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Hope is Not a Risk Management Strategy
Low-probability, high-impact prevention practices put in place Security survey and mitigation
events are something that most over the last hundred years as a measures, incident management
individuals and organizations result of that one big incident have protocols, crisis response planning,
would rather ignore. After all, resulted in a 90% decline in fire whistleblower programs, and
chances are it won’t happen to you. related deaths. ongoing training.
Serious workplace violence events,
active shooter incidents, and other It’s the low-probability, high- Snapping fingers won’t keep the
unsavory threats are on the rise but impact event that you hope will tigers away.
it’s easier to assume it will happen never happen, that just might Being a good steward of business
to someone else. We don’t want to happen. And when it does you will today requires organizations to
think about our own mortality or likely be asked what you did to truly get out in front of those high
that of our organizations. Instead, mitigate the risk. If the answer is impact risks. Doing the upfront
we hope it won’t happen to us, to “nothing” it’s equally likely that work necessary to identify threats
our employees, to our customers, or you will be faced with defending and put in place strategies to
to our communities. your inaction. minimize the chances of loss
But then there are these facts: Look at workplace violence. is becoming more and more
Everything from harassment important, especially as the damage
• 18% of all crimes committed and intimidation to assault and to people, brands, and profits
occur in the workplace homicide… If you could have done becomes amplified in today’s
a background check but didn’t; connected world.
• Jury awards in workplace if you could have launched an
violence cases typically run in the awareness program and didn’t; Hoping it
millions of dollars if you could have trained your doesn’t
• 70% of active shooter incidents employees, but didn’t; faced with
occur in business or educational a freak occurrence of violence in happen is a
environments your workplace, you’re bound to bad business
have fingers pointing your way.
• Workplace violence is the number Becoming aware of the things we’d strategy. As
one cause of workplace fatalities many have
for women rather ignore.
Fire drill: We’re only as prepared OSHA requires employers to said…, “Hope is
as we are trained and drilled. “provide their employees with a not a strategy!”
workplace free from recognized
In our view, modern day low- hazards likely to cause death or
probability, high-impact risk serious physical harm.” So what
management is akin to yesterday’s are the hazards you should be able
fire risk management. 100 years to recognize? Where do those low-
ago, organizations didn’t place probability, high-impact risks fall?
a great deal of emphasis on fire When it comes to workplace
safety. Then came the Triangle
Shirtwaist disaster in Manhattan. violence, preparedness is the key
It was a watershed event that and it starts with a deep assessment
resulted in unprecedented reform of the threats your organization
of insurance and fire prevention faces, followed by a thorough
workplace violence policy. Other
strategies to focus on the human
toll. Fire sprinklers, fire drills, and components of an effective
the many other now familiar fire workplace violence prevention plan
include:
22 December 2019
