A question of safety
SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Workforce — tracks feedback from leading managers and HR practitioners. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter and feature analysis from Lance Haun, vice president of outreach for MeritBuilder, the main guy over at Rehaul.com and a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board, on this blog.
Last week’s poll question: With a rash of workplace shootings recently, do you feel your company’s safety policies effectively protect employees in instances of possible workplace violence?
- No, we need new safety policies. 34%
- Maybe, they could use some work but we do have them. 29%
- Yes, they do the job. 23%
- I’m not sure. 15%
“Only one in five people surveyed think their companies have adequate safety policies in place to avoid workplace violence. I wish I could say that number surprised me. Many companies say ’safety first’ but when it comes down to it, safety policies are often reactive or inadequate.” –Lance Haun
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Tags: Lance Haun, workplace safety
Categories: Poll
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Posted by Trish McFarlane on November 21st, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I agree with Lance, these numbers are not exactly surprising. They are very sad though. It’s unfortunate that whether we are at work, out in public, or even at home, as a rule, people are not as safety conscious as they should be. I wonder if the growing jobless rate has any correlation to the number of workplace violence acts, or violence in general. It would seem that as people lose their jobs, they become more likely to react in negative ways toward former bosses, companies, or even their families. Now is the time for HR departments to start focusing on safety. Before it’s too late.