Canadian Safety Reporter

October 2014

Focuses on occupational health and safety issues at a strategic level. Designed for employers, HR managers and OHS professionals, it features news, case studies on best practices and practical tips to ensure the safest possible working environment.

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CSR | October 2014 | News ©2014 thomson reuters canada ltd ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-7798-2810-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher (Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business). Canadian Safety Reporter is part of the Canadian HR Reporter group of publications: • canadian Hr reporter — www.hrreporter.com • canadian occupational safety magazine — www.cos-mag.com • canadian payroll reporter — www.payroll-reporter.com • canadian Employment law today — www.employmentlawtoday.com • canadian labour reporter — www.labour-reporter.com See carswell.com for information Safety Reporter Canadian www.safetyreporter.com "We've had situations where executives have been ap- proached at their homes, or while they're travelling, so now you've got a different victim pool. you've got the individual execu- tive, you've got their office staff who may be at risk of violence, and then — if that follows them to their personal life — now we're talking about the potential that it blows over to their family." Proactive measures So what can organizations do to protect their executives — and what can executives do to protect themselves? The first thing to do is a thor- ough risk assessment, to under- stand the level and type of threats that might arise, said Hyde. "When you look at any type of a threat to a human asset, which an executive is, or a physical asset like a building, or a property, or reputationally for that organiza- tion (it's crucial to) do a risk as- sessment. This is the absolutely critical first step," he said. Social media monitoring is an important piece of that, because it can help you understand how members of the public view your organization, he said. Organizations need to sit down and take a good look at their current safety practices, said Calder. "The first thing is just to have that discussion, because a lot of organizations have a discomfort around even talking about it," he said. "i think it's a multidisci- plinary approach that involves safety, security if it exists, human resources, senior executives of the appropriate level to sit down and say, 'How are we going to manage this as a group?'" There also needs to be training in place so employees can recog- nize behaviours of concern and report them. "as they do that, they're in a better position to manage the situation and not over- or under- react to it," he said. and security measures and strategies should be preventa- tive, he said. "a lot of people get obsessed with (CCTV) cameras. Well, in a real threatening situation, it's going to be much more dynamic than that, because the camera's only going to capture the result. it's not going to be preventative if you've got somebody that's being homicidal or suicidal." antivirus programs, firewalls, intrusion detection systems and immediate and qualified inci- dent response are the keys for protecting data, said zagribelin. There should also be informa- tion security and awareness for employees — and for high-level executives, no matter how busy they are. in terms of physical security, organizations shouldn't limit their strategies to protecting the executive while she's in the of- fice — they should also consider her safety in transit, while travel- ling and while she's at home, said Hyde. "(recently) we saw that somebody waltzed into justin Trudeau's house through the back door (at night). Too many executives are far too cavalier and casual with their personal safety and security and that of their families. yet some execu- tives are at heightened risk, and they do need to take those base- line security measures," he said. "There needs to be some thought put into… where the executive parks, if they're at higher risk, how they're getting to the work- place, how they travel — putting some security around that, but also at home. "They need to have a robust security plan in place at home to make sure that they're not vul- nerable in their homes as well." EXECS IN THE CROSSHAIRS < pg. 6 Organizations need to take proactive measures Published 12 times a year by thomson reuters canada ltd. Subscription rate: $129 per year customer Service Tel: (416) 609-3800 (Toronto) (800) 387-5164 (outside Toronto) Fax: (416) 298-5106 E-mail: carswell.customerrelations @thomsonreuters.com Website: www.carswell.com one corporate plaza 2075 Kennedy Road Toronto, Ontario, Canada M1T 3V4 Director, Carswell Media Karen lorimer Publisher John hobel (on leave) Acting Publisher/Managing Editor todd humber Assistant Editor mallory hendry (416) 649-7898 mallory.hendry@thomsonreuters.com Contributing Editors liz foster Sabrina nanji Sarah dobson liz bernier Jeffrey r. Smith Marketing Manager mohammad ali mm.ali@thomsonreuters.com (416) 609-5866 Circulation Co-ordinator Keith fulford keith.fulford@thomsonreuters.com (416) 649-9585 Companies like Sony Corporation should work to implement preventative safety measures to ward off security threats. Credit: Yuriko Nakao (Reuters)

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