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Violence in the Workplace One issue that is of growing concern to Human Resource Managers is violence in the workplace. Violence is described as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened, or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. Violence can take place in many forms. These include: harassment, bullying, robbery, and any other unwanted, unwelcome, or uncalled for actions. Workplace violence not only comes from customers, clients, supervisors and robbers as well. When thinking about workplace violence many factors need to be considered. Some of these are: - The impact on the person experiencing the violence. - The impact on the person witnessing the violence. - Violence may be external or internal in the organization. - Violence may be aimed at the organization as a whole. Many remedies for violence at work exist. These include safety measures, surveillance, organizational solutions and training staff in how to deal with potentially dangerous situations. Remedies usually cost very large sums of money, but in the long run, they are very helpful. Human Resource managers and employers hold the responsibility to identify workplace health and safety hazards. In order for them to do this, they must identify tasks or circumstances where workers are likely to be exposed to some form of violence. The reviewing of certain things can help a great deal. Things to be reviewed: - Policies and procedures. - Tasks, duties and responsibilities. - Staff attitudes towards the organization and co-workers. - The nature of the contact with customers. Once these hazards are identified, they are to be assessed. An assessment is made of how severe and how likely violence is to occur. To control the occurrences, a plan must be implemented. There is a hierarchy of controls used. They are: 1. Eliminate the risk. 2. Substitute other methods for doing the task.
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