Assessing and defusing workplace threats of violence

For a decade or more, companies and managers have been broadly aware of the issue of workplace violence. Most large companies now have procedures in place to deal with threats of violence. But the need for this sort of preparedness, unfortunately, is not going away. During the past 10 years, "best practices" for responding to workplace threats of violence have emerged. Crisis consultants have become increasingly sophisticated at handling two key aspects of this problem: assessing the likelihood that a person who makes a threat of violence might really act on it; and responding in ways that simultaneously defuse the threat and protect vulnerable people, while companies engage in appropriate job actions or other protective procedures.