Reunification for facilities after an attack. What do do.

How T4Tactics Can Help Your Business Reopen After a Violent Attack

When a workplace experiences a violent attack—whether it’s an active shooter, armed robbery, or physical assault—the aftermath can feel overwhelming. Employees are shaken, customers lose confidence, and leadership faces some difficult questions:

1.     If we immediately open, will employees and the community just think we’re only focused on making money?

2.     What about the employees that need daily structure and want to come back immediately? We don’t want them sitting at home dwelling on that horrible event and substance abuse, depression and sometimes suicidal thoughts set in.

3.     What if some of our best employees never come back?

4.     How did this happen and what do we do to prevent future violence?

5.     Do I need to completely re-design the incident area so we can start fresh? How do we do this?

This is where T4Tactics steps in. With years of expertise in workplace violence prevention, active shooter response, and de-escalation training, we guide businesses through the recovery process so they can reopen stronger, safer, and more resilient.

1. Restoring Confidence Through Security Assessments

After a violent incident, one of the biggest concerns employees and customers have is whether it could happen again. T4Tactics begins by conducting a comprehensive security assessment of your workplace. We examine physical layouts, entry points, emergency exits, communication systems, and response protocols.

From there, we provide practical, cost-effective recommendations to close security gaps. This proactive approach not only increases safety but also reassures staff and customers that meaningful changes are being made.

2. Supporting Employees with Trauma-Informed Training

Employees who witness or experience workplace violence often suffer from anxiety, fear, and hesitation about returning to the job. Simply reopening the doors without addressing these concerns can result in turnover, absenteeism, and low morale.

T4Tactics provides trauma-informed de-escalation and response training designed to:

1.     T4Tactics will come in and speak to your employees. Individually and as a group. I’ll re-assure them that what they did was right. What they didn’t do was right. At this point, it’s not about the blame game or victim shaming, but recovery and healing.

2.     Years ago I worked with an out of state bank on an armed robbery. A bank employee “buzzed” an armed robber in the bank. During our interview, she felt like she was the one responsible for the attack. This was far from the truth. She vetted him and didn’t see any threat. He was dressed in a suit with a weapon under his jacket. Co-workers were sharing thoughts that she should have done better. Far from the truth. Our job is to set her at ease. And not immediately, but when the time is right, give her the skills to read human behavior.

• Give employees the tools to recognize warning signs of escalating behavior.

• Teach them how to respond calmly and effectively under stress.

• Rebuild their confidence in the workplace.

• After individual and group interviews are completed, I’ll confidentially bring any concerns to management. Not giving up the employee that brought them up to me. This is the first step in tactical communication and threat assessment.

• Finally, we’re having a pizza party on T4Tactics. At the location. We’re going to relax, remove the tie, kick off the shoes and realize we’re safe and a plan to avoid the same incident has been put in place.

When your team knows they are prepared and supported, their ability to return to work improves dramatically.

3. Establishing Clear Emergency Plans

Many businesses discover—too late—that their emergency plans are either outdated or not widely understood. T4Tactics helps businesses develop, update, and implement practical emergency response procedures.

We don’t rely on one-size-fits-all models. Instead, we tailor plans to your location, workforce, and industry. From active shooter scenarios to everyday conflict de-escalation, your team will have step-by-step guidance they can trust in critical moments.

4. Rebuilding Community Trust

A violent incident doesn’t just impact employees—it also affects customers, clients, and your community. People may feel hesitant about returning to your space, worrying about whether it’s truly safe.

T4Tactics works with leadership to create visible safety improvements and clear communication strategies. When your community sees that you’ve invested in professional training and prevention measures, confidence begins to return.

5. Going Beyond “Run, Hide, Fight”

Many organizations rely on the traditional “Run, Hide, Fight” approach, but this alone is not enough in today’s world. RHF is outdated and does not address human response, behavior, particular dynamics, thinking outside of the box and other strategies that we discuss in our training sessions. T4Tactics offers modern, advanced strategies that focus on prevention, situational awareness, and decision-making under pressure. Our approach is from interviewing 91 victims, witnesses, survivors, and investigators from 17 of the most horrific attacks this country has ever seen. Humans must learn from the successes and failures of past attacks.

By giving employees realistic, applicable skills, businesses not only prepare for worst-case scenarios but also prevent incidents from escalating in the first place.

6. Long-Term Partnership for Resilience

Reopening after a violent attack is not just about unlocking the doors—it’s about building long-term resilience. T4Tactics provides ongoing consultation, refresher courses, and safety audits to ensure your business remains prepared as it grows and changes.

This long-term approach turns a moment of crisis into an opportunity to strengthen your organization’s culture of safety.

Final Thought

The decision to reopen after workplace violence takes courage. Employees need reassurance, customers need confidence, and leadership needs a clear plan.

At T4Tactics, we walk beside businesses through every step of the recovery process—reassuring employees, assessing risks, training staff, improving security, and restoring trust. Our goal is not just to help you reopen, but to ensure you do so with a safer, stronger, and more resilient workplace.

If your organization is facing the difficult road of reopening after a violent incident, T4Tactics is ready to help you move forward. Contact me, Marko Galbreath for an amazing conversation. Let’s partner to reduce injury and save lives.