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HUMAN RESOURCE EXECUTIVEŽ MAGAZINE, MARCH, 2003

Heightened Awareness
Raising employee awareness is an effective way to protect workers without disrupting their workplace routine, says Debra Condren, a business psychologist and president of HumanInvestment.com, a consulting firm that specializes in testing for pre-employment assessment and career and leadership development.

What's more, HR can include the topic of death threats in workshops for other concerns, such as sexual harassment. The issue can be framed in a positive way so employees are educated about the different types of situations they might otherwise minimize or discount as meaningless. Trainers can also offer intervention strategies designed to help employees prevent dangerous encounters.

Other ways to help: HR can distribute stickers - imprinted with in-house security numbers - for employees to place on their phones. Digital cameras can also be purchased for recording evidence. According to Condren, police departments are now documenting injuries or property damage with digital rather than Polaroid cameras because the digital images are clearer and more useful as evidence.

Coaching managers in how to respond will also increase safety and promote a more peaceful working environment. While some managers minimize death threats, others overreact to them, says Tom Petrides, an attorney who heads up the Los Angeles labor and employment practice of the Kirkpatrick & Lockhart law firm.

For instance, he says, employees who are upset over a disciplinary warning or poor performance review may make spontaneous death threats to their supervisor in the heat of the moment.

"These aren't threats that should be ignored, but HR has to put them into context," he says. "You have to evaluate how the threat is being conveyed and the reasonable likelihood that it will be carried out."

One way is to discuss the threat directly with employees to determine its credibility and explain the company's zero tolerance policy regarding death threats. Verify the statement and document the conversation. Quite often, says Petrides, employees lose their temper, don't mean it and are very apologetic. Other times, HR has called employees at home to verify the threat. Not only do they acknowledge it, he says, but they don't back off.

That's when HR needs to notify the police, who are in a better position to assess the threat and identify appropriate steps employers must take, such as filing a temporary restraining order, hiring additional security or changing the building's locks or security access codes.

If a heated argument erupts between workers while on the job, HR needs to immediately send the offending employee home, then determine whether it was an outburst or a real threat. Petrides says he routinely receives calls from employers about employees who have overheard someone make a threat or have received a threatening letter or e-mail. In most situations where corrective action has been taken, he says, no violence has arisen.

When employees receive anonymous death threats, Albrecht suggests trying the team approach. Gather employees from HR, IT, risk management, security, EAP and corporate counsel. More than likely, he says, everyone's collective experiences will produce a solution.

One good initial response is to set up filters for victims' e-mail and voice mail. Forward all messages to HR to be monitored. Then ask questions like, "Are the messages increasing in frequency? Are they becoming more violent? Has the threat extended to other workers?" By doing this, he says, HR can take the appropriate security steps. Equally important, employees aren't repeatedly being victimized and their work performance and productivity can remain stable.

Since the top reason for workplace violence is economic stress, he says, death threats often come from fired employees. Therefore, HR must avoid injuring the worker's dignity during termination or any disciplinary process. No matter how frustrating the circumstance is, avoid making comments like, "It's your own fault," or, "If you did what we asked, you wouldn't be in this mess."

He says many workplace-violence offenders are on power trips and want employees to be afraid to come to work, to do their work and interact with co-workers.

"It's all about fear," says Albrecht. "HR execs aren't used to handling the types of things that make people fearful or cases involving death threats. [Many] admit it's out of their league."