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Violence In The Workplace-A Threat To Financial Institutions?

by Carl L. Carter,CPP/CFSSP

Mr. Carter retired recently as head of Corporate Security/Human Resources, NBD Bancorp, Detroit. He is Past President of ASIS, and was an active member on major security committees for ABA, BAI and ICB. A charter member of the International Banking Security Association, Carl is now a Security Management Consultant based in Detroit, Michigan.

Recently I was asked to evaluate what security problems will be of the most concern to Corporate America in the near future. The reason for looking ahead is to help security personnel, human resource specialists, and operating managers take protective and preventive measures.

It's an interesting exercise, and certainly a guessing game. But it's a sure bet that certain trends will grow-certain hazards will become more common-unless we first recognize them and try to cope with them.

I didn't have to look in my crystal ball to see an increase in violence in the workplace. I only had to look in the Wall Street Journal ("Disgruntled Workers Intent on Revenge Increasingly Harm Colleagues and Bosses," September 15, 1992) and I could see it happening in Michigan, in Kentucky, in Florida, in Oklahoma, and across the country. And your local paper tells you every day what is happening to armored cars, liquor stores, and convenience stores.

Will this affect business and industry generally, but skip over financial institutions? Not likely! There is every reason to believe that changes, real or imagined, in hiring practices, layoffs, separations, and work rules can cause employees to change their attitude toward their employers. And these are things that are happening in our financial institutions.

Some feel this decreases the feeling of loyalty to the employer, which is an important factor that Security Officers should take into account.

Theft, destruction, and violent acts can stem from this change in feelings, with violence, of course, being the most severe threat.

There is hostility, depression, paranoia, and violence in the streets and (to a lesser degree) in the homes of America. And there are increasing incidents of violence in the workplace.

There were approximately eight thousand homicides in the workplace during the decade of the eighties. For the most part, these homicides were the result of robbery. But some were the result of disgruntled workers who believed they had been wronged. If workers imagine they are being victimized by corporate management, that number could be much worse in the nineties.

Even assuming this is an action that involves only a handful of disgruntled and maladjusted individuals, recent cases clearly show a very small number of people can account for the loss of many lives. And that can have a major impact on the survivors, i.e., family, friends, co-workers, and managers. Bankers, what can you do to keep this wolf from your door?

The answers may lie in some or all of the following.

If possible, create and maintain a workable Employee Assistance Program. This should include counseling for the purpose of helping employees with problems at home or at work. It can address problems they have themselves, with family, with co-workers, or with supervisors or managers. Such help will allow them to verbalize their feelings and then see to it that they get assistance as needed.

Teach line managers to spot troubling elements early and strongly encourage them to bring these facts to the attention of security and employee relations specialists. Troubled employees almost always give indications of their troubled nature before it boils over into violence. Line managers should know how to respond.

Encourage area managers to use Security to provide short term protection to managers and/or co-workers if a threat is identified. Make them aware of even potentially threatening people or situations so that preventive action can be taken. Security officers should work with these managers to develop alternate plans that may include law enforcement and emergency medical teams.

Security officers should work with Human Resources and Employee Relations managers to alert managers to the continuing need to be considerate of the employee and his needs and to show respect and kindness toward all employees-especially at times when actions must be taken which will impact the employee's self esteem, income and family well being.

A security manager must consider information about employees obtained from other employees as confidential. However, this information can be taken into consideration and used as a basis to develop new policies and procedures as the need may arise.

Be a people manager-appreciate good work and say so. (In the words of The One Minute Manager, by Blanchard and Johnson, "Tell people how good you feel about what they [do] right and how it helps the organization and other people who work there".) Listen to your employees and respond to their needs.

Financial Institution Security Officers have a unique opportunity to "head-off" violent situations in the workplace if they stay on top of developments in their shops, set up good lines of communications, anticipate, and run a strong training program.

Copyright © 1993 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 3, No. 8, 1/93

First published on 01/01/1993

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