Customer Abuse and Aggression - It’s our sandpit
“The risk is real. Inaction is not an option”
Abusive & Aggression - it’s a real risk
Verbal abuse, threats and or violence in the workplace is a risk that is now well known. It’s definitely a thing.
The headlines are full of the graphic and confronting details. The likelihood of it occurring in many customer facing industries is very real. But what's the root cause and how do you give your staff the skills and resilience to manage these situations - with confidence.
At an extreme end countdown supermarket stabbings. Back along that continuum of violence and aggression there are many documented cases of staff being violent assaulted, spat on, weapons pulled, shoved and verbally abused. All in customer facing roles - all having a significant impact on safety and well being.
How staff respond, de-escalate or safely exit a situation is a direct reflection of the safety and security culture of the company and the training they have received.
Are your staff part of the problem or part of the solution when it does occur – is it a combination of both. Maybe.
This person to person conflict now sits as one of the main risks that executive leadership groups and governance boards are considering when thinking of the Health & Safety of their staff.
There are now some pretty heavy legislative requirements and penalties aimed at governance for non-compliance when stuff goes bad and staff are injured, in a situation that the organisation knew, had a decent likelihood of occurring.
But legislative compliance shouldn’t be the driver in up skilling staff capability and capacity to manage these situations. The driver should be to create an empowered safety & security culture that in turn builds staff resilience. And, more bluntly – give the staff the skills because it’s the right thing to do.
Build the Safety & Security Culture
Culture not training is the solution.
Of course training and most importantly the right training is a big part of creating that culture.
But, make no mistake moment in time training or one off training doesn’t stick and is not a good investment for your training & development budget. Equally training that doesn’t address the “problem statement” and provide clear participant outcomes is redundant.
Deliver the right training, support that with active leadership, run drills, practice, debrief incidents, learn and improve - all with the right context of your operating environment and you are on the way to creating that culture and you are now much more squared away to manage the increasing problem of safely managing the irsk around abusive to aggressive customer situations
QRisk – It’s our sandpit
Our unique experience is our point of difference.
When you want support in this culture building and training space feel free to give us a call and have a chat.
Building staff resilience and keeping people safe in this space with simple strategy and tactics is exactly what we do. It’s the sandpit we play in.
We have blended HR, culture and wellbeing knowledge together with tactical experience to create our respected training, and leadership development programs that keep staff safe in difficult situations.
If you are keen to see how we are making a real difference and keeping people safe at work and beyond and building that resilience, sharpening that customer experience, creating a team response in critical moments that is led by your people – then lets chat.