Armed hold ups and workplace violence or aggression.
As Christmas approaches, we regularly see an increase in the prevalence of armed hold ups and workplace violence or aggression. The festive season brings joy, but it can also bring challenges for workplaces.
Armed hold ups take various forms, from threats with a firearm, to threats with a knife or other blades. Workplace violence and aggression can be from disgruntled, or frustrated customers and range from from verbal abuse to more extreme acts of violence. Your staff can be exposed to serious risk.
Prevention to protect your workers
Prevention is focused on understanding your business and determining relevant strategies. Start by completing a risk assessment, in consultation with your workers. This helps you understand the vulnerabilities of your business, including insight from your workers on their challenges, and therefore helps you develop the most effective controls or prevention strategies relevant to you. Your risk assessment could include:
- Review of any previous incidents
- Review of differences in peak periods, low periods and special events
- Identification of the physical vulnerabilities of your workplace
- Analysis of your banking and closing procedures.
Following your risk assessment you can determine what you already do well as preventative strategies, and also areas you could improve. Some prevention strategies include:
- CCTV
- Engaging security personnel (particularly during busy periods and closing)
- Installing time delay safes
- Consider having at least 2 people within at the workplace at any given time
- Install or implement duress alarms, either fixed or portable (for the duty manager or other relevant roles)
- Have procedures in place so that your workers know what to do in the event of an incident and TRAIN YOUR WORKERS on these procedures
For more information on this, please contact us on (02) 9587 3500, theteam@wsib.com.au, contact your account manager or click the link below.
