Hiring is a more critical function than ever as companies seek to find and retain the best employees, while avoiding the legal liabilities that can arise from poor hiring decisions. Every year, hiring blunders cost organizations millions of dollars of lost productivity, wasted resources, and unnecessary litigation.

Violence in the workplace is a serious safety and health issue. Its most extreme form, homicide, is the third-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 639 workplace homicides in 2001 in the United States, out of a total of 8,786 fatal work injuries.

Unfortunately, when economic downturns strike, supervisors are often confronted with layoffs, downsizing, terminations, and more incidents of workplace violence. Last year, job-related homicides increased for the first time in six years.

OSHA reports 1,000 workplace homicides per year and when adjusted for estimated incidents not reported to OSHA exceeds 1,500 per year. Assaults in the workplace are estimated by OSHA at 2 million per year with other estimates as high as 10 million per year. Sexual assaults in the workplace are estimated by OSHA at 51,000 per year with other estimates as high as 500,000 per year.

Estimates of the economic impact of workplace violence range from $70 million to $200 million annually. Workplace violence results in 1,175,100 lost work days annually, $55 million in lost wages annually, lost productivity, legal expenses, property damage, diminished public image, and Increased security costs.

The American crime clock ticks off one murder every 23.9 minutes, one assault every .83 seconds, one burglary every 13 seconds, and one sexual assault every 6 seconds. Violence in the American Workplace mirrors the general statistics.

More Americans are murdered at work than die at work from any other cause.

A sound prevention plan is the most important and, in the long run, the least costly portion of any workplace violence program. You should have the programs in place to help prevent workplace violence before it takes place. Every company should determine, with the assistance of its servicing personnel and legal offices, the pre-employment screening techniques which should be utilized, such as interview questions, background and reference checks, and drug testing if it is appropriate for the position under consideration and consistent with Federal laws and regulations.

Thorough Background Checks and Employment Screening will help your employees feel protected from violence. Call us today to discuss what you can do to limit your exposure.