Personal safety is a person’s right to go about their everyday life free from the threat or fear of psychological, emotional, and physical harm from others. The application of personal safety awareness training in the workplace is an increasingly developing area, and we can attribute this to a number of factors. Firstly, employers have a duty of care to protect the health and safety of their employees as far as reasonably possible. This includes conducting risk assessments, recording the findings, and implementing any necessary changes to ensure personal safety in the workplace is taken seriously.
Other factors in the development of personal safety training include increased levels of violence at work (that is, in those that are recorded), the financial and reputational repercussions that organisations who ignore their duty of care risk, and expectations from staff. Organisations may struggle to recruit or retain talent in an environment that does not offer effective personal safety training, and where violence and aggression is seen to go unchecked. The unwanted impact on productivity and profitability that neglecting personal safety awareness training can have is a serious matter, and it can be mitigated using personal safety eLearning courses.