The recent news that California passed a groundbreaking new mandatory workplace violence prevention law comes as welcome news to corporate security professionals. SB-553, the new legislation signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, requires organizations that operate in the state to take significant new steps to prepare for, prevent, monitor, and mitigate workplace violence incidents.
Understanding the implications of the new law — including the key elements of a now-mandatory workplace violence prevention plan — is critical for organizations looking to not only ensure compliance, but also protect their people and their workplaces from the corrosive and sometimes catastrophic impacts of workplace violence.
What are the key provisions in SB-553?
The headline is the requirement that California organizations adopt a formal written workplace violence prevention plan. It also mandates that organizations keep a record of threats or workplace violence incidents and provide training and education to employees on the dangers of workplace violence and what they can do to protect themselves and their fellow team members. The record-keeping aspect of the legislation specifies that employers must keep an anonymized log of any violence or threats (as well as any steps the employer took in response) beginning on July 1, 2024. Those records must be retained for at least five years and be made available when requested to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) upon request.
While the law applies to nearly all California businesses, there are some select exceptions, including employers already covered by the state’s healthcare workplace violence prevention statute, voluntary work-from-home employees, and places of employment with fewer than 10 on-site employees that are inaccessible to the public.
This level of rigor and record-keeping is consistent with what Pinkerton has long recommended to clients and partners looking to address workplace violence concerns. But this new law represents a big step forward from a regulatory standpoint: constituting a novel regulatory requirement that was previously only covered under the broader umbrella of the general duty of care that all organizations must create a safe work environment for their employees (for example, basic fire safety/prevention measures). While the outline of the requirements is articulated in the new law, the details and enforcement specifics remain to be seen.
Challenges to meeting the new requirements
Inevitably, many California organizations are going to try to fulfill their new workplace violence obligations with a perfunctory plan or minimal exercise in regulatory box-checking.
A common mistake is to perceive workplace violence as primarily or exclusively made up of the kind of high-profile headline events like workplace shootings or mob-style retail crimes. While those incidents can drive narratives and even influence policy, it’s important to recognize that they still make up a very small percentage of workplace violence incidents. Far more common are incidents like workplace scuffles, stalking or intimidating colleagues, or conflicts with clients or customers.
With that in mind, any effective workplace violence prevention plan needs to be comprehensive in scope, addressing both the everyday dangers and black swan catastrophes that can and do happen in the workplace.
What a California workplace violence prevention plan must include
The single most important piece of keeping workers and workplaces safe is drafting and implementing an effective workplace violence prevention plan. Under the new California law, an organization’s workplace violence prevention plan must include:
- Documentation about the employee responsible for managing the program
- Clear policies and procedures for employees to report and for employers to receive and respond to reports of workplace violence (including how concerns will be investigated)
- Provisions stipulating that employees who report concerns or incidents can do so without retaliation or reprisal
- Channels of communication to alert employees in a timely and precise manner in the event of a workplace violence emergency
- Plans for evacuation or shelter-in-place procedures
- Procedures for soliciting employee feedback and input and evaluating the efficacy of the plan on an ongoing basis.
From the perspective of security professionals with extensive experience in preventing, managing, and mitigating workplace violence, this is a welcome degree of detail that largely reflects industry best practices for workplace violence prevention.
At a high level, the best plans outline clear and specific policies — and includes ways to communicate those measures to employees. All effective plans should include the following:
- Mechanisms to handle threat assessment — and protocols and procedures to implement a calibrated response if a threat is determined to be a concern.
- Detailed record-keeping of all potential concerns and provisions for ongoing monitoring for persistent threats.
- Ways to promote employee awareness with clear and consistent communication, training, and resources.
- Information about the value of a strong and positive workplace culture and specific steps to help build that culture.
- Measures to ensure physical security.
- Procedures for what to do in the aftermath of a workplace violence incident, including things like media response, counseling for employees, and business continuity planning.
- Training materials and resources, including the organization’s policies and planned or regular training sessions with security professionals. Training should also include recognizing warning signs, avoiding hostile or confrontational scenarios, and de-escalation techniques and ways to mitigate potentially volatile situations.
- An ongoing plan for assessment of new and evolving threats and the need to evolve and update the existing plan as needed.
Benefits of working with a corporate security expert
Addressing the essential priorities covered in any effective workplace violence prevention plan becomes dramatically easier to do with the counsel of a trusted security partner. A proven corporate security expert can work with decision-makers to ensure that their plan features the policies and procedures required to document, report, investigate, assess, and respond. In a space where bad information or poorly planning and training can do more harm than good, professional guidance is essential.
For California organizations, those priorities have a new regulatory urgency. Consultation with a security partner can help evaluate your threat environment, identify any gaps in existing plans and draft a newly compliant plan, and ensure that you can demonstrate you have taken the legally required steps to fulfill your obligation to the State of California and to your employees.
In a changing threat landscape where virtual and online channels and political and ideologically motivated violence pose new threats, regulatory changes might seem like small potatoes. But the California law likely heralds a wider national shift in legislative mandates, with comprehensive workplace violence prevention increasingly seen as something no employer can take for granted. Experts like Pinkerton can help organizations not only comply with new laws, but also prepare for any eventuality.
