Today’s challenging workplace requires a special effort to ensure each employee’s safety. Given what is known, it is no longer acceptable to presume violence will not occur in one’s company or organization. This one day presentation will provide participants with both a basic and advanced understanding of workplace violence threat management in the 21^st Century.  Workplace violence offenders are constantly evolving, requiring a threat assessment effort that is also on the cutting edge. Essential elements of threat assessment and threat assessment teams must adapt as necessary to deal with these changes.  Victims and potential victims also need to be managed and educated. This presentation will provide attendees with a brief review of the core essentials of threat assessment and management in the workplace, before moving to more advanced and comprehensive concepts. The presentation will identify and stimulate the real world creativity required to better manage the challenging individuals who seek to disrupt and devastate our places of work.

I. Introduction: 21^st Century Violence in the Workplace

a. Types of offenders: outsiders, customers, and employee related

b. Behavioral patterns of recent violent and disruptive individual(s)

c. Evolving patterns of violent offending in the workplace

i. Mixed motives

ii. Ideological

iii. Stalking

iv. Violent and suicidal

d. Victim behavior

II. Threat Assessment Principles

a. What is threat assessment and threat management?

b. Priorities, Safety versus privacy

c. Four components of a standard of care threat assessment: Warning signs (leakage), risk factors, stabilizers, and triggers

d. Sources of information

e. Decisions about collateral sources: Who, how, what, when

f. Interviewing the subject

i. Safety considerations

ii. Other process concerns

iii. Content areas

iv. What to look for

g. How to integrate information

h. Sources of error

i. Communicating the results of threat assessment, levels of risk

j. The art of the threat assessment

i. Handling sources

ii. Interacting with the subject(s)

iii. Tone

iv. Dealing with inconsistencies

III. Advanced Threat Assessment Techniques: Thinking outside of the box to interrupt those who will step outside of it

a. Internet and social networking

b. Developing human sources

c. Proactive techniques

d. Creative problem solving in an imperfect world

e. Interacting with outside resources (law enforcement, outside legal counsel, prosecutors, mental health professionals, defense attorneys)

IV. Threat Assessment Teams

a. Team configuration: Legal, HR, Security, and Mental Health

b. Adhoc team members, Specialists

c. Team roles and expectations-team leader

d. Practical aspects of working together, consensus building

e. Compensating for the weakest link

f. Tasking

g. Documentation guidelines

h. Periodic status checks

V. Advanced Threat Management Principles

a. Threat management versus threat prevention

b. Boundary setting with company, criminal justice, mental health, and other resources

c. Reducing access to potential victim pool

d. Mental health resources, Workplace Violence Assessment tools

e. Reducing weapon accessibility

Objectives: At the conclusion to this program, participants should be able to:

Describe the four components of a standard threat assessment
Identify the areas of concern related to interviewing a subject
List at least three advanced threat assessment techniques
Describe the optimal make up of a threat assessment team