FREE CA WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION CHECKLIST
FREE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION VIDEO WORKSHOP
CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS CHECKLIST

Helping employers implement an effective workplace violence prevention program that is customized to your unique needs, keeps employees safer, and complies with CA's new workplace violence prevention law's requirements. 

California employers must have an effective workplace violence prevention program in operation by July 1, 2024. These free resources can help. Click on the buttons above or below to get started today. 

  • CA workplace violence prevention checklist. 
  • On-demand workplace violence prevention workshop video.
  • Conducting effective internal investigations checklist. 
  • And scroll down the page for helpful weekly blog posts and videos on workplace violence prevention.

There's a lot to get done in a short amount of time. Want some help creating, implementing, and maintaining an effective workplace violence prevention program? Click on the email button below and we can discuss your prevention needs.

Download Free California Workplace Violence Prevention Checklist
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Want Some Help? Click Here to Email and We'll Discuss Your Needs

California's new workplace violence prevention law is groundbreaking in its scope and coverage. Are you ready?

Here's what the state requires from most employers:  

  • To establish, implement, and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan and program. 
  • To provide effective training to employees on workplace violence prevention.
  • Assess risks to your employees from the 4 different types of workplace violence.
  • To implement an effective workplace violence complaint and investigation process.
  • To train employees in strategies to avoid physical harm from workplace violence.
  • To implement processes to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies.
  • Workplace violence hazard identification, evaluation, and corrections.
  • And more...

That's a lot to get done in a short amount of time. I can help. 

Whether it's reviewing your current violence prevention plan, helping your create a plan, conducting safety hazard assessments, providing training in strategies to avoid physical harm and in incident response, implementing violence prevention processes, training in conducting internal investigations, and maintaining an effective plan.

Click Here to Send an Email to Discuss Your WPV Prevention Needs

Blog Posts & Videos

Weekly helpful workplace violence prevention tips, techniques, and information.

Workplace Violence Prevention Plans are Different. Here's Why.

May 13, 2024

My commitment to preventing workplace violence, stems from 30 years of conducting investigations of real life violent incidents. I learned through my experiences how to prevent workplace violence.

Effective workplace violence prevention training requires a comprehensive and integrated approach.

That's why the offices of a United States Senator, court administrators and personnel, judges, small business owners, educators, reporters, law firms, a large city's community safety department, nonprofit organizations, and others have turned to Mike Corwin to provide workplace violence prevention consulting and training.

In 1988, I moved across the country to Los Angeles, CA. Before then, I had spent several years building and remodeling homes and commercial buildings.

After moving. I left the building business and began working as a litigation investigator. Developing facts for civil plaintiff and criminal defense attorneys.

30 YEARS OF LEARNING ABOUT VIOLENCE, ITS CAUSES AND PREVENTION 

In conducting these investigations, I regularly got a close up view of man's inhumanity to man. Literally, the worst that people can do to each other. And that wasn't just the criminal cases.

I helped build many civil cases against organizations when employees, customers, patients, and clients were injured by violence at their location including homicides, assaults, sexual assaults, and other significant acts of violence.

My investigations uncovered what employers did wrong that led to the violence. And taught me how employers can prevent workplace violence. 

I examined hiring practices and found people hired despite abusive and violent behavior.

I also assessed safety hazards caused by the interior and exterior physical layout, lighting, obstructions, ingress, egress, and parking areas. 

In the 30 plus years that I conducted investigations for attorneys, I had the opportunity to help thousands of people going through difficult situations, and worked along side of some top attorneys.

Helping people is simply a part of who I am. 

TO BE EFFECTIVE I HAD TO KEEP SAFE FROM VIOLENCE WHILE WORKING IN DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENTS

A significant part of my work involved conducting witness interviews (I've done approximately 12,000 of them). And often that meant showing up at a total stranger's door, which I did 1000s of times over the years, and then convincing them to speak with me about something difficult, and often tragic, that this person witnessed.

I worked in some of the roughest areas in Los Angeles, and later in New Mexico. and that meant learning how to keep myself safe so that I could develop the information I needed in order to be able to help people.

Implementing situational awareness saved me when a homeless man confronted me with a shank. 

Because I saw the shank reflect light, I knew BEFORE the threat was upon me, that I had to act quickly in order to be safe.

I learned to de-escalate tense situations while serving court papers like restraining orders, witness subpoenas, and even lawsuits.

In 1996, I moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and opened an investigation practice there. 

I continued to focus on civil plaintiff investigations including many involving premises liability, and workplace violence.

INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS FOR EMPLOYERS

I spent several years conducting contract internal 3rd party fact-finding investigations for the City of Albuquerque regarding abusive behavior including workplace violence.

And several years conducting internal fact-finding investigations regarding allegations of misconduct by judges for the New Mexico Judicial Standards Commission. 

As a result of my investigation knowledge I was often asked by attorneys to evaluate investigations conducted by employers to assess whether those investigations were conducted adequately and sufficiently to address the alleged conduct in question.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS LOOKING FOR A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE AND ABUSIVE BEHAVIOR

I also did the pre-employment background checks for a smaller town to help ensure that those hired would not become a threat to co-workers, and the town's citizens.

Teaching How to Conduct Effective Internal Investigations

Soon after moving to Albuquerque in the mid-1990s, I began conducting investigation trainings for attorneys, legal assistants, paralegals. 

I was approved by the New Mexico Supreme Court as an instructor in investigations for attorneys, paralegals, and legal assistants. 

And by the New Mexico Regulations and Licensing Board as an instructor for licensed investigators.

I regularly served as a guest instructor at UNM Law School's Clinical Law Program, it's Innocence and Justice Project, and it's Clemency and Pardon Project as well as civil and criminal law classes. 

In addition, because of  my investigation expertise, I've been featured on Dateline NBC, Politico Magazine, and Professional Investigator Magazine.

Training Employees in Strategies to Avoid Physical Harm from Workplace Violence

In addition to the violence prevention skills I learned while working as an investigator, I also trained in and taught a variety of martial arts, having achieved the rank of 3rd degree blackbelt in multiple disciplines.

After all, there are times when you have no choice but to defend yourself in order to avoid physical harm from violence.

BUT, in working with my students, I realized SELF-DEFENSE and MARTIAL ARTS were NOT one and the same. 

One day, I came across an old training manual that the Allied forces used during WWII to train the women and men sent behind enemy lines to work with the local resistance. In there, I found exactly the type of self-defense I was looking for. 

It was quick to learn, and easy to apply by pretty much anyone regardless of size or strength.

After ensuring the effectiveness of this self-defense approach by training my own students in it, I added this self-defense training to my workplace violence prevention training to give employees the skills to avoid physical harm if they were physically attacked on the job

By combining everything that I learned and taught through investigation work, with my knowledge of the physical environment to identify and remediate safety hazards, and combined them with training in communication approaches, situational awareness, de-escalation, and self-defense skills, I've provided effective workplace violence prevention consulting and training services to employers for over 10 years.  

Michael Corwin, HelpYou Be Safe, LLC

38180 Del Webb Blvd. #245, Palm Desert, CA 92211

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