An employee tells their manager a customer has been making them uncomfortable. Someone at the front desk notices a visitor who keeps showing up without a clear reason. A supervisor learns that an employee has received increasingly aggressive messages from a former coworker. None of these situations necessarily means violence is going to occur. But each raises an important question: What happens next?
Employees are often told to speak up when something doesn’t feel right. That’s important, but encouraging people to report concerns is only one part of workplace safety. Organizations also need a process for what happens after someone speaks up.
Employees Shouldn’t Have to Decide What’s “Serious Enough”
One of the challenges with concerning behavior is that it doesn’t always come with an obvious warning label. A comment may seem inappropriate but not threatening. A person’s behavior may have changed over time. An interaction may make an employee uncomfortable even though they can’t pinpoint exactly why.
Employees shouldn’t be expected to determine whether someone poses a threat before reporting a concern. Instead, they should understand what types of behavior should be reported and know where to go when something doesn’t feel right. That could include threatening or intimidating language, unusual fixation on a person or workplace, escalating confrontations, repeated unwanted contact, concerning social media activity or significant changes in behavior.
A single behavior rarely tells the entire story. That’s why reporting matters. Information that seems insignificant on its own may become important when combined with other observations.
A Report Is the Beginning, Not the End
Once a concern is reported, someone needs to know what to do with it. Who receives the information? Is someone documenting it? Who determines whether additional action is necessary? When should HR, security, leadership or law enforcement become involved? Without a defined process, organizations can end up responding inconsistently. One manager may take a concern seriously while another dismisses similar behavior because it doesn’t appear immediately threatening.
A structured approach allows organizations to gather information, evaluate the situation and determine an appropriate response based on the circumstances. Depending on the concern, that response may be as simple as documenting the behavior and continuing to monitor the situation. Other circumstances may require additional security measures, changes to workplace procedures, involvement from HR or leadership, or a formal behavioral threat assessment. The goal isn’t to assume the worst. It’s to make sure concerning behavior isn’t ignored simply because no one knows what to do with the information.
Workplace Safety Requires More Than Security Equipment
Cameras, access controls, alarms, visitor-management systems and other physical security measures all play an important role in protecting a workplace, but equipment is only part of the picture. An organization can have cameras at every entrance and still lack a clear process for an employee who reports repeated unwanted visits from someone. It can have badge-controlled doors and still have employees who don’t know who to contact when a situation begins to escalate.
Effective workplace safety brings together people, processes and physical security. That means employees know how to report concerns. Managers know what to do when they receive them. The appropriate people can evaluate the information. Physical security measures support the response when necessary. Each piece strengthens the others.
Look at Behavior, Not a Profile
There isn’t one type of person who poses a workplace threat. That’s an important distinction.
Behavioral threat assessment focuses on observable behaviors and circumstances rather than trying to predict dangerousness based on someone’s appearance, personality or demographic characteristics. The question isn’t, “Does this person look dangerous?” It’s, “What behavior are we seeing, what do we know about the situation and does it warrant further assessment or intervention?”
A structured Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) process helps organizations evaluate those concerns using available information and determine an appropriate course of action. Just as importantly, threat management doesn’t necessarily end once an immediate concern has passed. Situations can evolve. Follow-up and continued monitoring may be necessary depending on the circumstances.
Make Reporting Easy Before You Need It
Employees are more likely to report concerns when they know how and believe someone will take the information seriously. Organizations should be able to answer a few basic questions:
- Do employees know what types of behavior should be reported?
- Is there a clear and accessible way to submit a concern?
- Can employees report something anonymously, when desired, without immediately labeling it a “threat”?
- Who receives and reviews those reports?
- Is information documented consistently?
- Is there a process for determining when a concern needs further assessment?
- Do employees receive appropriate follow-up after reporting something?
If the answers aren’t clear to leadership, they probably aren’t clear to employees either.
Build the Process Before There’s a Crisis
Workplace safety isn’t about treating every uncomfortable interaction like an emergency. It’s about having a process that helps an organization distinguish between situations that require no further action, those that should be monitored and those that require intervention. That process needs to exist before an employee walks into a manager’s office and says, “I don’t feel safe.”
At 360 Security Services, our team helps organizations build a more proactive approach to workplace safety through behavioral threat assessment and management, physical security and risk consulting. CHIRP-360 also provides organizations with a structured way to report, triage, assess and manage concerning behavior so important information doesn’t stop at the initial report. Your employees know how to speak up. Does your organization know what to do next? Let’s talk.