Reducing incidents by growing staff risk awareness and response
The Problem: How to keep people safe in high-risk, potentially volatile situations
Mike is the Senior Advisor for Security in a large Government organisation and he has a real passion for his job. Incidents of verbal or physical assault on staff were happening all too often—and were on the increase. But Mike observed that some of the team had become so used to these situations, they just didn’t see the risk anymore.
“They’ve become numb to it. They don’t even acknowledge that the threat is there because that’s just ‘the way we do it’. And that to me was a real problem.”
This worried him, and he knew he had to find a solution to improve their safety and security.
The Solution: Tailored situational safety and de-escalation training with an operational focus
Mike’s mission was to find a situational safety and de-escalation training solution that included mental resilience, safety procedure, and demonstrations of how you would actually do things on the ground.
The training also had to work for the wide range of people in the team, and be absolutely spot-on to win over a ‘tough audience’. He says that the staff have really been bombarded in the past by a lot of situational awareness and de-escalation training, some of which really missed the mark.
After testing the market, Mike found that the OPSEC Solutions had everything that he was after, and more! They also took a flexible approach.
“OPSEC was happy to tailor the presentations to what we specifically wanted. They’re not ‘here’s your one size fits all package’. They’ve been really keen to develop something that fits us, which is fantastic.”
So, in November and December 2021 OPSEC delivered the first rounds of classroom-based training. And it was exactly what Mike had hoped for. OPSEC also provided supporting materials that helped to consolidate training concepts.
“I’ve got OPSEC’s posters up around the walls, and if staff ask me a question about risk or planning, I’ll refer them to one of the posters and go ‘have a look at this’. We’re really starting to incorporate that language into everyday language for the team.”
The Results: Safety incidents are reduced as “Risk Management” becomes “Team Culture”
Mike knew that the success of the training would be measured by how well it was received by the staff.
“The comments were that it was great. They were talking about how it focused on the practical reality of dealing with aggressive, angry people and situations—at the operational level.”
But what’s more satisfying is that he’s seeing:
- reduction in incident rates: “There have been no incidents involving injury to any of the staff since we started this training. Which is really cool.”
- improvements in the team safety culture: “I can see people thinking more clearly about risk, and doing things to actually reduce the risk.”
- a new safety and security ‘language’: “I’m starting to see OPSEC’s training coming into what they’re writing in their safe work plans.”
That meant that OPSEC’s training had really hit the mark. But this isn’t the final destination. At Mike’s request, OPSEC is now developing some enhanced on-site, scenario-based training.
“We’ve given staff an initial taste with this in-classroom session. And then we want to build on that. Show them a demonstration of what this practically looks like in everyday life and in their work environment—but in a controlled and safe way.”
And he’s excited about what that means for keeping his people safe.
“I can see stronger people with better resilience coming from it—I can only see good things coming from it.”
Conclusion: By providing your people with the best training available, you can reduce your incident rates and boost your safety culture.
Contact OPSEC here about customised training for your workplace.
