WORKPLACE VIOLENCE is always costly, but it isn’t always physically harmful toward a person. Bad PR is costly to business and is sometimes costly to an entire industry or community; i.e. a peeved employee making accusations toward a boss or co-worker, or a customers threatening the employees or others associated with a company. Such threats, while they can happen personally, can also happen on social media. Let’s not forget the ‘Dark Web’. And then there’s physical violence.

According to the National Safety Council and OSHA, there are nearly 2 million incidents of workplace violence in the U.S. annually. It’s estimated that as much as 25% of violence is never reported. And, violence needn’t involve what many consider traditional weapons.

The degree and number of times reported violence occurs in manufacturing and small businesses is an extremely minor statistic (2-3% of 2 million) doesn’t mean it doesn’t or won’t occur in the manufacturing and small business setting. In fact, the following scenario is not an uncommon one. Can you relate? Perhaps you’ve experienced something else either as an employee or as a company officer, owner, or head of HR.

If you’re lucky, or perhaps you haven’t been in business long enough for a situation similar to the one described to happen to you yet, you’re fortunate. But it’s not an unlikely scenario. And, unfortunately while there is never a guarantee that it or something worse couldn’t still occur regardless of all the precautions you take, there is one very simple way to reduce your risk—at a fraction of the cost you might otherwise face.

In early adulthood, Kim acquired a Law Enforcement Degree. While she never went into police work, several years after using a Business Degree to provide market development, new product introduction and training sales staff and customers in the application of medical device manufacturing, she launched into her own company assisting individuals through employment maneuvers by incorporating non-standard techniques to individuals based on business and marketing principles. Later she acquired a graduate degree in Psychological Counseling and therapy, and returned to some of her original interests in law enforcement by working with inmates within Minnesota’s correctional system—developing career strategies for people starting their lives over after paying for mistakes of the past. In addition, she ran the Career Center for Roseville’s Adult Basic Education program and later taught college business courses  as an Adjunct Professor for Crown College.