CHICAGO — Just 20% of laundry administrators and managers polled in this month’s AmericanLaundryNews.com Wire survey say their company or institution has experienced workplace violence involving their laundry operation or its employees.
These incidents of workplace violence included vandalism of employee vehicles, a fight between two employees working on the wash aisle, and an attack on a member of the management team by an employee.
Nearly 87% of respondents say their company or institution investigates the background of potential employees, and 80% say their institution/company doesn’t require psychological testing (13.3% didn’t know). More than 73% of respondents say their company or institution require its employees to display identification badges.
A wide variety of security measures are in place, according to our survey (respondents were asked to check all that applied at their workplace). Most common is increased lighting on grounds and/or parking lot, cited by 84.6% of respondents. Equal shares of 61.5% say their workplaces require visitors to sign in, and utilize video surveillance.
Nearly 39% of respondents say there are security guards in or around their facility, and 23.1% say employees must use a key card or punch in an ID code for entry.
While the Wire survey presents a snapshot of readers’ viewpoints at a particular moment, it should not be considered scientific.
Subscribers to Wire e-mails—distributed twice weekly—are invited to take the industry survey anonymously online each month. All managers and administrators of institutional/OPL, cooperative, commercial and industrial laundries are encouraged to participate, as a greater number of responses will help to better define operator opinions and industry trends.
