The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST), in collaboration with Recherche sur les interrelations personnelles, organisationnelles et sociales du travail (or RIPOST, a research group on personal, organizational and social interrelations at work), is launching a web site that offers a practical, proven process for sustainably preventing workplace violence in all types of organizations.

Based on the advancement of knowledge resulting from ten years of research on violence prevention, this site proposes a five-step process:

• Securing a commitment from the workplace;
• Identifying the risk factors;
• Developing an action plan;
• Implementing and monitoring the prevention measures;
• Evaluating the effects.

It provides possible courses of action, suggestions, tips, and downloadable tools for implementing measures or improving those already in place to ensure more effective violence prevention among people within a given organization. The information on the site allows the process to be adapted to any company’s size and activity sector and to the presence or absence of a union.

“Violence in the workplace is a tenacious phenomenon that concerns us all. Its impacts are felt at the level of worker and organizational health and are manifested in loss of productivity, absenteeism, and deterioration in the work atmosphere, among other things. To prevent this violence and achieve a successful, participatory process, employers, workers, and their representatives must pool their prevention efforts. The web site offers answers derived from evidence-based data generated by the latest scientific research,” explains researcher Nathalie Jauvin of the RIPOST group.

Designed for human resources counsellors, preventionists, and union representatives, as well as employees and managers, the web site can be consulted free of charge at http://www.irsst.qc.ca/prevention-violence/en/index.html.