Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. If your company or organization has ten (10) or more individuals who qualify as employees within the State of California, you are required to comply with SB553 Workplace Violence Prevention. 

ALERT: As of 2020, most workers performing tasks central to an employer’s business are now classified as employees, according to California's Assembly Bill 5. 

A worker is an employee (not a 1099 independent contractor) if the employer cannot prove all of the following:

1. Control: The worker is free from the employer’s control in how they perform their work.
2. Business Purpose: The work is outside the employer’s usual business operations.
3. Independent Trade: The worker operates an independent business (e.g., has other clients, tools, licenses, etc)

You are at risk of paying significant compliance, legal, and punitive financial penalties.

Companies that do not comply may be liable for Cal/OSHA citations, legal responsibilities, and both compliance and punitive financial penalties. 

More importantly, an ineffective plan fails to protect employees, potentially resulting in preventable incidents, injuries, fatalities, decreased morale, increased turnover, and significant legal and financial liability.

NO. 

Workplace violence risks are highly specific to each employer's unique combination of industry, physical location, facility layout, work processes, public interaction, and workforce demographics. 

A generic template cannot adequately address your specific vulnerabilities or prescribe relevant, effective control measures, rendering it potentially ineffective and non-compliant in practice.

California State mandates that companies with 10 or more employees establish a customized workplace prevention program with an implementation deadline of July 1st, 2024, and no grace period for compliance.

GOAL: To protect employees.  It is a workplace safety law designed to reduce violence in the workplace by requiring employers to implement preventive measures.

RISK: Companies and their owners are now liable, regardless of their involvement in a workplace violence incident, if they do not have a program or fail to comply with their designated measures and procedures.

1. A written Workplace Violence Prevention Program reflecting the company's unique risks, escalation processes, and personnel.  

2. An annual training program for employees on the company's unique risks, escalation processes, and personnel.

3. Documented procedures for identifying and assessing workplace violence risks and hazards.  

4. Procedures for addressing identified risks and hazards.  

5. Procedures for risk mitigation, as well as post-incident response and investigation.

6. Procedures and logs for recording employee concerns and details of violent events. 

We provide hospital executives with confidence and peace of mind, so they can focus on their main priority and mission: Delivering High Quality Patient Care.   

Our team of industry experts is comprised of Police Officers, Court Expert Witnesses, Military Police, and Regulatory Compliance Auditors, and Board Advisors. Priding ourselves on delivering the highest quality reports that meet, if not exceed your regulatory standards, by objectively identify, evaluate, and rank the risks and specific workplace violence hazards unique to your hospital(s). 

We provide: 

• An Unbiased Perspective: Identifying risks without internal assumptions or biases.
• Regulatory Understanding: Deep industry knowledge and understanding of regulatory agency's expectations and interpretation H.259's requirements.
• Proven Methodologies: Structured approaches to hazard identification, assessment, and control prioritization honed through experience.
• Cross-Industry Insights: Applying effective prevention strategies learned from various sectors to your unique situation.
• Speed & Efficiency: Conducting the assessment systematically and often more quickly than an untrained internal team.

While an initial risk assessment is not explicitly required, your program must be tailored to the specific hazards of each workplace and integrated into existing safety programs. Our professionals are trained to recognize subtle environmental, operational, and behavioral indicators of potential violence across diverse industries, ensuring a comprehensive assessment that fully comply with your regulatory requirements for thoroughness and goes beyond obvious threats.