Every business wants to prevent violence in the workplace. However, whistleblowers are critical to helping recognize and prevent issues before anything escalates.

Violence is a real danger in the workplace. It also makes whistleblowers afraid to speak up. The good news is businesses have the power to make whistleblowers feel safe reporting issues.

Notice Disagreements

While HR or management might not notice growing disagreements between employees, co-workers will. Perhaps someone overhears a threat or a co-worker confides that they’re afraid something is going to happen. Train your employees to report these observations anonymously to your whistleblower hotline.

Naturally, these could have just been idle threats with no potential for violence, but if you’re aware of an issue, it’s easier to monitor the situation. If you notice any changes, you can act quickly, helping to prevent violence in the workplace.

Report Threats Anonymously

Often, employees don’t report violent threats to HR for fear that the person threatening them might act even faster. With an anonymous report, the employee feels much safer. Plus, you’re able to investigate the threat by speaking with a variety of employees to establish a history of problems.

Report Small Acts Of Violence

While the goal is to prevent violence in the workplace, small acts are often overlooked. For example, an angry co-worker might break a coffee mug or punch a wall. Train employees to recognize even these small acts and report them immediately using your whistleblower hotline.

Small acts of violence often lead to much more dangerous acts. This gives HR a chance to monitor the situation and speak with the employee in question to figure out what’s wrong and whether they’re safe to keep in the position.

Report Ethical Issues

Violence in the workplace doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. Typically, there is some sort of trigger. For instance, an employee who was fired due to age discrimination might become violent. This is where a whistleblower hotline helps.

Thoroughly train employees on your code of ethics. Explain what is and isn’t acceptable. Then, train them on how to use your hotline to report ethical issues. If employees are being forced to compromise ethics, such as using sub-par construction supplies, or someone’s being harassed, and HR is ignoring the complaint, other employees can report it.

Instead of reports going to HR, they’re often anonymous and sent to a more diverse team with less chance of bias in the matter. This helps employees get a safer, more fair investigation. This is especially true if HR is possibly the unethical party or may be biased.

By addressing and resolving ethics issues, you reduce employee stress and make the workplace safer for them. As a result, employees who might have been treated badly by others or felt constant stress due to unethical situations aren’t triggered. Just make sure to implement a zero tolerance policy for retaliation when issues are reported.

Simply giving employees a safe and effective way to report ethical issues helps to prevent violence in the workplace.