Safety Departments
have historically been reactionary. This means they
have to change how their people think and act
before they can really help the organization to
change.

Its Bigger Than Your Company!
University of Western Ontario researched
showed that the level of violence in the
surrounding community does predict
workplace aggression at the organization.
There is a direct correlation.

National Council on Compensation Insurance, Inc., based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

Enlightened Self Interest
• Develop community based program that focuses on
and will influence the reduction of violence behavior.
• Work with Sales, Sales Support, Customer Service,
Community Relations, etc. to get local input and to
define ‘what’s in it for me.’
– Able to recruit better candidates for positions
– Enhance client relationships
– Contact with prospects for non selling activity that develop
important relations
– Create positive reputation for firm

Multi-Functional Effort
• Security to conduct periodic risk assessments and
‘what if’ drills.
• Security focus on creating a ‘security conscious work
environment and culture.’
• Facilities Management implement CPTED.
• HR drive policy creation, implementation and on
going communications
• HR drive periodic training
• HR implement support programs, e.g., EAP,
background screening, fitness for duty process, etc.

Holistic Approach Using CPTED
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
• An approach to reduce opportunities, real or perceived, for
threats that are often inherent in the structure of facilities,
the layout of buildings, and those who use them, public or
employees.
• A combination of strategies that integrates security as part of
a holistic business strategy rather than just a singular
independent focus.

The NFL is Not Alone
What Ray Rice and other players who batter do is wrong. And
the NFL needs to figure out what to do about the issue. But given
the prevalence of domestic violence, so does every other
workplace in America.
• According to BLS survey over 70% of U. S. employers have no
formal program or policy that addresses workplace violence.
• Of the 30% of workplaces in the US that have some sort of
formal workplace violence policy, only 44% have a policy to
address domestic violence in the workplace.
• Only 4 % of all establishments train employees on domestic
violence and its impact on the workplace.

Study of Male Batterers
• 29% of respondents contacted their partner while at work to
say something that might have scared or intimidated her; 40%
of supervisors were aware this type of contact occurred at
work.
• Participants lost a total of 44,515 days of work — equivalent
to 22 years of full time employment — because they were in
jail as a result of domestic violence.
• 83% of supervisors were aware of why respondents took time
off of work due to their domestic violence offense; however,
only 32% of supervisors gave any response to the employee
about his domestic violence incident, his behavior, or his
relationship in general.
A survey of male offenders enrolled in batterer intervention programs in Vermont, November 2011

Are We Solving the Right Problem?
As companies have adopted explicit policies aimed at
protecting victims, such as victim assistance programs,
flexible schedules, and leave time in the aftermath of
violence, it remains uncommon for employers to have
explicit policies regarding batterers.

Supervisor Should Confront
Employees that are Batterers
• 59% of respondents (batterers) suggested it would
be helpful for supervisors to confront an employee
whom they suspect is abusive toward their intimate
partner.
– Confronting the abuser includes: offering counseling,
resources, help and support, and warning about the
consequences of domestic violence.

Why Firms Don’t Provide
Domestic Violence Training
• What are the main reasons that organizations do
not offer training on domestic violence?
– The most common reason given is that the topic are
covered in sexual harassment training or other training
(53%).
– Thirty percent indicated that their organization had too
many other priorities or no time, and
– one-quarter (26%) expect their employee assistance
program (EAP) to take care of these issues.

Training Should Cover:
• Recognize - be aware of signs of domestic violence
for potential victims and abusers
• Respond - appropriately address changes in behavior
that are affecting performance
• Refer - know who to call if a situation of domestic
violence becomes known
Training should also include issues of privacy and
confidentiality.

Predictive Management
Predictive management prevents bad outcomes
before they occur, focuses management on the
means to achieve key performance indicators,
saves time and better uses resources. “It will
almost always be cheaper and easier to prevent
a problem, or to minimize a problem, than it will
be to fix it.”
Steve Minter, Editor-in-Chief, Industry Week.

Emerging Proactive Approach
 Preemptively implementing preventative
measures to reduce the likelihood of
conflicts, policy violations or incidents
occurring thus, reducing the risk of violence
and/or injuries.

Paradigm Shift
• A reactive management style quickly solves problems
and are able to get the people and/or machine quickly
back to work and productive again.
• Predictive management focuses on reducing the number
of problems that require reactive management. The
more problems that can be prevented through predictive
management, the fewer problems will need to be solved
through reactive management.

Can You Handle the Truth?
The cold truth about workplace violence is that
with serious ‘what if’ planning and diligent
application of proactive measures we have the
capability of preventing most incidents.

“That couldn’t happen here”
• Anticipating your organization becoming a
target of violence is not wishful thinking, but
instead it is prudent and good business
decision-making.

Prevention
“Stop it, before it begins”

The NIX Model: Protect
• Activate ‘active shooter’ plan
• Synchronized emergency and crisis response
plans
• Crisis communications plan in place
• Critical Incident Response Plan
• Understand Law enforcement and other first
responders ‘active shooter’ tactics
• Integrated with Business Continuity Plan

Protect
• Notify threatened employee of potential danger.
• Maintain surveillance of potential perpetrator.
• Intervene with intent of disrupting the ‘Cycle of
Aggression.’
• If trouble starts, notify Security to intervene immediately,
contact Threat Management Team, implement law
enforcement protocol (remember in active shooter
situations shots are generally fired in the first 5 minutes;
plan accordingly).
• Have Crisis Response Plan prepared and ready to put into
action.

Crisis Response Plan
• Focus is to reduce the impact on people and business
resources
• Mass communication process in place to reach off site and
onsite employees, supervisors, clients, community, etc.
• Prepare for meeting the press ahead of time
• Communication plan with ‘First Responder’ community
• Have an ‘Active Shooter’ plan (recognize it is different
from other emergencies because of the human element)
• Training and practice

Preparedness
“A popular myth is that when faced with danger,
a crisis or catastrophe that people will rise to the
occasion, the truth is that more often than not
people will rise to their level of preparation.”
Remember:
“Fate favors the prepared mind”
Louis Pasture

Summary of Key Messages
• Make it clear Prevention is your goal
• Conduct Organization and Site Risk Assessments
• Implement Workplace Violence Prevention (including
Domestic violence) policy by effectively communicating,
training and enforcing
• Considering threats of violence as a serious issue and take
proactive action to prevent escalation
• Listen to employees concerns
• Understand the Crisis Response plan and your role in
implementing it.

Workplace Violence Can be Dangerous
to Your Health!
• Don’t dismiss it as not being possible
where you work.
• Don’t gamble with your own and other
peoples lives.
• Be prepared and have a plan.

Remember, most violent events in the
workplace are preventable, if we are willing
to invest in proactive strategies that
identify potential risk, implement
preventative actions and take swift
targeted actions to reduce ‘conflict’ and
resolve issue(s).
Violence Prevention is The Possible Dream

Resource Center
• www.Workplaceviolence911.com
– Workplace Violence Fact Sheet
– The Ultimate Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Maker Software
(includes section on Domestic Violence)
– The Workplace Violence Prevention eReport
• www.CAEPV.org (Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence)
• Workplace Responds to Domestic and Sexual Violence
http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/content/features/detail/1596/
• Texas Health Resources
– Domestic Violence Calculator; https://www2.texashealth.org/dv
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management- “Guidance for Agency-
Specific Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking Policy”
– http://goo.gl/qETGr5

Important Information:
Copyrighted Material
This document may not be reproduced by any means or used for commercial purposes
without written permission from the National Institute for Prevention of Workplace, Inc.
Disclaimer
The National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc. has made an extra effort to
ensure that all the information presented is accurate, however, we strongly encourage
recipients of this material to independently verify all information. Also this document is not
intended to provide legal advice and we strongly encourage you to seek competent legal
council regarding any content and the efficacy of taking any action based on the information
contain in this document. The implementation of any ideas, thoughts or suggestions are solely
at the discretion of the reader and we make no representations regarding the effectiveness of
any information contained in this document.

Managing Domestic Violence in the Workplace

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