Keeping Your Company out of Legal Trouble

Overview/Description
 Your workplace can either make things better or worse for an employee who has aggressive tendencies. Identifying the characteristics of a "toxic" workplace can help you avoid repeating the mistakes other managers have made. You'll also learn how to find your organization's weak spots, make needed changes in policies and procedures, make your workplace more "human," and learn about basic legal issues that can arise when organizations do not follow these recommended practices.

Target Audience
 Top-level managers, training managers, human resource managers, functional managers, supervisors, team leaders

Expected Duration
3.5 hours

Lesson Objectives:

Characteristics of the "Toxic" Workplace

  • recognize the importance of avoiding practices described as characteristic of violence-prone workplaces.
  • identify specific instances of inhumane management practices.
  • identify reasons that a workplace which tolerates aggressive behavior is ripe for violence.
  • identify effects of severe stress on employees, sometimes leading to violent behavior.
  • identify the relationship between frequent conflicts and injuries and the frequency of violent incidents.

    • General Intervention Strategies

  • recognize the importance of intervening to make a violence-prone workplace more resistant to violent incidents.
  • identify effective ways to find an organization's weak spots regarding violence prevention.
  • choose effective policies and practices (summarized in the acronym SAFER) to prevent violence at work.
  • identify effective methods to protect employees from violence perpetrated by intruders, such as family members, suppliers and customers.
  • select appropriate and effective methods for supporting employees to help them avoid violent tendencies.

    • Humanizing Your Workplace

  • recognize the critical importance of using humane management practices to reduce employees' tendencies toward violence.
  • differentiate ways that management can view employees--as people, as assets, or as expenses.
  • identify appropriate ways to use a Peer Review Board to defuse conflicts at work so as to avoid violence.
  • select statements that describe effective practices in giving feedback and coaching employees.

    • Understanding the Legal Repercussions

  • recognize the importance of understanding an organization's legal liabilities in cases of violence in the workplace.
  • identify practices that could open up an organization to a charge of negligent hiring, retention, training or supervision, leading to a violent incident.
  • identify practices that could open up an organization to a charge of hostile work environment, leading to a violent incident.
  • differentiate between recommended and inappropriate practices, pertaining to a violent incident, that could open up an organization to a charge of violation of grievance procedures and/or wrongful discharge.

    • Course Number: HR0345