SHRM26 Debrief · Health & Wellness · #2179

Behavior Informed Workplace Safety

with Nicholas Berberian

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~102 min, distilled

workplace violence preventionbehavioral threat assessmentpathway to targeted violence

"I'd rather receive 100 reports of potential concerns and have no threats that actually happen than have no reports of threats and have one happen."

What it was about

Acts of targeted violence are not random — they follow a predictable pathway (grievance, ideation, research/planning, breach, attack) with observable behavioral indicators along the way, and HR sits at the front line with repeated opportunities to intervene before it reaches violence.

By the numbers

99%

of documented targeted violence cases studied included all five stages of the pathway to violence (grievance, ideation, planning, breach, attack)

90-plus percent

of acts of targeted violence involve some form of leakage of intent beforehand (social media, friends, family)

22% down to 2%

example administrative/operational cost reduction cited as a metric to justify workplace-culture investment to stakeholders

Key notes

Build a multidisciplinary threat assessment team that includes HR, security, legal, and mental health input rather than letting any single function handle threats alone.
Create and communicate a clear, confidential (or anonymous) reporting process so employees know how and where to report concerning behavior without fear of retaliation.
Use structured professional judgment tools (SPJs) consistently across all cases — inconsistent application of assessment tools creates legal liability for the organization.

The contrarian takeFit-for-duty evaluations, often treated as a standard HR response to erratic or concerning employee behavior, frequently cause more harm than good by making a genuinely struggling employee feel targeted and pushed toward job loss, rather than resolving the underlying risk.

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Publish a clear, confidential channel for employees to report concerning behavior, and tell them over-reporting is welcomed, not punished.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

Targeted violence follows a predictable pathway with warning signs — HR's job is catching it at grievance or ideation, long before it reaches attack.

Watch out for

Treating fit-for-duty evaluations as a default response to mental-health-linked behavior concerns, which can escalate the situation by making the employee feel like the problem.
Responding to a threat report with immediate action (calling 911, deploying security) before verifying the facts, which can create embarrassment and unnecessary panic if the report is inaccurate.
Applying threat assessment tools or protocols inconsistently across cases, which undermines legal defensibility.

Fun fact · Nicholas Berberian

A Marine Corps veteran turned Stanford Health Care security director, he now protects Fortune 500 companies and heads Northern California's threat assessment professionals chapter.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperThe Recovery Friendly Workplace: A People-First Approach to Workforce Well-Being & Inclusive CultureExtends the same early-warning model to substance use: peer support before crisis hits.⇄ The counterpointManaging Stress & Increasing Recovery to Maintain Peak PerformancePuts the burden on individual stress awareness instead of an organizational threat team.✦ The unexpected oneEmotional Intelligence Is a System Skill That Makes Work WorkSame instinct, different crisis: fix the system's signals, not just the individual.