4. Assume that a testing company approached you and indicated they had developed

Question

4.Assume that a testing company approached you and indicated they had developed a test to predict, with a high degree of but not perfect accuracy, the likelihood that individuals you employ would be prone to commit an act of workplace violence. Assume also that the cost of implementing such an employee-testing program was quite reasonable. Would you purchase such a test for use in your operation? Would you terminate a current employee who tested poorly (i.e., tested as likely to commit an act of workplace violence)? Explain why or why not. Research employee violence prevention programs to help construct your response.

Explanation / Answer

As per one of the research conducted by the US. Department of labour, more than 20 lakhs people in the United States alone, are the victims of some form of workplace violence. Workplace violence is a harsh and often ignored reality that exist in every or almost every organisation in the world. Employers and Businesses have started to consider workplace violence seriously and putting in place the necessary policies to tackle the violence at the workplace. The most common acts of workplace violence includes: verbal abuse, crime threats, altercations, security threats, personal attacks, etc. Therefore, the workplace violence prevention programs holds a lot of value in the current business environment. Department of labour in its report have suggested that it is the duty of every employer to provide a safe and healthy workplace environment to its employees and this points to having a strong workplace violence prevention program in place.

Often, employers and managers fail to identify the change in the behaviour or conduct of a disgruntled employee. Some of the most obvious symptoms are:

Employees undergoing above behavioural changes, if not identified and treated at the right time, later become the sources of workplace violence. Therefore, employers must carefully develop a whole proof violence prevention program by holistically assessing the workplace environment, and dedicatedly monitoring the behaviour of every employee and take corrective actions wherever required.

In the given case, the organisation is approached by a testing company which claims to predict the likelihood of individuals prone to commit an act of workplace violence. Given the high importance of having an effective workplace prevention program in place, the organisation should not give any second thoughts in adopting the program. Since, the cost of the tests is also reasonable, it would be a wise investment for the company to adopt and put these tests in practice as soon as possible. In addition to the workplace violence prevention program, the organisation should also ensure that they constantly work on fostering a healthy work environment for the employees, deploy a dedicated security department, educating the employees about the methods of preventing workplace violence and observing the warning signs of a potential violence.

If any current employee is tested poorly in the necessary violence prevention program test, then instead of terminating him right away, corrective actions will be taken. The employee will be provided dedicated counselling and will undergo stress handling trainings. The organisation will try to understand the factors affecting him and ensure that the organisation will take all the possible actions to alleviate those factors. Each and every employee is an asset to the organisation and it becomes the responsibility of the organisation to make their employees safe and healthy.

It is rightly said about the workplace violence is that you should always hope for the best but at the same time, be prepared for the worst. And hence, the organisations should always adopt and practice the said workplace violence prevention programs.

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