“Security is always excessive until it's not enough.” – Robbie Sinclair: Head of Security, Country Energy, NSW Australia
Do we have enough physical security? How far can a disgruntled employee, highly stressed employee, failed interview candidate, terminated or laid-off employee go in harming your organization?
Such personnel can be a significant risk to any organization because they might have inside access to the organization and can access any part of the organization. Such people actually pose bigger risks than we think. Dealing with them is secondary, the first and foremost challenge is to identify them which is extremely difficult. More often than not, only after the damage is done, an organization gets to know that the personnel was such a huge risk. Some of the common concerns about such people is that they bring discord in the work environment. They can bring about legal issues to the company directly or indirectly.
With easy access to firearm and other types of weapons these days, organizations should ensure proper screening and security at the entrance to screen out potential weapons. Most of the shooting firing incidents in offices, hospitals, places of worships and tragically in educational institutions is because of disgruntled people exploiting the weakness of lack of adequate physical security. Insiders most often know what and where the weaknesses are.
Read following cases how such people can create harm to colleagues, public and the society.
Case 1: Read news article here
Case 2: Read news article here
Case 3: Read news article here
The following article is a good additional read around the sensitive topic of mass shootings. Read it here.
With concern growing about violence in the workplace psychologists state there may be ways to tell the difference between an employee who is merely eccentric or a little too aggressive and the one who could cause serious harm. And both employers and fellow employees may need to take more active role in identifying these people, seeking help before it's too late. During the screening phase itself, look out for the following traits for jobs requiring access to sensitive data, or jobs that are extremely stressful or jobs that require to have access to weapons:
Fragmentary behaviour – trait where people don't take responsibility for their own actions
Actor behaviour – trait where people act out in anger instead of trying to resolve an issue
Undue excitement – trait where people get extremely excited when they talk or get hold of weapons and take pride in showing off to others
Based on your observations and analysis, we need to filter them out immediately without any hesitation or second thoughts.
A proper HR Risk Assessment / Behavioural Threat Assessment should let you know if your organization is at such risks. Have you done yours? If not, you are already late. Please do it right away!
Be proactive, protective and resilient. Reach out to us now.
At Gorisco, our motto is 'Embedding Resilience' and we are committed to make the organizations and their workforce resilient. Reach out to us if you have any queries, clarifications or need any support on your initiatives.
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