What happens when there is a threat of violence at work? Hopefully you are prepared to do a threat assessment in the workplace.
This is a concept that our American neighbours might be more familiar with; however Canadians are not immune. Furthermore, we practice and are prepared for the possibility of a fire, why not violence as well?
There are a number of steps and training involved in conducting threat assessments. One of the first is to establish a team and process so that subjective judgments like "Oh I know that person. They wouldn't do that" do not drive your response. Do you really know what someone would do under extreme stress?
I talk with Denise Koster of Koster Consulting and Associates about this. She has been trained to do threat assessments and shares some of her knowledge with us. Here of some of the resources she shares as well:
