Who should perform the assessment?  

Neither Bill 168 nor the guidelines from the Ministry of Labour provide any specific direction on who is to conduct the risk assessment. The organization is free to have the risk assessment conducted by internal staff or an external party as it sees fit. Regardless of who is selected to perform the risk assessment, the person should have sufficient knowledge of the risks of workplace violence applicable to that particular workplace.

What must be considered as part of the assessment?

Bill 168 requires an employer to assess the risks of workplace violence that may arise from the nature of the workplace, the type of work and the conditions of work. Beyond this, it does not mandate the specific factors to be assessed when an employer evaluates the workplace violence risks that exist in its workplace. 

The guidelines from the Ministry of Labour do provide some elaboration, and the expectations set out are largely in keeping with the usual factors considered to be best practices when assessing the risks of workplace violence.

Does an assessment have to be done for each location?  

For employers such as retail organizations, with multiple locations where the same, if not identical, work is performed, it may be tempting to conduct a single, global workplace violence risk assessment on the basis of some representative locations. However, Bill 168 requires that the assessment account for factors that are specific to the workplace.  

Employers have to consider the differences among its workplace locations. Such differences may include the hours of operation, the type of work performed, the location of the workplace (e.g. a mall versus a standalone location, a high crime versus a low crime neighbourhood, etc.), the clientele and the physical layout of the location. The Ministry of Labour guideline suggests an assessment for each location. 

Should or must workers be surveyed as part of the assessment?

As part of its assessment, the employer may also consider surveying its workforce regarding past incidents of workplace violence. There is nothing in Bill 168 or the 

Ministry of Labour guidelines that indicates that this is required or will be expected. Therefore, the decision to survey the workforce is a personal one for the employer.