Reporting Verbal Abuse

All employers will know their legal duty of care and they should also understand their need to report all incidents (RIDDOR). Many have made vast strides forward over the past 5years in getting workers to report physical incidents and in developing a method and process for this data to be collated. However, ask an employer 'do you see reporting of verbal abuse?' Most will say that not much is reported and worryingly therefore may conclude that their lone workers don't receive any verbal abuse. Probably a wrong assumption.

Ask a lone worker if they receive verbal abuse and the answer is more often than not, yes. Ask them why they don't report it and the common answers are:

1. 'I know nothing can be done because it's my word against their's..'
2. 'If I report it then I risk opening myself up to counter-accusations from them..'
3. Reporting methods are paper based and I couldn't easily report the way it was said..'
4. My managers don't take verbal racial abuse/sexual abuse/threats of violence seriously

In short, written reporting doesn't provide a sensible mechanism for supporting these incidents. Capturing audio evidence of a verbal abuse case however addresses all of these issues and more. Captured audio evidence via Identicom is credible and admissable evidence in court and can enable an employer to credibly take action on behalf of their workforce...Result, workers who trust their employer to take these issues seriously which in turn leads to greater relations with the workforce.

It is also fair to say that the vast majority of physical attacks are preceeded by verbal abuse. Stands to reason therefore that if you capture verbal abuse early and act on it then you reduce the risk of physical abuse that could occur later.

One final point. The HSE estimate average absence from stress due to frequent abuse at 29days per annum. Just spend a moment to think about the cost of this to the organisation and how it could be reduced/removed if verbal abuse was better captured.