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We have several articles that relate to the importance of Screening
Employees.
RECORD CHECKS, SCREENING AMONG WAYS TO REDUCE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE By
Robert Manor, Bonnie Miller Rubin and Thomas A. Corfman, Tribune
Staff Writers. Experts on workplace violence say the kind of rampage that left five dead at a Navistar International plant can't always be prevented, but good employment policies can reduce the chance of tragedy. On Monday,
a 66-year-old former Navistar employee, William Baker, allegedly
forced his way into the company plant in Melrose Park, shot four
people fatally and wounded four more before killing himself. Baker
was to have started a prison term Tuesday for stealing truck engines
and parts from Navistar. In recent years,
workplace homicides have occurred from Atlanta to Honolulu, in offices
as diverse as Xerox and the Connecticut Lottery. But despite the
high-profile nature of these tragedies, acts in which disgruntled
employees exact revenge on bosses or co-workers are still statistically
rare, claiming fewer than 100 victims a year, according to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. Despite the
low numbers, addressing the problem is crucial, say experts, who
fear that the softening of the economy and a more general aggressive
behavior throughout society--whether road, air or desk rage--may
only increase the potential for violence. "There
is a cluster phenomenon to all of this," said Garry Mathiason,
a San Francisco lawyer who has studied workplace violence for more
than 25 years and heads a national task force on the subject. "We
could definitely see more of these events taking place." What can be
done to protect workers from colleagues intent on violence? "You need
to do pre-employment checks of criminal records," said Larry
Porte, a former Secret Service agent now in charge of threat management
at Kerby, Bailey and Associates, a Michigan-based corporate investigations
firm. "The only really good predictor of violence is a previous
history of violence, and that is not 100 percent" effective,
Porte said. Managers need
to be alert to warning signs that employees might exhibit, Porte
said. "Say you
have an employee who is a normal guy, but then he starts changing,"
Porte said. "All of a sudden he is wearing camouflage, and
he starts talking about his gun collection and how he hates everybody."
"When
you see something wrong, address it. Ask him about it," he
said. "You address the threat immediately, you take it seriously,
investigate it and then you try to intervene." Humane treatment
of employees by management also can defuse dangerous situations,
Porte said. "Treat people with respect, especially in termination,"
Porte counseled. "Don't
do it the day before Christmas." Back up humane
treatment with a checklist of procedures for employees who are fired--get
their building access card and company ID, for example, and make
sure they are locked out of the computer system, he said. Dr. Sheldon
Miller, chairman of psychiatry at Northwestern University Medical
School, said some behavior is a clue that a person is prone to violence.
The most important is a past history of violence, he said, but other
behavior can be significant. For example,
an employee who frequently engages in angry shouting and boasts
of killing squirrels with a pellet gun may pose a threat. "That
is a good example of poor impulse control," Miller said. "In
some cases, abuse of animals is the kind of thing that ought to
trigger concern." Schizophrenia,
clinical depression and other psychiatric problems are not an indication
someone will become violent, Miller said. "Schizophrenics are
more likely to be victims, not perpetrators," Miller said.
"Depression is not associated with violence." The first to
notice that someone is threatening violence is often a co-worker.
Ray O'Hara, vice president of Chicago-based Pinkerton Consulting
and Investigations, said companies need to offer a way for employees
to communicate their concerns to management. And although
no one says it is the final answer, the design of a building can
help a company deter workplace violence. Tight security
is more easily maintained in single-tenant buildings than in towers
where there are numerous businesses, each with its own visitors.
For large office buildings, requiring everyone to check in at a
lobby security desk is impractical. New computerized
systems give security officers greater ability to monitor a building,
including the stairways, and can pinpoint where a door is broken
open, said office building architect Erol Altay, a principal with
Chicago-based Kachoris Altay Architects Inc. "We can
talk a lot about `smart buildings,' but a lot of what can be done
as an architect is just common sense," Altay said. Most businesses
rely on an unlikely employee to monitor security. "Receptionists
are frequently the first line of defense, even though few are ever
trained to handle such emergencies," said interior office designer
Robert Wilson, a principal with Lincolnshire-based Otis Koglin Wilson
Architects Inc. "They are usually the first ones to spot trouble."
Many tenants
prefer remote-controlled doors that allow the receptionist to lock
and unlock both the front doors and the doors separating the reception
area from the rest of the offices, Wilson said. In recent years,
firms that have offices on several floors have eliminated separate
reception areas on each floor in favor of a single main entrance.
That change was largely to reduce the cost of separate receptionists,
but it also gave businesses better control over visitors. Other steps
companies can take to prevent violence include psychological testing
of prospective employees. A recent American
Management Association study found that 46 percent of surveyed companies
were doing personality testing in 2000, up from 19 percent in 1997.
Such tools have gained popularity because it is difficult to identify
and eliminate bad hires once they're on board, said Michael McIntyre,
an industrial psychologist at the University of Tennessee. Although there
are dozens of psychological tests on the market, McIntyre--along
with fellow professor Larry James--have devised a test that claims
to do a better job of detecting hotheads. The difference, he said,
is that it measures how applicants unconsciously think, rather than
how they describe themselves. Pat Beasley, who owns ProTemps Staffing in Knoxville, has been using the test for the last 18 months. "We have less people who go off half-cocked," Beasley said. |
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