An employee confides in you that they overheard a co-worker talking about wanting to harm another colleague. What should you do? A client threatens a staff member publicly, shouting “If you do that, I’ll kill you!” How should you respond? If you ever found yourself in work and a terrorist attack took place, how would you react and manage the situation?

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Many of us wouldn’t know how we would respond in these situations, which means that we would REACT instead of ACT. This isn’t always bad, as if these actions were effective, they could have a profound impact on the outcome of a threatening situation. However, reacting to a situation is often harmful and the wrong responses could escalate it.

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To ensure that staff are prepared for any potential threat and that they respond effectively, it is imperative that the workplace has policies and procedures that ensure this. In fact, organisations are coming under pressure to assess and respond to threats of workplace violence, so preparation and management of these cases has never been more necessary.

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From threats of workplace violence, homicidal ideations and stalking to other situations of targeted violence such as terrorism, having threat management training at hand will ensure you react appropriately. To help with basic threat responses, we’ve put together essential tips that you should start with.

Risk Factors

Workplace violence is more often than not carried out by a disgruntled employee, therefore it is important that employers and staff alike are alert to situations and resulting behaviour that could lead to violence. Situations to be aware of include:

• Personality Conflicts
• Mishandled Termination
• A Known Grudge
• A Promotion in the Company
• Drug or Alcohol Use
• Bringing Weapons into Work

What to Look out For

As well as the obvious potential links to violence, such as an employee being ‘passed over’ for a promotion, risks can also stem from personal factors. These can be more difficult to handle however, as you may not be aware of these personal issues, so you need to know what behavioural changes to look out for. Violence can manifest in many other ways, but these are the main changes that you can keep an eye on:

• Noticeable Changes in Behaviour – tense muscles, bulging or darting eye movements, staring or avoiding eye contact, defensive body posture, twitching muscles, disheveled appearance
• Extreme Disorganisation
• Hypersensitivity to Criticism
• Increasing Belligerence or Outbursts of Anger
• Apparent Obsession with a Supervisor or Coworker
• Passing Threats or Homicidal/suicidal Comments
• Specific Threats
• Interest in Recently Publicised Violent Events or Violence in General
• Recent Acquisition and/or Fascination with Weapons
• People Who Look Like They are Scouting the Area
• Unsupervised Packages

The Best Action to Take

Often, the best action to take in these situations is to be vigilant and prevent them all together. However, that isn’t always possible. When a violent situation does occur, employees should be prepared to take action. In any situation, the most important thing is to remain calm and carry out one of the following steps:

• Evacuate the Area Immediately – only take this step if you know this option is 100% safe!
• Help Others Escape if Possible – again only do this if you’re sure it is safe and do not attempt to move any injured persons
• Lock Down the Area – this will prevent others from getting involved in this potentially  harmful situation
• Find a Safe Place to Hide – if you are unable to evacuate, you need to find an appropriate place to hide and ring for help
• Contact the Emergency Services
• Turn Off Sources of Noise – this includes everything from televisions and radios to mobiles
• Attempt to Disrupt or Incapacitate the Violent Person – this should be your absolute last resort and should only be necessary if your life or someone else’s life is in imminent danger. Security workers should be trained in self-defense and should know how to “take-down” a person if necessary, so it would be rare that you would be in this position.

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The most important action to take initially is to handle every potential threat seriously. If staff are naturally vigilant and learn the importance of threat preparedness and management, only then will the workplace be safe.

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When workplace violence or a terrorist attack is reported, it is always unexpected. Many times, people even comment that they’d never have expected that person to react in that way. This might be the case some of the time, but by simply observing people, being cautious and aware of your surroundings, we could potentially recognise the beginnings of a situation and prevent it.

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What we can do for you:

At RGM, our goal is to prevent threat situations from happening all together to ensure the safety of all staff on site. If you’re interested in knowing more about threat awareness training for your staff, we are offering training courses developed by Counter Terrorism and Threat Specialists. If you need training or just advice, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Need more information about threat awareness? Check out our other articles

• Terrorism Awareness Training: Are Your Staff Threat Aware?
• Be Threat Aware Not Afraid
• How And Why We Should Be Explaining Terrorism To Our Children

With the recent bout of terrorist attacks, there has never been a more important time to raise awareness of being threat aware. Although this is important for the public as a whole, it is absolutely vital that we do this in the workplace too.

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The workplace tends to be one of the primary targets of terrorism, much like transport, as it leads to disruption on a bigger scale, which ultimately has a negative impact on the country’s economy infrastructure. Therefore, companies really should consider and check their security and emergency response procedures regularly to ensure that they can handle an attack.

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As well as a company’s security, there also needs to be training for the staff. Employees are valuable assets in any form of emergency drill, so it is vital that they are informed and trained, and prepared for terrorism. The workplace is a target due to the perceived lack of employer emphasis on this, so preparedness and awareness has the potential to be an effective prevention technique.

Induction Training in the Modern Workplace

While it is important to refrain from scaremongering, it is crucial for terrorism awareness training to become part of the induction training for all new staff. All new employees go through a typical induction, where they receive information on:

• The Organisation’s Policies & Procedures
• Safety & Emergency Procedures

This together with a guided tour of the workplace and introduction’s to staff ensures that the employee starts off with the right information, ready to work as productively as possible.

In today’s society, employees also need to be prepared for ALL possible emergencies, including terrorism, therefore it should be included in the emergency procedures training. Obviously, some places will be more at risk than others, such as businesses in airports and shopping centres, but even lower risk places should have a basic training in place. Through response training, with a particular focus on awareness and preparedness, only then can you potentially minimise the effects of terrorism.

What Terrorism Awareness Training Should Cover

As part of a company’s induction training, or as an annual training course, all employees need to be trained in these areas to be fully prepared if a terrorist attack should occur. 

1. What is Terrorism?

• Definition of terrorism and its impact on the workplace
• The psychology of terrorism – including tactics, effects, common targets and how to minimise fear and stress
• How to identify and prevent a potential terrorist attack

2. Cyber-terrorism & Data Protection

• Definition of cyber-terrorism and the importance of understanding this growing threat
• Train staff to be skeptical of unknown emails and what preventive measures can be taken to minimise computer access elsewhere
• The ways to protect, store and manage sensitive data

3. Security of the Workplace Facility

• Identify and discuss emergency exits, restricted areas and access routes
• Train staff in the initiation of evacuation procedures
• Train staff in all security measures, from cameras and alarms to the importance of sign-in sheets and keeping I.D. badges safe
• Train staff in what ‘suspicious activity’ is, what to look out for and what to do about it

4. Security Risk Areas

• Delivery methods – how letters and packages can be targeted, how they should be managed safely, how to identify a suspicious package and what procedure to follow
• Cyber-terrorism
• Travel safety
• Suspicious bags or packages left unattended/bomb threats – actions to take, questions to ask, who to inform of the threat

5. Response Training

• Essential workplace skills – patience, awareness, preparedness, staying alert and reducing panic in emergency situations
• Training – practicing searching for warning signs and the appropriate response
• Contacting the appropriate authorities

With this training included in all companies and refreshed on a regular basis, employers and employees will be more proactive in keeping each other and the public safe in the potential event of an attack.

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Being prepared for a terrorist attack is primarily down to vigilance, from being aware of the warning signs to knowing how to respond to them. Therefore, by including this simple training with all other safety and emergency procedures, employees will be empowered in these situations and may even help to save lives. With something so simple that can make a massive impact, isn’t it worthwhile making sure your staff are threat aware?

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What we can do for you:

If you’re interested in knowing more about threat awareness training for your staff, RGM are offering training courses developed by Counter Terrorism and Threat Specialists. If you need training or just advice, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Need more information about terrorism awareness? Check out our other articles

• Be Threat Aware Not Afraid
• How And Why We Should Be Explaining Terrorism To Our Children
• How Would You or Your Staff React to a Threat Situation?