Dear Littler,

In the wake of recent events, our company has become more concerned about executive safety. While we don’t have any active threats, we’re looking to be more proactive. Are there any steps we can take to help protect our executive employees who may be more susceptible to public scrutiny?

           — Concerned

Dear Concerned,

You are right to be concerned and proactive. Most executive protection strategies parallel general security and workplace violence prevention and response strategies, including designating a threat management and mitigation team. A threat management and mitigation team is important for assessing risk, identifying resources, and determining the company’s course of action.  

An effective threat management and mitigation team is made of internal and external partners. Your internal team members may include representatives from your internal security, loss prevention, legal, and HR teams. A member of upper management is also often involved to ensure that the team has the necessary authority and access to resources to act.

Your external partners may include outside security consultants, threat assessment professionals, and crisis management attorneys to assist when circumstances arise, including by assessing risk and implementing mitigation strategies tailored to address high-risk threats. External resources can be called upon as appropriate, but knowing who to call in a crisis situation will speed response time. An outside security consultant can provide physical security review, security preparations ahead of travel or off-site meetings, and intelligence and monitoring of threats or threat actors, such as monitoring threat actors’ social media postings, or release status if the threat actor is in jail. Threat assessment professionals are psychologists and psychiatrists who use their expertise to assess the actual risk from threats or situations, and may offer advice on how to deescalate situations by focusing on the threat actor. Attorneys with expertise in workplace violence prevention and crisis response provide advice on legal options available to the company and the legal risks associated with various prevention and response strategies considered by the company. Having a team in place allows the company to move with authority and speed in response to threats.

Situational awareness training can help executives and their immediate staff develop additional skills to aid in their own protection. Advance teams can address physical security ahead of executive travel, including by identifying and liaising with local law enforcement as appropriate regarding specific risk factors.  

Oftentimes, but not always, threats arise from problems within the workplace. Make sure to take seriously the following risk signs exhibited by current or former employees and escalate to HR or security:

• Anger or indignation over company policies or management, especially when concerns are focused on an individual or team.
• Extreme despair or depression over recent work, family, financial, or other personal issues.
• Reference to suicide.
• Obsessive involvement with the job, often with uneven job performance and no apparent outside interests.
• Unusual/unjustified displays of excessive anger that do not dissipate and cause co-workers to be fearful for their physical safety.
• Oral or physical threats of harm, direct or indirect, such as harassing phone calls, physical or electronic stalking or surveillance.
• Overly—and often irrationally—suspicious/fear of supervisors or other managers.
• Expressed belief that the world is secretly conspiring against them.
• Strange/delusional thoughts or confused thinking, including seeing and hearing things/voices that are not present.
• Extreme interest in weapons and their destructive power.
• Fascination with or approval of incidents of workplace violence, and reference to such violence as justified and celebrated as a solution to workplace issues or unpopular policies.
• Preoccupation with violent themes of revenge.
• Unable to receive criticism of job performance.
• Holding a grudge against supervisor and others.

Train management and HR on workplace violence risk factors, as well as safety and security policies. Periodically assess the workplace to make sure physical security policies are being followed and offer trainings. Trainings can include situational awareness, trainings on company-specific security policies similar to what is done with cybersecurity policies, trainings on escalating concerning conduct or threats to HR or security, or active shooter trainings. Instruct management and executives to report concerns about any of these risk factors to HR or security to ensure that the company’s threat management and mitigation team can appropriately deploy resources to identify, assess, and mitigate risks.

With advanced preparation executives – and HR – should feel more secure.