Conflict management

Physical Intervention

Post incident

Trainer training

Solutions

1. Identify the problem through a workplace violence review.
2. Take the correct action through workplace violence policy and strategy.  

Conducting a review

Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

The purpose of a review is to establish:

• the nature and extent of the violence,
• the specific job roles that are at risk,
• the nature of the risks,
• the solutions to minimise the risks identified.

The people who face the customers, clients, patients and public every day are best placed to identify and understand the risks they face from violence and aggression, and risk assessment of roles is a statutory requirement of health and safety legislation.

Risk assessment should include a physical assessment of working environments and take into account conditions such as lone working and visiting clients / customers in their homes. This will highlight what action is needed in areas such as training requirements, safety equipment and specific working practices.
 

Developing an effective workplace violence policy

The starting point for a policy is the recognition that there is an issue to be addressed. Ideally, this should be realised through a proactive corporate approach towards the whole issue of welfare and safety of staff. Even before policy is written and introduced, it is important that employees are assured that work-related violence is recognised as an important issue and that something is going to be done about it.
Developing the policy is not a 'paper exercise'. Good policy is based on a sound understanding of all the issues, gained from a variety of sources. When starting from scratch, the most effective way of achieving this is to conduct a full review of the problem. This can most easily be done when a good reporting system is already in place.  

Once the review is complete the policy can be developed. It will cover the following ground:

• Purpose
• Scope and definitions 
• Who the policy affects and their specific responsibilities
• Risk assessment, reporting and review process
• Risk reduction and training
• Response to incidents 
• Incident management
• Post incident management
• Reporting 
• Involvement of other agencies
• Maintenance
• Communication strategy
• Policy review and revision
   

Reporting systems - workplace violence

A good, well-used violence reporting sytem is central to an effective strategy for combating workplace abuse. It will provide the facts on the nature and extent of the problem. Integral to this is information about the trends surrounding violence in the workplace for a particular organisation. 
There are a number of benefits that accrue from the introduction of a well-designed system that provides for effective reporting, recording and monitoring of incidents of work related violence, including:

• The wealth of information gathered can provide evidence on the strengths or weaknesses of reduction measures such as policies, procedures, management skills, equipment, training and selection and service provision. 
• The details offered from a report system provide a solid foundation for the risk assessment process, policy development and overall workplace violence strategy. 
• Reporting on workplace violence is an essential base of data from which to check, test and improve health and safety and service delivery policies and procedures.
• Establish hot spots, environmental issues, staff issues and customer processes that may be contributing to customer aggression. 
• The report process can be a trigger for staff care and communication, particularly when they are most vulnerable. 
• Training issues can be identified on an individual basis or a wider organisational front and reports can indicate where staff need further training. 
• A sound reporting process can also provide a wealth of scenarios and situations to base realistic training on.

Selecting a consultant

Whether a consultant is brought in to do the review or to train managers to enable them to undertake their own review, the consultant must have specific exprience in managing conflict within that sector.

Here is a checklist of questions to ask the workplace conflict consultant:

• Can you demonstrate improved levels of staff safety from previous work?
• Which national user groups use, recognise or recommend their services? (Organisations that are leaders in this area are the British Institute of Learning Difficulties; the British Institute of Innkeeping; The Institute of Conflict Management)
• Is the consultant's insurance cover specific to the work being undertaken? (ie does it cover personal safety training and /or physical intervention skills)

Specifically if the consultant in carrying out the review:

• What methodology will be used to identify the issues and risks of workplace violence? (Interviews, focus groups, workplace observations or questionnaires)
• Will the different roles be assessed and using what scale of parameters?
• Will the risk assessments take account of environment and working conditions? (Such as interview rooms, reception areas, home visiting and lone working)

If the consultant is training managers:

• What is the experience of the consultant in that sector?
• Is he/she on a programme of continuing professional development?
• Will the organsiation's managers be trained to 
  - carry out the violence risk assessment?
  - implement better working practices?
  - train other managers?
  - train front line staff?
  - implement thorough reporting systems?
  - carry out incident and post incident support?

There is not necessarly a right or wrong answer to these points, but it is important they are all considered and answered by the training needs analysis which will be done by all good consultants beore they take on the work.

What you aim to achieve

The review and implementation of the resulting recommendations will provide an effective solution. It will make staff feel safer, improve customer service and protect the organisation from litigation.