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THE BOTTOM
LINE
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Crime
Doesn’t Pay for Organizations
By Liese Hutchison
Not only do companies need to think of employee welfare in terms
of smoking cessation programs, retirement planning and healthy living,
companies also need to think of employees becoming victims of crime.
Reducing crime to employees and customers reduces risks to an organization’s
bottom line.
“Business owners have to take responsibility for employees and customers’
safety,” notes Mary Gentile, president of Safety Training Systems.
“By being concerned about crime, employers show that they care about
their employees and want to see them at work the next day; they
also help to control crime in the long run.”
Companies that have employees or customers who are victims of crime
stand to lose money in several ways, Gentile says. From lost workdays
to fines to lawsuit payouts, companies that don’t take the extra
step to make sure people are safe can pay dearly. “If a company
waits for something to happen, it could put them under,” she notes.
“Training helps to prevent injury, claims against employers and
time away from work as well as costly verdicts against employers
that have ignored these issues. Training also helps to control risk
management and reduce insurance costs.
“Court case after court case show that businesses are held liable
for an employee or customer being victims of a crime on their premises
if those businesses did not show concern for that possibility,”
she says. By offering safety-training seminars, a business can show
it did all it could.
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Violence
in the Workplace
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- The North Carolina-based National Safe Workplace Institute
calculated the average cost to employers of a single episode
of workplace violence can amount to $250,000 in lost work
time and legal expenses.
- Workplace homicide accounts for 17 percent of all workplace
deaths. These numbers don’t include deaths of innocent
bystanders and non-employees, which could number in the
thousands also.
- A Justice Department report released in 1994 said nearly
one million violent crimes occur in the workplace each
year. That amounts to one sixth of all violent crime in
this country. The report goes on to suggest our personal
belongings, our home and even our car are at greater risk
while we are at work. They sited numbers of 2 million
personal thefts and more than 200,00 car thefts that occur
while people are at work each year.
- Attacks by customers or clients are the most prevalent
cause of violence at 44 percent, while 24 percent of attacks
come from strangers and 20 percent come from coworkers.
(Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. 1993 survey.)
- Personality conflicts are cited as the leading cause
of workplace violence (Society of Human Resource Management
1993 survey.)
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Organizations realize that employees who travel alone on company
business, walk through parking garages to get to their cars, leave
the business with money to deposit or work late are all susceptible
to crime. From burglary to rape to murder, employees and customers
can be victims of a variety of crimes. According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, murder is the number one cause of death on the
job.
Gentile points out that too often in American businesses a disgruntled
employee or customer attacks the establishment, such as the day
trader in Atlanta. “I ask my clients if they would know what to
do if an armed assailant entered their businesses and most don’t,”
she says. “The employees also don’t know what to do.” Gentile notes
that by education, training and planning, employees can minimize
their risks to crime.
Simple procedures can save lives. From moving the desk in the office
so the employee isn’t trapped when someone walks in the door to
issuing chemical devices for defense to leaving the office together
to walk to the car—all are easy and inexpensive tools to minimize
becoming a victim.
Examples of organizations that should assist their employees with
crime awareness and safety seminars are health care entities that
send caregivers to homes, hotels, real estate agents, stock brokerage
firms, schools and any retail establishment that is visited by customers.
Gentile says she recently worked with an area homebuilder who had
display homes throughout the region staffed by one lone worker,
meeting and mingling with strangers all day long. By providing simple
tools on how to escape, how to fight or how to cooperate, Gentile
hopes to minimize employees’ risk to crime. “If we are not taught
how to reduce our chances of becoming victims, then we become easy
targets. The honest truth is we don’t take action, because we think
that it couldn’t happen to us or our business and unfortunately
it usually takes a crime to happen before companies wake up,” she
notes. “Knowledge is power and when we empower ourselves, we greatly
reduce the odds of becoming targets.”
Liese L. Hutchison is an assistant professor in the department
of communication at Saint Louis University and a free-lance writer.
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