 |
 |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|||||||||||
Self Defence |
Employing Conflict Management In today's busy and pressurized environment we don't have to look too far to find stress, aggression and indeed violence. Pressures of work, travelling, relationships, family, money and finance can trigger even a normally minded individual into a screaming, shouting and abusive monster. The complete Jeckal and Hyde transformation. If you inadvertently catch the eye of the person next to you in their car at the traffic lights, this can be viewed as a subliminal challenge and one that could get your 'lights' punched out! The pre-cursors for aggression and violence are all around us but sometimes we are not aware or 'clued up' to see them. Take the workplace for example. We spend a big part of our waking day there and if you are in the public sector or frontline, you will encounter 'unpredictable' clients, customers or indeed work colleagues. Does violence at work occur? You better believe it! In the last few years, the British Crime Survey suggests that there were approximately 800,000 incidents of violence at work in England and Wales. 390,000 of these were physical assaults and 410,000 were threats. These are only reported cases. There could be four times as many. Compare this to the USA, who has 2 million cases each year, it may not be so common. But let's face it; the USA is a vast country in comparison to Britain. 800, 000, was one of those victims you? Or was it a friend? A loved one? Perhaps a colleague? Whoever it was, they suffered a traumatic incident that could have scarred them for life. Nobody comes to work to be verbally or physically abused, yet it happens. Are employers doing everything available to make sure their workers are adequately looked after? Are Health and Safety officers pushing the fact that conflict exists in the workplace and looking to enforce certain safety procedures? Are employees aware of the dangers and are they getting appropriate training? For the past five years or so, I have been working with Personal Protection Training Service and its founder and chief executive Mark Hewitt Phil MMA FSMA Adv Dip CM. We have delivered numerous training courses on Conflict Management, Personal safety and Personal security in the workplace. We have trained many different organisations, companies and individuals but it still surprises and concerns us that there are a lot of employers and employees without any such training working in frontline jobs. Whether they realise it or not, they are at risk. Ignorance is not an excuse. One of the worst ever mottos is, 'It won't happen here' or 'It will never happen to me.' This is too short-sighted, very naïve and extremely dangerous frame of mind to adopt. 'Heads' and 'buried sand' springs to mind. Yet Mark and I have encountered this frame of mind on many occasions. This is like saying, 'We'll never have a fire here, so don't bother with fire extinguishers and fire doors.' This attitude is suicidal. Every workplace has fire prevention policies in place along with fire exits, fire doors, fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems and fire drill techniques. Quite rightly so, but the reality is you are probably going to encounter conflict or violence in the workplace more so, than a fire but procedures are put in place for fire risk but not for Conflict Management or Safety. Strange? What about First Aid? Every workplace has at least one or two qualified First Aiders and first aid boxes etc. How often will that First Aider be performing CPR? Hopefully never but they have the training just in case. So it amazes me that employees have no training just in case a customer decides to verbally abuse them or push them, grab them or worse. No training. Is there a risk factor here? Definetely! Yes! Every employee knows what to do when a fire alarm goes off, whether it be for real or a drill. How many employees know what to do if they are confronted by potential violence. Do they have any policies or procedures in place? Do they have guidelines to what they can or cannot do? Do they know what to do if this person becomes violent? Answer : Probably not. Ten years ago, most employers would tell you that there was no such thing as workplace violence. Present day tells us otherwise. Look at the zero tolerance measures for NHS staff, rail staff, and postal workers to name a few. There are hundreds of other public sectors with no formal policies or training in place and employers may find huge compensation claims coming up against them if a member of their staff is hurt and there is proof of negligence. It has happened and PPTS have recorded incidents of this. To quote Mark Hewitt 'With no training in Conflict Management available you as an employer could be leaving yourself open for trouble.' Conflict Management training is all about prevention. Becoming aware of the tell tale signs of danger and becoming good at predicting conflict or violence. It is not about teaching staff to fight or take the law into their own hands. It's the same as that for fire safety or first aid training, prevention measures first and for the worst case scenario practical measures. As you wouldn't expect your staff to sit in an office doing nothing whilst it burned around their ears or see an employee die from choking, because none of your staff knew what to do, would you expect your staff member to be punched, kicked, butted, stabbed, threatened or abused? Hopefully not. So are you and your staff prepared? Can you afford not to give them the training they need? The training and preparation will cost far less than any preparation for fire in the workplace and there is no excuse not to do it. You owe it to yourself, your family, your co owners and your business. The cost for training 10 staff members is less than 0.5% of one compensation claim for negligence against an employer! For details and prices of the courses and training that Personal Protection Training Service provide, log onto www.ppts.co.uk or ring (029)20752508 Article by, Kevin O Hagan BNMMA. (Senior training consultant.) |
|---|
