Drill Store Staff to Respond to Violence

This past week’s Aurora, Colorado movie theatre shooting spree highlights the importance of preparing your store staff and yourself for such incidents. After all, it was during a single one-week period last year that people were shot in an Amsterdam shopping mall, two grocery store employees were slain in Minnesota, and a Dollar General store in North Carolina was the site of a revenge killing.
     Train all hands both in how to promptly evacuate the store and, if evacuation isn’t safe, in how to hide people in a secure area which has telephone contact. And recall that, like all other training, you must practice the skills. Drill staff to respond to violence.
     From my past experience serving as the psychologist on hostage negotiation teams, here are a few more points:

• Train staff to be ready to disobey usual policies if faced with the potential for violence. Some people become highly rigid in their thinking and behavior when under substantial stress. A tunnel-vision adherence to normal routines—such as questioning whether customers and staff should be allowed in a secured office with accessible cash receipts—can worsen the danger. Let staff know it’s okay to leave registers open, cabinets unlocked, their personal belongings ripe for theft, and so on. The policy is that there is a new policy for the duration of the emergency. 
• Set a clear command hierarchy to take account of various likely contingencies. Decisive instructions are essential for avoiding unnecessary confusion. In addition, customers and staff are more likely to follow instructions delivered with decisive authority. If hostage negotiations do ensue, the negotiator will want to know unambiguously who is in charge both inside and outside the area where hostages are being held. As soon as law enforcement arrives on the scene, command is to be handed over to them. 
• Regardless of how the incident is resolved, provide professional post-trauma counseling for staff. Have it available promptly. However, also realize that for some employees—especially those who became highly constrained in their thinking and behavior—the need for counseling may not arise for a few days or weeks. 

     This combination of thorough drills and flexible thinking can save lives. “Business owner talks gunman out of robbing store” was the front page headline in an issue of the Turlock Journal last March. To pull that off, the owner eschewed rigidity. You and your staff can do that, too.

Click below for more: 
Violate Policies If Faced with Violence 
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