Our training is designed to help prepare people in a broad range of industries and roles to deal more effectively with stressful and potentially violent encounters in their workplace or out on the street.
Here are a few industries and roles that can benefit from our training:
- Airline Staff, Flight Attendants, Ticket Agents, Pilots
As airlines continue to cut costs and passenger amenities while booking full flights and often overbooking them, flight attendants and ticket agents end up on the receiving end of passenger complaints and anger.
More passengers are crossing the line between expressing their concerns or disgust with situations they find themselves in and actually physically assaulting airline staff. It seems every other day there is story in the news about an unruly passenger being kicked off a flight and charged with assault, or in most cases the generic “interfering with a flight crew”.
- Bank Employees
With the economic crisis hitting more and more Americans every day, banks are one of many service providers that have experienced an uptick in aggressive customers and violent behavior.
- Customer Service Representatives
Even though many Customer Service Reps perform the bulk of their responsibilities over the phone, they are not immune to experiencing aggressive, verbally violent, or belligerent treatment from people over the phone.
- Executive Protection Professionals
HAWK System training is ideal for Executive Protection Professionals. Having security personnel who can subtly and skillfully handle any type of encounter from disruptive guests to weapon threats is an asset for which companies are willing to pay top dollar.
Our training can help ensure your professionals stay professional and are able to deal with a wide range of stressful and potentially violent situations in the most effective manner.
- Healthcare, Medical, Psychiatric & Hospital Staff
Much like other high risk industries, the medical community is seeing an uptick in the instances of violence and aggressive behavior related to the economy. Not only are people struggling with their health or that of loved ones, but they also have the added stress of making ends meet financially. OSHA has even published “Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care & Social Service Workers”.
- Human Resources Professionals
HR Professionals have a crucial role as it pertains to dealing with violence in the workplace since they are often brought into tenuous situations with colleagues. They are commonly tasked with resolving conflicts which they did not create.
- Law Enforcement & Tactical Teams
Law Enforcement officials routinely find themselves in stressful situations as well as violent ones. With the current economic condition and related cutbacks, police forces are finding themselves managing more responsibilities with fewer officers and support staff, which can only increase their level of stress and risk of violence.
HAWK training provides tools officers can use to manage their own stress as well as tools to help them diffuse potentially violent situations. We have trained scores of police officers and SWAT team members with the HAWK System.
- Media Reporters
Reporters are finding that violence doesn’t only happen where there are riots, wars, or protests, it can happen anywhere.
One minute they could be interviewing a grieving relative of a murder victim, and the next getting attacked by an angry mob of family members or friends who feel disrespected by the reporter’s presence in their time of grief. Verbal De-Escalation skills can go a long way to help defuse such situations.
- Mortgage Lenders
With the mortgage crisis and overall economic situation worsening, financial officers in this industry are facing customers who are more desperate than ever, whether they are a client who cannot pay his bills, one who has been foreclosed upon, or one whose situation has left him tense, impatient, and volatile.
- Retail Employees
With the economic crisis hitting more and more Americans every day, retail businesses are one of many industries that have experienced an uptick in aggressive customers and violent behavior.
Add to this the advent of Flash Mobs or Flash Robs and looting when there is a perceived weakened ability to stop such activity and a high likelihood of getting away with it.
- Roles Dealing with the Public
Any role that deals with the general public is likely to encounter situations with aggressive and potentially violent people. This likelihood is increased when the role requires going to people’s houses to conduct business.
- Sanitation Workers
With the economic crisis hitting more and more Americans every day, sanitation workers are encountering more agitated and angry homeowners, and tenants who are quick to transfer their grievances on people they encounter. Many times, sanitation workers receive the brunt of this aggression.
- Social Workers
As part of their job many social workers are required to visit homes to supervise and monitor court ordered visits and to investigate complaints involving child protection issues.
In some cases where the family member(s) have a history of violence police will escort the social worker, but with tightening budgets this is going to be less of an option. The next option is to have another person as escort, but this does not prevent the potential for violent encounters.
What happens when family members encounter the Social Worker off-the job and not escorted? Being trained in Verbal De-Escalation would certainly help Social Workers prevent violence directed towards them due to their job.
- Teachers
With more of the parenting responsibilities being abdicated by parents to teachers these days, coupled with the increasing boldness on behalf of students, teachers are faced with a challenging position to maintain order while not crossing the blurry line between appropriate and excessive use of force. Some cases in the news reflect the two sides of this seesaw, with one teacher resorting to hitting a student and another sitting by while one student beats up another.
While we cannot address the social causes behind this unsustainable situation, we can help better equip teachers to handle situations that, depending on their reactions, could negatively impact their life or career.
- Transit & School Bus Drivers
Bus drivers face a wide array of challenges in dealing with unruly passengers, whether they be adults, small children, or teens. Our training can help drivers lower their own stress as it relates to their job, as well as provide them tools to diffuse potentially violent situations before they get out of hand.
We have provided training to large numbers of bus drivers, and one interesting side effect of our training has been that staff meetings with their management team have been much more civilized and calm after they had both attended our HAWK System training. Check out the video testimonial from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Bus Driver training that we provided.We were mentioned in this article Article in Rhinotimes.com paper in regards to training we provided to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Bus Drivers in NC:”CMS Bounces Bus Bouncers”
