Violence at Work: Reducing Assault and Abuse Experienced by Frontline Staff in Public Service Roles

Abstract

Australian Public Service (APS) staff employed in frontline roles are often subjected to verbal and physical aggression. Given the risks of harm, workplace aggression is a significant challenge for organisations. Retention, recruitment and public confidence in an organisation's services are undermined when employees feel unsafe and disengaged. Prior research into service user violence and aggression (SUVA) has focused on the health sector, notably hospital emergency departments, where SUVA is committed against attending nurses and doctors. Little research has been conducted in APS organisations such as social services (e.g., Centrelink) or veterans' services. A mixed methods approach was applied to understand the nature, prevalence and severity of SUVA perpetrated against staff in two APS organisations: Services Australia and the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), including the Open Arms Veterans' Counselling Service. Data were collected from work site observations and interviews with frontline staff (Services Australia, n = 20; DVA, n = 10) and service users (Services Australia, n = 5; DVA, n = 5) who had been involved in SUVA incidents. An online survey of staff SUVA experiences was sent to DVA staff on 1 September 2020 and was accessible for two weeks (256 respondents, 51% of employees) and across Services Australia on 1 March 2021, accessible for two weeks (3,636 respondents, 21% of employees). The survey showed that within the previous 24 months, 1,853 (51%) of Services Australia and 154 (69%) of DVA respondents had been subjected to SUVA. Services Australia and DVA official records of SUVA underestimated the number of incidents, due to impediments to staff reporting. Many Services Australia (1,019; 28.3%) and DVA (87; 41%) respondents stated that they were unsure of or did not believe there was an organisational expectation to report all SUVA incidents. About half of Services Australia respondents (1,759; 48.8%) and more than half of DVA respondents (114; 58.2%) were concerned that they were at risk of SUVA in the future. Respondents across all roles and locations noted concerns about safety, with those in out-servicing roles reporting the highest level of concern. Thematic analysis of the interviews undertaken with staff and service users indicated three main themes: a) trigger events (e.g., staff behaviours, internal policy and procedures, and legislation), b) preventative factors (e.g., violence and aggression training, reporting of SUVA and proactive approaches to reducing SUVA) and c) personal impacts (e.g., immediate and ongoing personal impacts on health and productivity). Subthemes, such as wait times and the mental health presentation of service users, were also noted under the theme of trigger events. Due to the complexity of SUVA, APS organisations would benefit from a proactive, multi-focused approach to risk mitigation policy that encompasses three domains: service users, frontline staff members and the organisation. A SUVA-proactive risk mitigation framework that combines strategies simultaneously across these three domains may be able to provide a more humanistic and robust process to reduce SUVA. Show more