The City of Stockholm Sports Administration wanted to shift the focus from intervention to prevention. Together, we've developed two training courses — Service and Interaction and Threats and Violence — adapted to the needs of their different operations and to the administration's policy. Eric dos Santos, Security Coordinator, tells us more about what has been important to them, how they work with the courses, and the results they're seeing.
The flexibility. In operations that are open from 6am to 11pm, it's hard to free up all employees for in-person training. We also have a degree of staff turnover, which means some people miss the instructor-led sessions. With a digital course, it's easy to go back to a particular section afterwards — perhaps long after you completed it — and refresh your knowledge of how we can manage someone who's intoxicated or a fight in the changing rooms.
People also take in knowledge at different speeds. Some pick everything up immediately, while others need to think it through and revisit it more. The fact that the courses are subtitled also helps people with, for example, hearing impairments. A digital course is also easy to offer to new hires, someone returning from parental leave, supply staff, casual workers — or in the run-up to summer, when we have a lot of new people coming in.
"The message we put out becomes more consistent, rather than being coloured by individual trainers' or managers' personal views and interpretations."
— Eric dos Santos, Security Coordinator
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We wanted to bring the difficult situations that arise in our operations into the open, and show what they actually look like. Seeing situations in our own settings — and with people you sometimes recognise — creates a sense of recognition. What does it actually look like when I'm at the till; what signals am I sending? Having our own staff take part adds credibility and shows that we're prepared to discuss real, current issues. We have many different operations, but the situations can look remarkably similar.
The awareness that this can actually happen at our own workplace prepares people mentally. The message we put out also becomes more consistent, rather than being coloured by individual trainers' or managers' personal views and interpretations. The content is based on what staff need and have asked for, and the course is easy to build on with deeper modules — on gangs or ongoing lethal violence, for example.
We started by running it individually, so that everyone could complete it at their own pace. That made it easy for managers to track who had been through it. We split the course into parts rather than running it as a single block, because otherwise it becomes too much and there's no time for reflection. After a few years now, we pick out particular sections and discuss them as a group. That gives managers support — they can't always be specialists in everything — and the discussion questions built into the course help conversations get going. People often want a "right answer", but our discussions actually deepen the understanding of just how complex many situations are. It's of course difficult to know exactly what's behind it, or whether it's down to the training alone, but we're seeing fewer conflicts and incidents. The training has prompted us to talk more about the subject in workplace meetings, staff meetings and through targeted initiatives.
"We had our own way of thinking about conflict management, and Tesus has helped us put it into words. We've gained a language to keep working with — one that lends weight to everything we do from here."
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We didn't have a clear plan; we were doing more ad hoc training. It was largely up to each venue to organise something if there was a need. We often brought in external speakers — for instance, police officers — which doesn't always fit with our world when it comes to authority and what we're actually permitted to do. It didn't always land well. There was a lot of focus on laws and regulations, leaning more towards the emergency-services and security-guard side of things and how to physically intervene, and not as much on how we can prevent threats and violence through how we engage with people and our overall approach.
Now we've trained on methods that reduce the risk of having to intervene in the first place, and we've learned when it's time to step back or call for help. It comes down to what the trainer conveys, and to making sure it's adapted to the employees' role, tasks and remit. What can you say to de-escalate a situation, and what do you need to keep in mind? We had our own way of thinking about conflict management, and Tesus has helped us put it into words. We've gained a language to keep working with — one that lends weight to everything we do from here.
We want to keep these issues alive on a regular basis. We want to work with conflict management the same way we work with CPR, which we run twice a year. There needs to be a clear division of roles, and we talk through tactics before something happens. Where do I want you to stand if someone is shouting? How concretely can we support each other? What do we want to communicate? Are we allowed to do this? Are we doing the same thing? If we don't act consistently, decisions become more personal and aren't perceived as equally fair. It's important that everyone sticks to what's been agreed.
In our discussions, what different people find difficult comes to the surface, and we can support one another on how to handle it. The regular discussions help us stay alert to the norms and culture that develop within different operations.
"The training creates a greater sense of security and reduces fear among employees. Everyone has come away with a sense that we're more capable and understand more."
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The training creates a greater sense of security and reduces fear among employees. Everyone has come away with a sense that we're more capable and understand more. We're aware of how situations can arise and what can happen. That gives a greater mental readiness, and we become more resilient. Previously, we sometimes saw sick leave directly after an incident, but we're seeing less of that now. We have no sick leave caused by feelings of insecurity or by incidents involving threats or violence. It's been a very long time since anyone on the staff was caught up in a fight. At the same time, the training tempers the belief that "it won't happen to me", and that's why we're better prepared when things do happen.
The material is absolutely spot-on and is seen as outstanding. Both the content and the course itself. Having employees from different operations take part and share their experience means it isn't perceived as a top-down message. We come across as highly credible in the material and the messaging. The training is realistic — people genuinely behave just like they do in the films.
We share the same view of what we want to convey, and we're aligned on both the format and the subject matter. You showed an understanding of participants' everyday work, were responsive to our wishes, and brought a wealth of suggestions for different ways to solve pedagogical questions. We knew that you are subject-matter experts and convey the topic well — not a company with a ready-made concept that you'd try to talk us into accepting. Instead, we've created the material together.
"We're delighted with it, and we've recommended the concept to other sister organisations, who are now working in the same way. for instance, Gothenburg's Sports and Associations Administration."
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Everything is spot-on. It's also never felt like Tesus has left us to "figure it out on our own". On the contrary, Tesus has always been there as support — given good feedback and assistance, answered questions quickly, and been quick to add new features. For example, it only took a week or so when we wanted everything subtitled. When we've had new requests, you've immediately come back with quick proposals and helped us with a quick-reference guide for handling everything.
