California recently passed SB553 which requires nearly all employers with employees in California to draft and implement a Workplace Violence Policy and have this in place and have employees trained by July 1, 2024. This process must include employee participation in the creation of the policy and will require all employees to participate in the necessary training and written policies. And while we have known about this for months, most companies have not yet put this in motion.
Most companies with employees in California are required to participate in this new law, with some exceptions, and while it is the most strict in California (isn’t it always?), other states are following suit. We recommend all companies put this policy into place ASAP, regardless if it is required in your state.
The law states that not only is a policy required, but the policy and procedures on how to deal with workplace violence involve employees to weigh in and help create the policy; a workplace violence hazard assessment then needs to be conducted. Once these have been completed, trainings need to be implemented and completed as well, as policies are required to be reviewed and signed by each employee.
Here are the steps we would suggest you and your company take to kick this off:
Start with evaluating your employee and support base. Technically, this is specifically for employees who are onsite at a work location. However, given hybrid and travel schedules we suggest this apply to any/all employees to reduce risk to your business. Additionally, coordination is required if you are in a shared workspace as the coordination with the property manager and other employers within the building is required to ensure compliance across the board. And if you have leased employees or temporary employees, coordination with their agency is required as they would need to direct that training and it needs to be aligned with your policies.
Loop in your employees and get their feedback. What do they see as workplace violence hazards? What suggestions do they have to prevent these and other issues? How should current and new employees be trained on these issues and the procedures if/when something were to happen? This feedback can be obtained in person or by sending out a survey so that employees can opt in their feedback.
Work with your HR team or consultant to build out your policy and procedures for both how to prevent workplace violence and steps necessary if/when it happens. This new law requires that the policy clearly outline the following 3 items: 1) identifying and evaluating workplace hazards, 2) responding to an actual or reported workplace violence event, 3) ensuring employee compliance with the plan. These should be clear and leave little room for ambiguity or interpretation. Once these are ironed out we encourage you to distribute to all employees and require signatures for acknowledgement for documentation purposes. These can then be added to the employee handbook for all new hires to review and sign with all other policies upon hire.
Create and implement the required training for all employees. This can be done in person or online through a platform such as EasyLlama who handles your other required training. We suggest reaching out to your current platform to make sure they offer this ASAP.
In the end, this is a critical step in protecting your employees as well as reducing risk for your business. We have created these for other clients and are happy to help if you are overwhelmed- just reach out for a call and we can chat through it!