Paul La Vigne | |
Workplace violence in the United States remains upsettingly commonplace. The latest data shows that after years of apparent improvement, violent incidents at work are again on the rise. Violence now accounts for 8% of all fatal workplace injuries, according to OSHA. That’s roughly one out of every 11 workplace deaths.
Over the last decade, homicide has become one of the main causes of death for all American workers and continues to be the second leading cause of workplace fatalities for women.
Right now, more than half of states are working to require some or all employers to establish workplace violence prevention plans. Even in regions where there is no legal obligation to protect staff and clientele from violence, we’re seeing every type of business taking proactive measures to increase physical security in the workplace.
At Total Security Solutions, our goal is to help every organization take action to keep their staff safe.
An important first step for any employer is making sure they understand the current threat landscape as it applies to their place of business. This should help guide them in adopting and implementing effective protective measures.
Related: Guide to Shooting and Workplace Violence Prevention
Shooting and Workplace Violence Trends and Takeaways
Workplace violence is a major concern for employers and employees nationwide. Shootings account for the majority of deaths, but they are not the most common. Everyday acts of aggression — hitting, kicking, verbal threats, and projectiles — are far more common, creating a climate of fear for millions of workers.
From 2015-2019, 1.3 million employees experienced nonfatal workplace violence, with over 529,000 of them having injuries serious enough to be treated in the emergency room, according to a 2022 report from a collaborative report of the Bureau of Labor and Bureau of Justice Statistics. BLS further notes that workplace homicides increased from 2019 to 2022 (the most recent period for which we have complete data) and that there were 524 workplace homicides in 2022, the highest annual total in more than a decade.
BLS found that 83% of those deaths involved gunshot wounds.
According to their preliminary numbers for 2023, workplace homicides rose to 740 that year, with homicides accounting for 61.9% of all acts of on-the-job violence and 8.7 percent of all work-related fatalities.
These figures don’t include the multiple high-profile incidents of workplace violence in the past year, including the 2024 assassination of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City, the July shooting in a Midtown Manhattan office building reportedly targeting the headquarters of the NFL, and the August stabbing of 11 customers at a Michigan Walmart.
Types of Violent Workplace Incidents
NIOSH (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) categorizes workplace violence into four profiles. Understanding these four types of incidents helps organizations make prudent decisions in addressing the possibility of workplace violence.
Type I: Criminal Intent
Type I workplace violence consists of people with no relationship to the workplace, organization, or staff. The worker generally has no idea who the attacker is prior to the incident. While the intent is usually robbery, this category also includes acts of random violence with no clear motive. About half (47%) of all workplace violence between 2015 and 2019 fell into this category, as did around 85% of all workplace homicides.
Type II: Customer/Client Violence
Type II workplace violence includes assaults instigated by customers, clients, patients, or guests known to the business or organization. In general, someone in the workplace is familiar with the attacker prior to the incident. This category of violence is common in healthcare, which accounts for 72% of all violence at private workplaces, according to BLS.
Type II violence is a major driver of nonfatal workplace incidents, especially in service industries and healthcare. For example, healthcare and social service workers are frequently victims of patient or client aggression, such as hospital nurses assaulted by patients or family members, or social workers attacked during home visits. The BLS has found that healthcare workers are the victims of workplace violence at a rate five times higher than that of any other occupation.
Type III: Worker-on-Worker Violence
Type III workplace violence occurs when a staff member or former staff member attacks a co-worker, manager or the workplace or organization as a whole. This typically involves a disgruntled employee seeking revenge, but also includes violence arising from bullying or other personal disputes.
Some of the deadliest workplace shootings in recent years have been Type III attacks in manufacturing plants, warehouses, and distribution centers.
For example, in 2019 a factory employee in Illinois shot and killed five coworkers after being fired, and in 2020 a longtime employee at a Milwaukee brewery shot and killed five co-workers after a history of workplace tensions.
Type IV: Personal Relationship Violence
Type IV workplace violence arises from personal relationships. In these situations, the attacker is targeting a specific individual, and usually has no relationship with the workplace at all. The attacker shows up at the workplace solely because they know their target can be found there at a specific day and time.
Type IV violence frequently stems from domestic violence, which accounts for 27% of all workplace violence incidents.
Workplace Violence Prevention Planning
Workplace violence trends have drawn attention from state and local lawmakers. At least 27 states currently have or are drafting laws that mandate greater efforts to create safe workplaces.
States with active bills or recently passed laws include California, New York, Massachusetts, Virginia, Illinois, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Jersey, Alaska, and Indiana. Much of this legislation is fundamentally similar to California’s SB 553. This law specifies the components of an effective workplace violence prevention plan, including measures to implement policies and procedures to discover, identify, and address potentially violent threats in the workplace.
At TSS, we recommend treating workplace violence as a hazard, similar to any other workplace hazard. With that in mind, we can look to NIOSH’s hazard mitigation approach.
The Hierarchy of Controls identifies the preferred order of actions to best address workplace hazards. In this framework, NIOSH identifies five layers of intervention. From most preferable to least, these are:
Elimination: Remove the hazard at the source. In the case of workplace violence, that might mean firing a threatening employee or getting a restraining order to prevent a problem customer from entering the facility.
Substitution: Replace the hazard with a safer alternative. For example, reassigning staff to defuse tension.
Engineering Controls: Prevent the hazard from coming into contact with workers. This could include installing barriers or implementing access control to prevent a threatening individual from making contact with workers at all.
Administrative Controls: Establish plans and practices that reduce exposure to hazard. The workplace violence prevention plan outlined in most laws fit into this level of NIOSH’s hierarchy.
Personal Protective Equipment: Equipment (like gloves, aprons, or safety glasses) workers can wear that minimize exposure to hazards. This is only really practical for law enforcement and security guards, who are regularly issued ballistic vests, gloves, and other PPE.
The Importance of Choosing the Right Physical Security Provider
Measures like Elimination and Substitution can only address workplace violence hazards already known to employers, such as those in Type II, Type III, and some Type IV situations—and can sometimes become triggers for more serious workplace violence. Many Type III worker-on-worker attacks are precipitated by a reassignment or dismissal that the attacker feels isn’t justified.
As a result, many organizations are reinforcing their Administrative Controls with Engineering Controls—specifically, physical security measures and ballistic barrier systems.
Depending on your workplace’s needs and layout, physical reinforcements often include:
- Bullet-resistant windows
- Bulletproof doors
- Ballistic fiberglass panels for walls
- Bulletproof exterior windows and transaction windows
- Secure vestibule systems
- Guard booths
- Safe rooms (converting existing offices or meeting rooms to dual-purpose spaces)
Given that every workplace is unique, it’s ineffective to attempt to create a safe workplace simply by cobbling together a handful of ready-made components sourced from various vendors. At TSS, wee advocate a systems approach to ballistic building security, workplace safety, and violence prevention.
This comprehensive philosophy doesn’t just focus on individual elements, like establishing an incident tracking system or swapping standard windows and doors.
It zeroes in on hazard-specific security and threat response with the goal of mitigating those threats with interlocking physical security measures that reinforce your policies, support your training, blend with your aesthetics, and make it easy to carry on your day-to-day business.
However you choose to address workplace violence, it should start with a thorough and clear-eyed Workplace Violence Risk Assessment.
A Workplace Violence Risk Assessment is a comprehensive professional evaluation of a facility’s physical security, designed to identify vulnerabilities to internal and external threats, and recommend measures to mitigate risk and protect the people inside.
Our latest guide will help you start out on the right foot.
If you have immediate questions, or are ready to get a project started, feel free to contact us. We look forward to working with you.
