ASIS International, the organization that vetted and made public the American National Standard on Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention posted a short video on identifying potential gaps in your workplace violence prevention and intervention program. The video outlines 14 essential questions to ask about your plan.
To Avoid Gaps, Prioritize 3 Critical Areas
ASIS’ concerns regarding potential gaps in organizational workplace violence prevention plans fall into three categories.
① Ensure training covers prevention and response
Workplace violence training should cover both prevention and response, giving staff the skills to spot concerning behaviors and to know what to do when they witness them. Additionally, employees must have a basic understanding of how to respond in the event of extreme or life-threatening violence.
② Enable measurement of management support
Consistent endorsement and involvement from leaders builds trust and helps create a psychologically safe space where people bring concerns forward early on. Regular surveys or feedback mechanisms can measure how engaged management is and employees' perception of leadership’s support.
③ Build a safety mindset and encourage reporting
Cultivate a mindset where safety and security are everyone’s responsibility and employees feel comfortable bringing up concerns. Keep reporting processes simple and accessible and follow-through on every report. Remind employees regularly that early reporting is the key to violence prevention.
Make Workplace Violence Prevention Ongoing
ASIS reminds us that effective workplace violence prevention isn’t just about having a written plan; it’s about keeping and nurturing that plan so that it is active and relevant. This means regularly assessing the impact of training, ensuring people understand the reporting process, checking that plan mechanics are functioning as intended, and encouraging continued leadership support for workplace safety and security. To truly be effective, a prevention plan needs consistent follow-through and honest feedback on what’s helping and what needs adjustment.
Ideally, what works best for this type of ongoing approach is a training solution with a built-in continuous feedback mechanism.
Ideally, what works best for this type of ongoing approach is a training solution with a built-in continuous feedback mechanism, such as that offered by Atana.
Atana’s Getting Real About Workplace Violence eLearning solution serves multiple purposes. It educates employees and managers on all aspects of workplace violence awareness, prevention, and response. And its contextual questions provide behavioral insights that organizations can use to determine the effectiveness of learning as well as help identify gaps in their program.
Organizations can actually see the extent to which learners are likely to take the desired actions taught in the course and even drill down to more granular data related to factors that influence those behaviors.
Desired Behavior: Support prevention efforts by sharing any concerns about alarming behavior or conduct
Behavioral Influencers measured...
- Attitudes towards sharing concerns
- Perceived organizational support for sharing a concern
- Expectation of negative consequences from sharing a concern
- Obstacles to sharing a concern
Desired Behavior: Support safety and security by acting immediately to get safe if there is violence at work
Behavioral Influencers measured...
- Perceived ability to act if there is violence
- Obstacles to getting safe if there is violence
- Leadership and peer support for acting right away if there is violence
All this data is easily accessible on clients’ Atana Insights dashboard, enabling them to easily spot where training is working and where gaps may exist.
Given the results from the training, organizational leaders have the information they need to address the pivotal questions proposed by ASIS.
All this data is easily accessible on clients’ Atana Insights dashboard, enabling them to easily spot where training is working and where gaps may exist. Given the results from the training, organizational leaders have the information they need to address the pivotal questions proposed by ASIS.
Linking Training to Prevention Priorities
While Atana customers can view specific results within their organization as described above, broader trends from aggregated data reveal key insights training can have on whether ASIS-identified workplace violence prevention priorities are being met or are falling in the gap.
Showing Positive Impact
Is management supportive of violence prevention efforts?
Insight: 90% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence feel supported by their managers in both prevention and response efforts. This strong support from leadership indicates that managers are trusted partners in maintaining a safe workplace.
Are employees encouraged to report circumstances of concerns?
Insight: After Getting Real About Workplace Violence training, 93% of employees report positive attitudes toward sharing safety concerns, and 88% feel supported by coworkers in these efforts. This combination of personal motivation and coworker support reflects a strong, safety and security-focused culture.
Revealing Prevention Gaps
Does the organization manage and track reports of concerning behavior?
Insight: While 87% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence feel confident their concern would be handled professionally, only 67% feel the process for sharing a concern is easy. This highlights a prevention gap that should be addressed.
Does the organization have protocols for managing emergencies?
Insight: 40% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence reported obstacles to getting safe should there be an act of extreme violence. This data requires investigation into the nature of the obstacles and what can be done to remove them.
Showing Positive Impact
Revealing Prevention Gaps
Is management supportive of violence prevention efforts?
Insight: 90% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence feel supported by their managers in both prevention and response efforts. This strong support from leadership indicates that managers are trusted partners in maintaining a safe workplace.
Are employees encouraged to report circumstances of concerns?
Insight: After Getting Real About Workplace Violence training, 93% of employees report positive attitudes toward sharing safety concerns, and 88% feel supported by coworkers in these efforts. This combination of personal motivation and coworker support reflects a strong, safety and security-focused culture.
Does the organization manage and track reports of concerning behavior?
Insight: While 87% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence feel confident their concern would be handled professionally, only 67% feel the process for sharing a concern is easy. This highlights a prevention gap that should be addressed.
Does the organization have protocols for managing emergencies?
Insight: 40% of employees trained with Getting Real About Workplace Violence reported obstacles to getting safe should there be an act of extreme violence. This data requires investigation into the nature of the obstacles and what can be done to remove them.
Training with built-in measurement and feedback will help your organizations move from merely discussing workplace violence prevention to taking meaningful action. This data-driven approach ensures employee understanding, identifies gaps, and creates safer, more supportive workplaces.
Learn more about Getting Real About Workplace Violence and access eLearning previews on the course page.
See the 14 Questions
ASIS' questions for identifying gaps in Workplace Violence & Prevention programs:
- Does the organization have any violence prevention policies in place?
- Is management supportive of violence prevention efforts?
- Does the organization enforce standards of professionalism and respect?
- Does the workplace care about safety and encourage employees to report circumstances of concern?
- Does the organization periodically perform violence prevention training?
- Are employees aware of the organizations policies or programs related to workplace violence?
- Does the organization have an established practice for managing and tracking reports of concerning behavior?
- Does the organization have processes in place to manage incidents in remote locations?
- Has the organization established trusted relationships with threat assessment professionals and legal counsel who can assist during assessments and incident management?
- Does the organization perform employee background screening and implement security procedures for terminating employment relationships?
- Does the organization have protocols in place for managing workplace emergencies
- Are employees trained to recognize the warning signs of concerning behaviors?
- Are employees trained in methods of de-escalation?
- Does the organization have a documented process for regularly reviewing the program’s efficacy?
About the Authors
James Sporleder | Workplace Violence Prevention Training Expert
James has 30+ years experience in the security industry. With a unique background in specialized captivity survival, he has trained thousands of US military personnel from some of the most elite units in the US Department of Defense. He’s worked in the corporate arena for more than 20 years, focusing on the development and implementation of specialized workplace violence prevention training programs.
Amanda Hagman, Ph.D. | Chief Scientific Officer, Atana
A recognized leader in behavioral analytics and data-informed product innovation, Dr. Hagman drives research and strategic insights that elevate Atana’s behavioral training courses. Her work focuses on practical, data-supported approaches to empower organizations to meet their training goals. This includes developing predictive assessments and course content aligned with measurable behavioral outcomes and using analytics to transform insights into impactful solutions.
