A formal aftercare program is just good business too. After something bad happens, aftercare is essential to rebuild trust, re-engage and retain employees and minimize retaliation.
If you are operating a business in California, you have an important deadline coming up. Most organizations, with few exceptions, will be subject to the California Senate Bill (SB) 553. The new Bill requires most California employers to develop and implement a formal Workplace Violence Prevention Plan (WVPP) by July 1, 2024. Employers failing to comply with SB 553 may face fines ranging from $18,000 to $25,000 per incident, potential license revocations and increased exposure to employee litigation.
The new legislation applies to all California employers with at least one employee or a presence in California, with the following few exceptions:
- Employers already following the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s (Cal/OSHA) Violence Prevention in Healthcare standards
- Law enforcement agencies and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- Employees who work remotely and are not under the direct control of the employer
- Employers with 10 or fewer employees in locations not open to the public
- Employers with a workforce entirely outside of California
For many small business owners, this legislation marks the first time they have been expected to provide (and prove) formal processes and policies that address workplace violence. While many small employers do not have the luxury of a dedicated employee relations team to get ahead of the requirements, there are some practical steps any business owner can take to get prepared.
Step One: Get a Plan and a Responsible Person in Place
You will need to have a workplace violence prevention plan (WVPP) as part of your injury and illness prevention plan. General best practices for making this successful include gathering feedback from employees, designating a responsible party to implement and maintain the plan, and, of course, training your employees. Here is some advice for doing all three:
- Gathering feedback from employees: Gathering feedback from actual employees is crucial to ensure your plan addresses real concerns and is effective in practice. Gathering employee feedback can take diverse forms, including anonymous surveys and questionnaires, focus groups, suggestion boxes, dedicated meetings between leaders and employees and confidential incident reports.
- Designating a responsible party: Assigning a dedicated individual or team to oversee the VPP helps create accountability and sets you up for both improvement and follow-through. Their responsibilities will likely include developing the actual plan, setting up a mechanism to review/iterate, responding to incidents with investigations, coordinating training and acting as a point of contact for employees.
- Training and accessibility: Effective employee training with easy access to the policy is essential for success. Best practices include inclusive scheduling at regular intervals (at least annually or when changes are made), using varied training formats, and developing a thoughtful curriculum that includes recognizing signs of potential violence, de-escalation techniques, emergency response procedures and the importance of reporting incidents. Post-training, it is important to gather feedback from participants. Finally, strive to provide additional training for managers and supervisors on how to handle reports of violence and support their teams in maintaining a safe work environment.
Step Two: Tighten Your Recordkeeping and Reporting
As of July 1, 2024, employers must document details of workplace violence incidents. While they must remove personal identifying information, they must include detailed descriptions. Once documented, employers must maintain accurate records of incidents, investigations, and implemented measures for five years; proof of training will need to be kept for one year. In addition to the recordkeeping requirements, employers must report the events to Cal/OSHA when the injury meets the recordability criteria.
General best practices for successfully meeting the recordkeeping and reporting requirements of SB553 center around ensuring consistent processes and accessibility in both how employees report incidents and how your team manages documentation.
First, let us look at employee reporting. While over 90% of organizations say they use a tool for employees to anonymously report issues or concerns, in 2023, 42% of serious workplace issues were unreported. It is clear that employees do not trust that the process is anonymous, and they still fear retaliation. As you consider reporting methods, make sure you take steps to build employee trust into the process. Reiterate anti-retaliation policies during every training, and consider sharing aggregated outcome data that proves your organization consistently takes preventive and corrective action.
Next, let us look at documentation. At a minimum, your team should be using a dedicated system to track issues, case volumes and investigations. To comply with SB553, you will need to easily produce records of workplace violence incidents, investigations, outcomes, training compliance, and corrective actions. Ideally, employers will aim for violence prevention, and data analytics are proving to be a useful tool.
Step Three: Commit to Aftercare – What Happens After Matters
Although the main components of SB533 compliance include a formal WVPP, a violence incidence log and employee training, we must not forget that part of required employee training includes setting expectations around incidence response. What happens after a violent incident matters.
A formal aftercare program is just good business too. After something bad happens, aftercare is essential to rebuild trust, re-engage and retain employees and minimize retaliation. General best practices for an aftercare process include gathering feedback following an investigation and reflecting on where you can continually improve. For example:
- Use a standard set of questions to find out if involved employees felt supported and well-informed at every step.
- Set up a format and a cadence for checking in to make sure resources are being used.
- Identify meaningful metrics to measure success.
- Document actions taken on behalf of and resources provided to the involved employees.
As with any new process, take time to evaluate, iterate, and expand on what is working in your aftercare program as you move forward.
With SB533 upon us next month, it is imperative to know and be well-prepared. Unfortunately, workplace violence in 2024 is a reality. Fortunately, with informed planning, comprehensive training, predictive data and analytics, and intentional aftercare programs organizations are making significant strides in creating and maintaining safer, healthier workplaces.
