IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating an ethical culture

Understanding at-will employment and avoiding wrongful discharge

Dealing with discipline, employee grievances, and disputes

Knowing how to deal with terminations and layoffs

Keeping your employees safe and healthy

Addressing unlawful harassment and workplace violence

Regardless of how good a job you’ve done in organizing the human resources function in your company, and regardless of how diligently you handle your day-to-day challenges, it’s wishful thinking to expect your organization to be entirely free of personnel-related concerns. Even your best team members will make mistakes from time to time. So will your best managers and supervisors.

Inevitably, you or the managers in your company will be obliged at some point to take some sort of corrective action — including termination — against an employee whose job performance or conduct falls short of company expectations.

Of course, at least with respect to job performance issues, you’re rarely the one responding directly to the problem — the ultimate responsibility for evaluating job performance lies with the employee’s immediate supervisor or manager. Nevertheless, as the person responsible for HR in your company, you still have a crucial role to play. You have to make sure that job performance and workplace conduct issues are handled promptly, intelligently, and fairly — and in a way that doesn’t diminish productivity, accelerate turnover, or deplete employee morale. And perhaps most important, you (more than likely) have to make sure that your company’s disciplinary and termination policies minimize your company’s exposure to wrongful discharge and other lawsuits.

In this chapter, I look at a more challenging aspect of HR management — but with an upbeat message. Most human resources problems are preventable and/or solvable, as long as you’re alert to the early danger signs and you respond promptly with a clear sense of purpose.

This chapter provides you with a significant amount of legally sensitive information, prepared with the assistance of the law firm Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, P.C. But this area is not one where you can afford to be your own lawyer. Employee disciplinary action, termination, and layoffs are matters that require advice tailored to your particular company, location, and situation. My advice: Work with an attorney when navigating challenging situations.

Establishing an Ethical Culture

Here are ways to reduce difficult workplace situations:

• Prevent them from happening in the first place. You can never hope to avert all employee improprieties and poor judgment, of course. But establishing a culture based on ethical behavior and strong leadership can go a long way toward diminishing these situations in your organization.
• Focus on prompt correction of issues raised. As soon as an employee identifies a concern, the organization has an opportunity to correct the issue, mitigate any harm, and find a way to re-engage the employee in a positive way.
• Become an organization that emphasizes the critical importance of employees’ ethical behavior in all their interactions. This should be evident from the tone at the top on down. People will always find ways and excuses to commit wrongdoing, just as they’ll always be capable of making honest mistakes. But including integrity and consideration of others among your organization’s core values not only prevents many unpleasant situations from occurring but also helps you develop a reputation as a business that people want to work for.

It’s very important that managers be every bit as accountable as employees. Your company should have a formal code of conduct that isn’t buried on a shelf but is actively reinforced by all your managers. When employees hear one set of values but see another enforced — or, for that matter, neglected — by managers, the inconsistent messages can confuse them or cause them to question your commitment to your basic principles.

Fleshing Out the Meaning of At-Will Employment

Many private employers in the United States have long operated under a doctrine generally known as employment-at-will. Employment-at-will (sometimes referred to as termination-at-will) means that, in the absence of any contractual agreement that guarantees employees certain job protections, you (as an employer in the private sector) have the right to fire any of your employees at any time and for any (or no) reason — so long as the reason is not improperly related to an employee’s protected status. In other words, you may terminate an employee with or without cause, with or without first exhausting all progressive discipline steps (if they exist), and with or without notice. At the same time, your employees have the right to leave at any time, for any (or no) reason, even without giving notice.

The concept of employment-at-will is specific to the United States. Other countries have their own sets of requirements concerning termination.

However, over time, the doctrine of employment-at-will has been substantially narrowed by other statutory and common-law protections preventing termination for a host of reasons. For example, you can’t terminate an employee’s employment because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability and genetic information (including family medical history), veteran status, or use of protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Other federal and state laws provide additional protections. Further, if your company is unionized, your employees’ jobs are likely subject to contractual constraints.

Courts recognize and uphold the employment-at-will doctrine in particular cases so long as the employer’s actions do not violate certain state law public policies and so long as the parties have not agreed otherwise (for example, by agreeing that employment is for a specified term, that employment can be terminated only for good cause, or that an employee can be discharged only after all progressive disciplinary steps have been exhausted). You can’t terminate an employee for filing a worker’s compensation claim, or for refusing to forge reports to the government or to violate antitrust laws, for instance. So, yes, your company still has the right to set behavioral standards, take corrective action when those standards aren’t met, and fire employees who don’t perform their job duties. However, you must be sure that in the process of carrying out these practices, you’re not running afoul of public policies.

Staying Out of Court

Wrongful discharge continues to be a common theme of employment litigation. Even more sobering is the fact that plaintiffs win many wrongful discharge suits that reach a jury trial largely because juries tend to favor employees over employers. How does a company protect itself? In short, protection comes from preventive action. Here are some key principles to bear in mind:

• Review all company recruiting and onboarding literature to ensure that no statements, implicitly or explicitly, “guarantee” employment. Be especially careful about using terminology in employee literature and in conversations with employees (especially prior to hiring) that suggests an increased level of job security beyond employment-at-will, such as words like permanent. Courts have held that terms like this, which relate to duration of employment, can create an implied contract of employment through normal retirement age. If you need to differentiate between classes of employees, regular or full time are better terms. The term probationary should be used with caution for similar reasons; some courts have concluded that, after an employee is no longer on probation, the employee has moved into a more secure employment relationship such that the employer must have good cause to terminate the employee (and can no longer terminate at-will).
• Coach and educate managers to maintain careful, detailed records of all performance problems and the disciplinary actions that have been taken in response to those problems. Keep in mind that the verdict in many wrongful discharge suits hinges on whether the jury believes that the discharged employee was given “fair warning.” Juries don’t like it when they think an employee was surprised when terminated.
• Make sure disciplinary and dismissal procedures are handled consistently with your organization’s stated disciplinary and termination policy. To be safe, your disciplinary and dismissal procedures should include a clause permitting the company to skip disciplinary steps or to impose more severe discipline or termination as circumstances warrant. Even when your policies allow for employer discretion, though, ensure you consider whether you’ve consistently applied the policy to another employee in a similar situation.
• Make sure that all the managers and supervisors in your company are well versed in your company’s disciplinary and termination procedures. Train them and confer with them on a regular basis to ensure that they’re following procedures. If you discover that they aren’t, talk with them immediately, letting them know emphatically that failure to follow proper disciplinary and termination procedures is unacceptable and can prove extremely costly. Seek legal advice whenever you’re uncertain about any aspects of your company’s disciplinary or legal policy.
• Be aware of how your actions may be misconstrued. Be sensitive to the possibility that an employee who leaves your company voluntarily because they’re unhappy with a change in assignment or work practices may be able to convince a jury that the change in assignment or work practices was a deliberate attempt on your company’s part to force the employee to quit.

Developing Progressive Disciplinary Procedures

Some companies utilize a formalized disciplinary process, one that reasonably and systematically warns employees when performance falls short of expectations. A progressive discipline system is one in which problematic employee behavior is addressed through a series of increasingly serious disciplinary steps. In the previous chapter, I outline the importance of ongoing performance conversations and this approach provides a focused way to capture poor performance as well as good performance.

A formal progressive disciplinary procedure tends to work best in highly centralized companies, where personnel decisions for the entire company are made within one department (most likely HR), which makes sure that each step of the disciplinary process is implemented properly. The advantage is that the rules and regulations of job performance are consistently communicated to everyone. The disadvantage, however, is that you may be restricted to adhering, lockstep, to your established disciplinary system, even in a situation when you would prefer to immediately terminate an employee. If your company doesn’t abide by these self-imposed rules, it could be found to have breached an employment contract.

On the other hand, some companies don’t utilize such a process. A formalized disciplinary process doesn’t work as well for decentralized organizations, where personnel decisions are made within each office or department on a case-by-case basis in accordance with a company’s general expectations. In these situations, ensuring that each office or department follows the same disciplinary procedure can be difficult.

If your company isn’t required to have a progressive discipline system (for example, under a collective bargaining agreement) but elects to implement one, the policy should be very carefully written and administered. If not, the company may find itself having established a contractual arrangement where the company is required to exhaust each progressive step of discipline before it may terminate an employee. In this situation, a decision to jump immediately to employment termination or harsh discipline can amount to a breach of the contract and expose the company to damages to the affected employee. You may want to consult with legal counsel to create or review your company’s policy.

If your non-unionized company elects to adopt a formal disciplinary process, you may want to create some or all of the following phases:

• Verbal warning: The first step in a typical progressive disciplinary process is informing the employee that their job performance or workplace conduct isn’t measuring up to the company’s expectations and standards. The employee’s manager typically delivers this initial communication verbally in a one-on-one meeting. Just because this step is called a “verbal” warning, don’t make the mistake of failing to document it. In fact, details from this and all later conversations should be documented. The report doesn’t have to be lengthy; a few bullet points highlighting the main topics are perfectly acceptable. However, in this and each successive step, ensure that the organization can clearly articulate the problematic behavior and clearly instruct the employee on how to improve or avoid the behavior in the future, along with providing a time frame for correction.
• Written warning: This phase applies if the performance or conduct problems raised in the initial phase worsen or fail to improve within the established time frame. The recommended practice is for the manager to hold another one-on-one meeting with the employee and accompany this written warning with a memorandum that spells out job performance areas that need improvement. Once again, the manager needs to make the employee aware of how their behavior is affecting the business and what the consequences are for failing to improve or correct the problem. The manager needs to work with the employee to come up with a plan of action (written, if possible) that gives the employee concrete, quantifiable goals and a timeline for achieving them. The manager should be prepared to regularly follow up with the employee on the progress of improvement.

• Final or “last-chance” written warning: The penultimate phase of discipline, sometimes documented in a performance improvement plan (PIP), usually takes the form of a written disciplinary communication from a senior manager. The document informs the employee that if the job performance or workplace conduct problems continue, the employee will be subject to termination. Particularly with a PIP, very specific performance correction steps are laid out, along with specific deadlines by which the steps must be accomplished. What you’re doing here is using the PIP as a tool to assist the employee in gaining (or regaining) an acceptable level of performance — and notifying the employee that failure to meet this standard will lead to termination.

  If a union contract applies, this step also may involve a suspension, a mandatory leave, or, possibly, a demotion.

• Termination: Termination is the last phase in the process — the step taken when all other corrective or disciplinary actions have failed to resolve the problem.

This description of progressive disciplinary steps is a general guideline and is not intended as a substitute for legal counsel.

However you decide to structure your disciplinary plan, the process itself — in addition to being fair — should meet the following criteria:

• Clearly defined expectations and consequences: Every team member in your company should be aware of the expectations and standards that apply companywide and to their particular job. These expectations and consequences should be introduced during the onboarding process (see Chapter 10) and then reinforced in one-on-one meetings between the manager and the employee. Your standards should be attainable and, to the extent feasible, measurable. Employees also need to know how not meeting these standards and expectations affects the company’s operations.

  Your company needs to communicate standards and expectations early on in the employee’s tenure. The same principle applies to workplace rules. Where an employer has imposed upon itself binding progressive disciplinary procedures, some courts may hold that the employer can’t fire employees for violating rules of which they were unaware. (At the very least, the employee’s lack of knowledge of the rule will be held against the employer in most unemployment compensation proceedings.)

• Early intervention: This nip-the-problem-in-the-bud principle is that an employer steps in as early as possible when an employee’s job performance or workplace conduct isn’t satisfactory. Again, this is why ongoing performance conversations as I discuss in Chapter 16 are so important. Failing to provide pointed performance feedback early on can hurt you in two ways:

  • Employees can interpret the lack of any intervention as an implicit sign that they’re doing just fine.
  • If you act against another employee who is having similar problems, you leave yourself open to charges of favoritism or discrimination.

  The discipline needs to be appropriate for the offense. Or, more specifically, the discipline needs to seem fair to employees and, hopefully, to a jury. If your company is ever called upon to defend its actions, one issue that has a profound bearing on the final ruling is the congruence between the severity of the offense and the type of discipline. The general principle here is that you need to draw a clear distinction between those offenses or performance issues that warrant lower-level disciplinary action and those that are sufficiently serious to warrant immediate dismissal. You also need to factor into all disciplinary decisions — termination, in particular — the overall performance and discipline record of the employee and whether other employees in similar situations have been subjected to similar discipline.

• Consistency: You need to apply your company’s policies and practices consistently — no favoritism or bending of the rules allowed! Solid, legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons are the only justification for deviation.

• Rigorous documentation: The phrase get it in writing takes on extraordinary importance in any disciplinary process. Cumbersome though it may be, the supervisors and managers in your company must get into the habit of recording all significant infractions and problems, along with the steps taken to remedy those problems. Lacking detailed documentation of what the company has done throughout the disciplinary process seriously weakens its case, regardless of whether the firing was justified.

  When deciding whether to terminate an employee, you should review evaluations, warning notices (if any), personnel policies or work rules, witness statements, witness evaluation notes (notes by the employer representative conducting an internal investigation in which they are documenting their impressions of the credibility of the witness being interviewed), and other relevant documents, such as customer complaints, production reports, and timecards. If the documentation is not deemed sufficient, ask the manager for more information and hold off on taking action until you’ve determined that you have a sufficient record to support the action you’ve decided to take. At the same time, be aware that adding papers to the file with new documentation of old performance problems that have never been addressed with the employee may undercut the credibility of the disciplinary action.

Defusing Grievances

An effective, well-balanced disciplinary process does more than provide a means for dealing with employees’ problem behavior. It also gives them an opportunity to speak up (and be heard) when they’re not happy with the way things are going in the workplace. Their complaints are technically known as grievances. Here are suggestions on how to implement a grievance procedure:

• Offer complaint-reporting options. As a general rule, instruct employees to bring their complaints to the attention of their immediate supervisors. If the complaint involves the supervisor, however, employees should have the right to address the matter with someone outside the established chain of command. In many circumstances, directing complaints through a different channel, such as a trained and designated member of the human resources department, may be appropriate.

• Stress the importance of a prompt response. Everyone in the company who’s responsible for receiving employee complaints should make it a point to address the complaint as promptly as possible. Ideally, an employee should know within 24 hours that you’ve received their complaint and are handling it. Don’t worry — that doesn’t mean you have to provide a complete answer in a day. But a swift initial response demonstrates your concern and commitment to resolving the issue. Of course, determining how long a problem takes to resolve depends on how complicated the issue is.

  How swiftly your organization responds is critical when the complaint involves alleged sexual harassment or discrimination. In such cases, all supervisors and/or managers should be trained immediately to notify you or others in an HR role. They should likewise be trained to promptly escalate complaints of serious workplace safety or health violations or criminal activity. Ignoring any complaint that deals with serious issues greatly increases your company’s exposure to legal action.

• Report back to the employee. Whether the complaint is substantiated or not, you need to keep the employee who registered it informed of what you’re doing to deal with the situation. If you ultimately find that the complaint isn’t substantiated (“We have no evidence to suggest that someone is poisoning our water supply”), explain why you feel that more action isn’t warranted.

  If the complaint is justified, indicate that corrective action is being taken. Depending on the circumstances, such as workplace safety, you may even want to communicate the nature of the action to the complainant. On the other hand, given privacy considerations, you want to be careful in terms of communicating the nature of the disciplinary action taken against another employee.

• Protect the employee from retaliation. Assure employees that if they follow the company’s recommended procedure for filing complaints, they won’t be penalized for doing so — regardless of the nature of the complaint, as long as it’s offered in good faith. When handling a complaint, remind all parties involved of your company’s antiretaliation policy. And if you need to resolve a dispute between an employee and a supervisor, caution supervisors about taking any actions that may be perceived as retaliatory — such as unfavorable work assignments, an inappropriate transfer, or a demotion — while an investigation is underway or shortly after its completion.

Your organization needs to distinguish between complaints of alleged unlawful harassment or discrimination and complaints of other, day-to-day workplace issues. In this section, I address the latter — the day-to-day personnel problems and workplace issues that may arise. In contrast, for complaints of sexual harassment or harassment based on another protected characteristic, or of discrimination, your company needs to have a separate antiharassment/antidiscrimination policy and an established procedure for raising complaints under such policy. Also, there are specific features that must be embedded in such a policy in order to ensure that it complies with applicable federal and, possibly, state or local laws.

Settling Disputes: Alternative Dispute Resolution Programs

Left unresolved, conflicts often escalate into major disruptions. But if you can resolve these disputes, you can create the kind of atmosphere that fosters open communication and innovative thinking. The key is to settle any workplace dispute fairly and quickly.

Whenever possible, settle disagreements or disputes at the local level. Some organizations establish an open-door policy, where team members are encouraged to raise concerns or disputes with their supervisors, HR, or other company leaders who are trained on how to handle these issues and are sensitive to when a reported concern must be escalated for higher-level attention.

There may be times when it’s not possible to resolve matters internally, and a team member’s legal claim against your organization is threatened or initiated. For many companies, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is an appealing alternative to the costly and unpredictable court action in wrongful discharge suits. ADR involves the same options as traditional conflict resolution strategies: mediation or arbitration. Both mediators and arbitrators typically have legal backgrounds, a vital skill given the extremely sensitive and potentially expensive implications of the termination process. Although federal law favors the use of ADR, some state laws impose restrictions on the types of disputes that may be arbitrated or the elements of an ADR program.

Mediation and arbitration programs can also be created and implemented in-house by an organization’s own management team or ombuds office. Even then, however, the actual mediation or arbitration meeting or hearing is processed best by an outside firm or professional who specializes in these areas.

If you elect to implement a mediation or arbitration program, you should consult a knowledgeable and experienced attorney.

Terminating Employees: It’s Never Easy

Even when you have ample cause for doing so, terminating employees is difficult — not only for the employees losing their jobs and the supervisors making the decision, but for coworkers as well.

You can do only so much to ease the pain and disruption that firings create. You can do a great deal, however, to help ensure that your company’s approach to firing meets two criteria:

• Protects the dignity and the rights of the employee being terminated
• Protects your organization from legal and/or retaliatory action by a disgruntled former employee

The standard (and recommended) practice in most companies is for the immediate supervisor to deliver the termination notice. The message should be delivered in person and in a private location. Depending on the circumstances, it’s generally beneficial for the company to have a third person also attend the meeting, such as another supervisor or member of the HR department. This person can serve as something of a neutral presence as well as a witness, provide moral support for the company representative, and, if necessary, help manage the situation if it becomes emotionally charged. Do not involve coworkers. (Note: Some union contracts require the presence of a specific individual, such as a union official.)

Regardless of why an employee is leaving your company, keep the termination meeting as conclusive as possible. It’s not subject to negotiation. This is a meeting that is, in essence, a one-way meeting, in which a conclusion about the employee’s termination is communicated and not up for challenge or reconsideration. All this means that you need to prepare prior to the meeting. The following list covers some issues to consider:

• Legal notices that must be given to terminated employees: Some states impose obligations on employers to furnish certain information to employees upon their termination, such as written notice of the change in the employment relationship, information related to unemployment benefits, and conversion rights related to group insurance policies. You need to check applicable laws before the termination meeting.
• Final payment: Ideally, any employee being dismissed should walk out of the termination meeting with a check that covers everything they’re entitled to, including severance if your organization has a policy allowing for an unconditional severance payment under the circumstances (see “Easing the burden,” later in this chapter). Some states, such as California, impose penalties for failing to pay an employee all wages (including accrued, unused vacation benefits) due at the time of termination. Make sure you know what applicable state and local laws require.
• Security issues: Think about company security, including keys, building or facility access cards, and company credit cards. Prepare your IT department in advance as to when to deactivate the employee’s logins and passwords and access to company facilities, systems, and files.
• Company-owned equipment: Be prepared to ask the employee to return any company-owned equipment immediately. If the equipment is off-site (equipment or laptop in the employee’s home, for example), arrange for its pickup or for it to be sent back to the company in prepaid packaging to make it easy for the former employee to send you back your valuables.
• Workplace violence or aggravated behavior: You may want to contact your company’s and/or building’s security services, if such services exist, to inform them that a termination is occurring and that you’ll let them know if you need assistance.
• Extended benefits information: If your company is subject to COBRA regulations (see Chapter 17) you’re generally obligated to extend the employee’s medical coverage — with no changes — for 18 months. Who pays for the benefits — your company or the employee — is your call; you’re under no legal obligation to pick up the tab. Make sure, though, that you provide all the information the employee needs to keep the coverage going. The employer is responsible for this paperwork and often employers will outsource this to a third-party administrator (TPA). Also, prepare in advance so you can resolve all questions regarding an employee’s 401(k), pension, or stock plan during the meeting, providing up-to-date information on what options, if any, the employee has regarding those benefits. Otherwise, advise the employee of the name and contact information of your benefits representative so they can obtain this information after the meeting.
• Notification of outplacement or other support mechanisms: If your company has set up outplacement arrangements (or any other services designed to help terminated employees find another job), provide all the relevant information, including company brochures and the level of services the company does (and does not) provide. Some companies arrange for an outplacement counselor to be on-site to serve as the first person the terminated employee talks to following the termination meeting.

Easing the Trauma of Layoffs

Layoffs differ from firings in a variety of ways, but one critical aspect comes to mind: The people being let go haven’t necessarily done anything to warrant losing their jobs. Layoffs occur for a number of reasons, which can include

• Seasonal shifts in the demand for the company’s products or services
• An unexpected business downturn that requires the company to make drastic cost reductions
• A plant or company closure
• An initiative that restructures work practices, leaving fewer jobs
• A merger or acquisition that produces redundancy in certain positions

Generally, in a nonunion, private work environment, when someone is laid off, there is no expectation that they’ll be returning to work. Some companies use the term in a different sense, however. When business is slow and they don’t need the entire current workforce, some firms (particularly those operating in a unionized environment) notify workers that they’ll be placed on furlough for a period of time and will be offered the opportunity to return to work on a certain date or in stages. Some companies (especially seasonal businesses and those for which losing a major project creates a significant worker surplus) call this arrangement a “layoff” or “seasonal layoff” even though they plan to bring people back to work if and when conditions allow. Depending on the nature of the business — and its affiliation with unions or public- versus private-sector obligations — many companies today avoid suggesting that a layoff is temporary because it can be difficult to determine with certainty whether or when employees will be recalled to work. Layoffs (sometimes called reductions in force, position eliminations, restructuring, downsizing, or rightsizing) are far more common when they refer to employee terminations that are final. One thing that all these approaches have in common, however, is that they’re involuntary and generally are considered to be no fault of the people affected.

I say employees generally are laid off through no fault of their own because sometimes a business must eliminate a certain number of positions in a department or business line, and the decisions about who will be selected may be based on evaluations of the employees’ relative work performance. In such cases, employees with weaker job performances may be placed at the top of a layoff list, whereas those with stronger job performances may be protected from layoff.

Whatever the reason for a layoff, the pressure on the HR function is the same. You need to help your company navigate this difficult turn of events with as few long-term repercussions as possible. The following sections guide you through the process.

Protecting the Safety and Health of Your Team Members

Employers in the United States are legally obligated to provide a workplace in which neither the environment nor the work practices subject employees to any unreasonable risk in safety or health. Safety- and health-related regulations vary considerably within an industry and according to state or federal regulations. (A good resource is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, also known as OSHA.) Although the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act law applies throughout the United States, it permits states to implement their own plans with requirements above and beyond the federal regulations. Twenty-two states have adopted their own plans covering private employers. Consequently, no one single standard or list of safety- and health-related regulations applies across the board to every company. At the very least, though, it’s your responsibility as your company’s HR specialist to make sure of two things:

• Your company is in compliance with the federal and/or state safety and health regulations that apply to your company.
• Your company is doing everything that is reasonably possible (independent of your legal obligations) to protect the safety and health of your employees.

The safety and health area is a complicated one. When in doubt, consult an attorney.

The online resources include several documents that can help you ensure a safe workplace, including the following:

• OSHA Information Posting
• Work-Related Injury and Illness Report Form

Unlawful Harassment: Keeping Your Workplace Free of It

The best way to protect your organization and team members from unlawful harassment is to proactively put in place processes and provide awareness and education — creating awareness and being proactive are the keys. The following sections provide additional information on unlawful harassment and sexual harassment and share insight into how to create awareness and act proactively.

Addressing Workplace Violence

Violence in the workplace is an issue that no company — regardless of how large or small the company or where it’s located — can afford to ignore.

What steps can your company take to provide reasonable protection for your employees? Your best source of information on this matter is your local police department. Most police departments have specialists in crime prevention who can survey your business and make recommendations. Other good sources for crime prevention strategies are your state occupational safety and health agency, which may have guidelines and recommendations on employee safety measures. Also, look to violence prevention experts, insurance companies, or private security consultants.

You need to take a twofold approach of protecting your team members from the violent acts of both outsiders and fellow team members.

As much as you don’t want to dwell on the unpleasant, it’s better to be prepared for both external and internal threats. You can put in place specific policies that can lessen the possibility of emergency situations. To address external threats, consider the following:

• Pay your team members by check, not cash. Better still, encourage direct deposit of pay into employee bank accounts (with appropriate team member consent, of course).
• Keep building perimeters and parking lots well lit. Lighting adds visibility and helps to limit threats.
• Limit access to strangers. Consider implementing an access card system for employees. If appropriate for your business, ask visitors to wait in the reception area until an employee is available to escort them. Identify visitors with a special badge and escort them at all times. Instruct employees to notify the security office about strangers with no identification.

To address internal threats, take these steps:

• Establish and communicate to employees a strong, unequivocal policy of zero tolerance for violence. Include threatening gestures, fighting words, and physical actions as causes for immediate dismissal. This policy should be included in your company’s workplace violence policy and employee code of conduct.
• Consider providing counseling and other assistance for troubled employees. You may want to consider offering an employee assistance program for employees with personal, financial, or substance abuse problems. Bear in mind your various legal obligations relative to disabled employees.
• Be constantly aware that certain workplace situations have a potential for violence. Disciplinary meetings and termination interviews are prime examples. Take precautions accordingly.
• Review and update your weapons policy. It’s important to note that some states provide protections for employees who bring firearms to work, and you should make sure your policy does not run afoul of applicable state laws.
• Know what protective orders may be available. Some jurisdictions allow employers to petition the court for a workplace violence protective order on behalf of its employees. Be aware of what your jurisdiction offers, and be prepared to escalate the issue to the appropriate security or legal team members.