The Fort Hood Shooting incident as an atypical workplace setting,
demonstrates JUST how vulnerable our workplaces are and how at risk our
workforce is. Prevention focuses on the human dimension as part of a
rehabilitative process that hopefully never gets you to the extreme
aggression of homicidal violence.
Many organizations are still not
prepared physically, emotionally or mentally. They hide the real world
potential of a coworker or loved one "going postal" by avoiding the
problem when they should be treating employees like adults. They resort
to expedient training solutions that point their fingers at the
workforce as the problem. Preparing the workplace and workforce requires
a collaborative effort often not found through the Internet but rather
by word of mouth experiences.
Unprepared workers will not respond
and react under certain at risk situations involving an armed intruder
as they would to a fire alarm or other type of emergency evacuation.
This requires specialized training. Responding to an armed intruder or
active shooter is not the same as responding to a fire alarm. Reporting
at risk employees requires their trust in management's resolve to take
immediate corrective action and protect the sources.
Preparing for the crisis should not be a consideration on the day of the event.
Workplace
Violence Prevention and Violence Response includes a coordinated
management effort that "synergizes" the plan into a practical set of
procedures in dealing with routine matters, reporting, monitoring,
tracking and follow up, threat assessment, incident management and
referral in seeking the best outcome.
Training must involve all
employees and leaders in aspects of workplace violence prevention and
violence response only as part of a strategic plan.
Program
management has to be a shared responsibility between HR and Security
with all other leaders coordinating the effort with and through HR and
Security. HR can continue being the policy manager while Security can be
responsible for the security response in conjunction with other senior
managers in leading and coordinating the effort.
Fort Hood can be a
valued lesson learned. If it happened in a workplace setting where
leadership operates from within the small unit team through a structured
chain of command that is charged with personal attention to Soldier
issues, you know how vulnerable our workplaces really are.
