Building, evaluating and improving a prevention program: capstone

The previous lessons covered the pieces of workplace violence and harassment prevention: definitions, the law, risk assessment, controls, de-escalation, lone and remote work, domestic violence, reporting and investigation, and support. This final lesson brings them together into a program, a coordinated set of policies, procedures and activities that is planned, carried out, checked and improved over time. It explains how to structure a program, how to evaluate whether it is working, and how to keep it alive. It ends with a capstone exercise that applies the whole course to a realistic workplace.

The elements of a program

Whatever the law in a particular jurisdiction requires, effective programs share the same core elements. Many are legal requirements; the rest are good practice.

Plan, do, check, act

A useful way to manage the program is the plan-do-check-act cycle used in safety management systems such as CSA Z45001 and ISO 45001. In the plan stage, the organization sets objectives, assesses risks and decides on controls. In the do stage, it puts controls, training and procedures in place. In the check stage, it measures performance, investigates incidents and audits the program. In the act stage, it reviews the results and makes improvements, which feed into the next cycle. The cycle never ends: risks change, people come and go, and new laws and evidence emerge.

ISO 45003, published in 2021, gives guidance on managing psychological health and safety at work, including violence, harassment and bullying, as psychosocial risks within a safety management system. In Canada, CSA Z1003 (the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace) provides a framework for the same purpose. These standards are voluntary but help organizations integrate violence and harassment prevention with their wider approach to health and safety.

Measuring performance

Evaluation answers two questions: Are we doing what we said we would do? And is it making a difference? A balanced set of indicators covers both.

Interpret outcome indicators carefully. A rise in reported incidents after a program is launched often reflects better reporting rather than more violence. Look at severity as well as frequency: if reports of verbal abuse rise while injuries requiring medical treatment fall, the program may be working well. Compare like with like, use rates rather than counts, and look at trends over several years rather than year-to-year changes in small numbers.

Audits and management review

In addition to tracking indicators, organizations should periodically audit their program against legal requirements and their own policy. An audit checks whether the policy is current and posted, whether risk assessments are complete and up to date, whether training records are complete, whether incident reports were investigated on time, whether corrective actions were completed, whether alarm tests were done and whether workers know how to report. Audits can be internal, carried out by the joint committee, or external.

At least once a year, senior management should review the program as a whole: the results of indicators and audits, investigation findings, changes in law, feedback from workers and the committee, and the resources needed for the coming year. The review should produce concrete decisions, such as funding for new controls, changes to staffing, updated training or revised procedures, with owners and deadlines. Sharing a summary of the results and decisions with workers shows that the program is real and builds trust.

Keeping the program alive

Programs fail when they exist only on paper. Signs of a paper program include a policy that has not been reviewed in years, training that was delivered once at launch, alarms that are never tested, incident reports that disappear without feedback and a joint committee that never discusses violence or harassment. To keep a program alive, build it into everyday operations: discuss incidents and near misses at team meetings and shift huddles, include violence and harassment in workplace inspections, integrate client risk information into care planning and scheduling, recognize staff who report and help colleagues, hold leaders accountable for results, and refresh training with new scenarios.

Capstone exercise

The capstone brings together the whole course. Read the scenario and work through the tasks. A model answer follows.

Scenario: A municipal recreation centre in Ontario employs 45 workers, including front desk staff, lifeguards, fitness instructors, maintenance staff and a small management team. It is open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. In the past year, front desk staff were shouted at and threatened several times by patrons angry about fees and memberships; one staff member was pushed. Two young female lifeguards complained informally about a male supervisor who comments on their bodies and messages them late at night, but nothing was done. A maintenance worker who closes the building alone at night has found people sleeping in the stairwell. A fitness instructor recently disclosed that her former partner has been sending threatening messages and once came to a class. The centre's violence and harassment policy was written six years ago and has not been reviewed.

• Task 1: Identify the types of violence and forms of harassment present.
• Task 2: Identify the main legal duties that apply.
• Task 3: Score the main risks and set priorities.
• Task 4: Propose controls for each priority risk.
• Task 5: Explain how the lifeguards' complaint should be handled.
• Task 6: Outline how to support the fitness instructor.
• Task 7: Propose indicators to evaluate the program after one year.

Course wrap-up

Workplace violence and harassment are preventable. Prevention depends on clear definitions, an understanding of the law, honest assessment of risk, controls that change the work and the workplace, skills to recognize and defuse aggression, systems for lone and remote work, attention to domestic violence, fair and prompt responses when things go wrong, and real support for the people affected. Above all, it depends on leadership and on a culture in which people treat each other with respect, speak up when something is wrong and trust that the organization will act. Every worker, supervisor and manager has a part to play.