Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER October 5, 2015 NEWS 9 Potentially violent workers hard to detect How can you know if a disgruntled employee is a risk to the workplace? BY LIZ BERNIER IT'S THE ONE headline no work- place wants to be a part of: "Two shot and killed by disgruntled for- mer employee." But that was the tragic circumstance at a TV sta- tion in Virginia when two journal- ists were fatally shot this August, during a live broadcast. e two were shot by a former colleague at the station, Vester Lee Flanagan, who broadcast under the name Bryce Williams, accord- ing to the Guardian. He took his own life shortly after the shooting. Flanagan had a history of office disputes and complaints of racism and mistreatment — his employ- ment was terminated in 2013. Every workplace has some de- gree of conflict. The challenge for employers is determining when an employee's behaviour is more or less harmless, and when it could present a potential risk, said Glenn French, president and CEO of the Canadian Initiative on Workplace Violence in Toronto. "e dilemma for employers is if you have somebody who's made threats, it's a little clearer on what you can do… (but) how do you es- tablish whether or not you should be looking deeper on individuals who haven't quite crossed that line yet, but are behaving in a way — or making veiled kind of comments — that it causes you concern?" Policy as a starting point When we think about workplace threats or risks, very often we think about mechanical risks or external risks. It's a bit more un- comfortable to consider employ- ees themselves as a potential risks. But the best starting point is creat- ing a solid, clear policy, said Da- vid Hyde, security expert at David Hyde and Associates in Toronto. "When it comes to inside threats, obviously one of the first things we want to do is… have a culture where this kind of behav- iour isn't condoned. ere are very clear policies in place, very clear training and guidelines, and all the employees know that certain types of behaviour that cross cer- tain lines are strictly prohibited." The policy needs to be very clear and straightforward about what types of behaviour are un- acceptable, and employees and managers all need to be trained on how to identify unacceptable behaviours, said Hyde. And the rules don't only apply when employees are at the office. "e workplace, of course, ex- tends beyond bricks and mortar to the field, to business trips, to other work-related activities as well," he said. "at's very important to set the right geographical context to that. Sometimes, people can feel a little bit more prone to act up when they're away from the actual bricks and mortar workplace — but the rules still apply." Identifying a threat When there's no subtlety — the employee is acting violently or making straightforward threats — it's very clear what the employer response must be, said Hyde. "If threats have been made, that's a criminal offence. ere's a certain line where we have to involve police, we have to involve professionals that can actually as- sess this threat." But where it becomes more difficult to assess is when the em- ployee is less direct. "If it's just unusual behaviour, if it's just things that are making people feel uneasy but it's not direct threats of violence, discus- sions about weapons — when that line's crossed, we need to imme- diately bring in professionals and the authorities. But before that line's crossed, HR is going to do that triage. ey're going to look at the behaviour, look at the inci- dent and do an assessment. And that's very important, and HR needs to be training in workplace violence risk screening or threat screening," he said. Some things to look out for? A fixation on guns or weapons is one, as is being unusually angry or frustrated, sad Hyde. "But it wouldn't just be a couple of comments, it would be some- thing that would be unusual. It would start to build up over time." On a psychological level, work- place aggression often has a lot to do with perceived personal con- trol, said French. "An important construct in any kind of aggressiveness at work is based upon whether or not the individual feels that they have control of their circumstances," he said. "at perceived personal control can erode over a period of time — it doesn't always happen right away." Many perpetrators of work- place violence feel the workplace has been unfair to them and mis- treated them in some way. is is especially true of people who "are what they do," said French. "eir whole life is wrapped up (in their job) — they're overly identified in their work," he said. "e kinds of things you would start to think about there are in- dividuals who have really marked job dissatisfaction, where they have a lot of grievances, a lot of PEOPLE > pg. 17

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