Workplace Violence Is Leading Companies To Adopt Stricter Security Measures

Employers are becoming more vigilant about workplace security, implementing intensive screenings for job candidates and electronic badge systems for employees.

• By Haley Samsel
• Jul 02, 2019

As fears of workplace violence rise in the wake of a June mass shooting at a municipal center in Virginia Beach, companies across the country are adopting more measures to make sure employees feel safe in the office.

While mass shootings in the workplace are relatively rare — there have been 11 in the United States since 2006 — workplace homicides do claim hundreds of lives each year. In 2015, 417 Americans were killed while at work, according to statistics compiled by the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime.

These numbers have pushed companies to take action, according to experts interviewed by The North Jersey Record. More office buildings are equipped with systems meant to track who is entering the office and when, using technology like video surveillance and electronic badges to keep tabs on visitors and employees alike.

“It was only in the past two or three years when we’ve seen a much bigger spate of events at office workplaces as well as factory floors has there been a turn in attention to [security],” John Dony, the director of the Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council, told the Record.

Experts agree that the most effective ways of preventing workplace violence might be the most obvious ones: watching out for symptoms of disgruntled employees and thoroughly screening job candidates for signs that they will not fit in with the company culture.

Aggressive or abnormal behavior on social media and issues at previous jobs can usually indicate if the person will have issues at their new job.

“Employers need to take time to make sure the individual they hire is a good fit in all ways,” Robert McCrie, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told the Record.