Strategies To Prevent Workplace Violence Across Businesses

From hospitals to retail stores, more businesses are implementing security measures to protect healthcare workers, store associates, and other frontline staff. And for good reason: workplace violence is on the rise.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, acts of violence led to 57,610 nonfatal injuries between 2021 and 2022, and 740 of the 5,283 workplace fatalities recorded in 2023. Industries like healthcare, social service, education, hospitality, and retail continue to face some of the highest risks.

These incidents jeopardize employee safety and impact team morale, customer trust, and employee retention. Reducing risks starts with preventive measures such as clear policies, staff training, and tools that enhance visibility and enable faster response.

What counts as workplace violence?

Workplace violence goes beyond assault. It includes any threat or act of harm that takes place in a work environment. This ranges from verbal abuse and intimidation to harassment acts of physical harm. These incidents can make employees feel unsafe, disrupt operations, and expose businesses to significant risk.

There are several types of workplace violence to be aware of:

• Criminal intent: Violence from individuals with no connection to your business, often tied to crimes like shoplifting and organized retail crime (ORC).
• Worker violence: Also called employee-on-employee violence, this involves conflict or farm between staff members.
• Customer violence: Aggression from clients or patrons, such as retail shoppers, hospital patients, or hotel guests. 
• Domestic violence: When personal relationships spill into the workplace, often involving partners or relatives of employees.

Preventing these incidents requires awareness and proactive initiatives that protect employees and your business’s reputation. 

Common workplace violence prevention strategies to try

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for workplace violence. The ideal way to reduce risk factors is with a layered approach.

Effective prevention combines strong policies, thorough employee training, intentional environment design, and accessible support systems. Here’s a closer look at each:

Develop and communicate a clear workplace violence policy

Some employees may not fully understand what workplace violence includes. To provide clarity, create a formal policy that defines it, covering physical violence, verbal abuse, stalking, and even sabotage of working materials. 

Your policy should also:

• Outline employees’ expected conduct.
• Emphasize a zero-tolerance stance on violent acts. 
• Explain reporting procedures: who to contact, what forms (if any) to complete, and how to escalate if no action is taken. 

Introduce this policy during onboarding and reinforce it in ongoing training programs to ensure every employee is aware of expectations. A clear policy helps build trust, shows your commitment to safety,  and holds everyone accountable for violence prevention. 

Train employees in conflict de-escalation and threat recognition

Comprehensive training helps employees feel confident—not helpless—when facing potential threats. It also plays a critical role in minimizing the risk of escalation. 

For the best results, training should cover:

• Warning signs of violent behavior: These may include outbursts of anger, sudden interest in weapons, fixations on specific employees, or indirect threats of violence. Train staff to recognize these signs and report them to human resources or security guards before issues escalate.
• How to respond to threats: Emphasize the importance of staying calm in confrontational situations and using de-escalation techniques when possible.
• When to escalate concerns: Train employees to alert security guards, human resources, or law enforcement when they observe serious or repeated warning signs. 

Tailor your training to fit your environment. Retail teams may need to de-escalate tense customer interactions, while remote workers may need support dealing with cyberbullying. Shift-based teams, especially those working at night, may benefit from safety measures like buddy systems. 

Design workspaces to reduce risk and improve visibility

A well-designed workplace can reduce risk by deterring potential threats and making it easier to respond quickly. Start with lighting, ensuring parking lots and isolated areas like warehouses are well-lit to discourage opportunistic attacks.

Use secure entry points to limit access and reduce the chance of someone bringing a weapon into the workplace. And keep sightlines clear so employees can easily observe their surroundings and spot early signs of violence. 

Use technology to monitor and support vulnerable areas

Modern solutions like license plate readers (LPRs), access control systems, and video cameras can also facilitate quick response and deter attacks. 

LPRs, for example, can help security personnel identify the vehicles of known or suspected perpetrators before they gain access to your building, allowing them to take actions like contacting law enforcement before potential attacks occur. 

For optimal protection, install these technologies in high-risk areas. For instance, you could install LPRs in parking lots, and access control systems and cameras at entrances and in isolated areas.

Flock Safety provides reliable, proactive visibility tools that can elevate your workplace’s security. Our LPR cameras help identify vehicles by license plate and qualities like make, color, and decals, while our AI-powered video cameras detect human presence in high-risk areas, allowing for well-informed responses.

Encourage anonymous and easy reporting mechanisms

Employees will only report early signs of violence if they feel safe enough to do so without repercussion. So, implement measures that make them feel supported. One way to do this is by introducing anonymous reporting tools, like hotlines or untraceable digital forms. 

Another way is to develop a judgment-free environment. To do this, encourage employees to openly report violence and warn against intimidating those who speak up. Also, investigate all reports and implement your zero-tolerance policy by taking action against perpetrators. 

Conduct regular drills and incident response training

Regularly simulate different violence scenarios and reinforce how each team member should respond. Be sure to cover all types of workplace violence to promote optimal readiness. 

Try to make your drills relevant to your particular industry so that they’re as valuable and effective as possible. For example, if you’re in the healthcare industry, you could simulate incidents with an aggressive patient, a pharmaceutical thief, an angry spouse, and a frustrated employee, showing staff how to react and when to contact law enforcement. This can help promote patient and staff safety by minimizing the risk of escalation. 

What to do after workplace violence occurs

Unfortunately, no prevention strategy is foolproof. This makes it important to prepare for potential incidents. Proper post-incident response can minimize the risk of violence escalation, minimize your legal liability, and even deter future attacks. 

Here’s what to do in the event of workplace violence:

Secure the area and ensure employee safety

Employee safety should always come first in incidents of workplace violence. Encourage employees to alert first responders to make sure affected individuals receive quick medical attention. 

Then, ask them to secure attack areas by removing involved individuals and locking down access points. Make sure they know not to touch anything that could serve as evidence and instead wait for law enforcement. 

Document the incident with full context

Let employees know to document every detail following an incident, including who was involved, what occurred, when it occurred, and the results of the attack. They also need to collect any visual evidence law enforcement may need, like videos and perpetrators’ license plate information. 

With Flock Safety’s LPRs and video cameras, this becomes simpler. The devices capture vehicle information and can share intelligence with law enforcement in real time, via FlockOS, potentially helping them build their cases. With LPR data, they can show that a perpetrator was at the scene of an attack. 

Offer support and communicate next steps clearly

Workplace violence can be incredibly traumatic for employees. Some may be in shock, others may be confused, and others may experience grief and fear. This makes it crucial to offer mental health support. Acknowledge the traumatic event, offer affected parties some time off, and introduce employee assistance programs (EAPs) and professional counseling sessions.

Also, investigate the situation, let your staff know what happened (to prevent rumors from spreading), and inform them about your company’s workplace violence prevention plan. You could notify them about ongoing threat assessments, prevention policy reviews, and security updates. This kind of transparency can help you rebuild employee trust by showing you care about their well-being. 

Build a safer workplace with proactive visibility

Workplace violence is a serious issue for modern businesses. The good news, however, is that you can lower its risk of occurrence. To do so, create a clear workplace violence policy, offer comprehensive employee training on how to identify and react to violence, run worker safety drills simulating real-life incidents, and install security tools like video cameras in vulnerable areas. 

Flock Safety can help you secure your business by providing top-of-the-line video cameras and LPRs. Our solutions capture valuable information, like vehicle makes and license plate data, in real time. This can help deter potential perpetrators from attacking employees and enable security personnel to identify “high-risk” individuals before they enter your building. 

This information can also help law enforcement build cases against suspected individuals post-incident by showing their presence on your premises. 

Want to reduce the risk of workplace violence? Book a demo to see how Flock Safety can help!