Employee safety

16 July 2020      |      Julie Roth

If there’s an active shooter in your office or the store where you’re shopping, do you know what to do?

Arlin Pedrick wants you to.

Arlin is our Chief Security Officer and says seconds matter in an emergency.

“When things happen, they happen fast,” she says. “During those first moments of reaction we want our people to act with purpose based on their training. The only way to ensure this happens is to create that good muscle memory that happens by applying the lessons learned from training to our daily lives.”

As our Chief Security Officer, Arlin knows what she’s talking about. She leads Global Asset Protection (GAP), our 24/7 corporate security team, which has developed a training video to prepare all of us for the unthinkable. The video is new and can be found in the Essential Learning section on myLearning.

What should we do?

The short video will help you remember the three life-saving actions you can take if workplace violence is occurring:

• Run – If you can, use a safe emergency exit route. Almost three quarters of people who survive an attack, do so because they run.
• Hide – If you cannot run, find a place to hide, barricade yourself inside, and put your phone on silent until it is safe to evacuate.
• Act – If no other options are available and you feel your life is in danger, use any means necessary to defend yourself

Why now?

Statistics show that violent acts in the workplace are incredibly rare. But as we begin to return to the office and other public places, it is important to re-familiarize ourselves with workplace safety.

For many of us, it has been a few months since we wore and swiped our identification badges to get into the office. We might have forgotten how important it is to keep people from tailgating behind us through the door, or to challenge others if they are not wearing their badges.

Just as important: This training also applies outside the workplace — a shopping center, a place of worship, a concert.

Why us?

“Accenture is no more likely to face such a threat than any other organization,” Arlin assures us. “A company’s size, success, or profitability does not impact the threat of workplace violence. Someone who wishes to do harm to others may do so for any reason, at any time or place without notice.

“For this reason, we want our people to be prepared, knowing what to do if anything should ever happen at work, at home, out in public, wherever they happen to be in the world.”

Where do the recommendations come from?

Arlin grew up in Oklahoma. She worked in government, traveling around the world for many years, before going back to graduate school in public health. She then worked in security and intelligence for Walmart and Disney, before joining Accenture to lead GAP.

"GAP’s security professionals are well versed in workplace safety,” says Arlin. “We regularly review training and lessons learned from prior incidents that are shared within the international security community. We compiled expert advice that is universally accepted for workplace violence response and created these powerful, yet easy to remember, steps for our people to follow.”

Questions?

Please go to our Global Watch website for additional security training information. If you need to report urgent life safety concerns, please call the Accenture Security Operations Center (ASOC) at +1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Send any non-urgent questions to ASOC by email.

© Copyright 2020 Accenture, used with permission