What Are the Four Types of Workplace Violence?

Workplace violence is generally classified into four types, based on the relationship between the perpetrator and the workplace. The classification comes from NIOSH's occupational violence research, and maps closely onto how the UK's HSE defines work-related violence.

• Type 1 - Criminal intent: the perpetrator has no legitimate connection to the workplace, such as a robber.
• Type 2 - Customer or client violence: from someone the organisation serves - a patient, passenger, or member of the public. This is what most frontline roles face.
• Type 3 - Worker-on-worker violence: between colleagues, current or former.
• Type 4 - Personal relationship violence: from someone with a personal relationship to an employee that follows them into work.

Most conflict management training is built around Type 2 - see the definition of workplace violence for how UK guidance frames it, and our training courses for how we prepare staff to manage it.