Sexual harassment is illegal. All workers, regardless of length of service are protected from sexual harassment in the workplace by the Equality Act 2010. Yet, despite this, we know it’s still common.
According to a recent survey, one in 10 employees has witnessed or experienced sexual harassment at work - but half of these do not report it. More women (13%) than men (7%) experienced at least one form of harassment, and a quarter (26%) of those who had experienced sexual harassment said it happened at their place of work. [Office of National Statistics]
Sexual harassment covers a whole spectrum of activities – it might be having a screensaver on a laptop that someone finds offensive or making inappropriate comments. It can be a one-off incident or an ongoing pattern of behaviour. It can happen in person or online. It’s about the individual and whatever they feel has demeaned them. Perception is personal.
Under existing legislation, employers currently have a defence to a sexual harassment claim brought by an employee where they can show that they took all ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent that harassment. However, because of continuing concerns that workplace sexual harassment remains widespread, often goes unreported, and is not adequately addressed by employers, the new Worker Protection Act will become legislation this October, requiring employers to‘take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees’, but what does that mean?
Steps in the right direction
‘Reasonable steps’ vary from employer to employer – depending on company size, resources, and working methods. It’s more than compliance with a legal duty – it’s possible to build a methodology that works:
1) Be clear about your approach. To affect a behaviour change everybody needs to embrace the organisation’s purpose and values, with senior leadership having direct personal responsibility for its delivery.
2) Treat sexual harassment as a health and safety risk. Tackling sexual harassment with this mindset is just an extension of what you're already doing. For example, would managers allow staff to behave in other ways to make the workplace unsafe – such as breaking furniture or setting fire to things?!
3) Consult with staff to identify risks around their working environment, such as high-pressure workloads, long or irregular work hours, lack of diversity, or inconsistent standards of behaviour. Listen to and elicit valuable insights.
When things go wrong
Last year McDonald’s was receiving sexual harassment claims every week and is currently investigating approximately 30 sexual harassment claims. This level of claims suggests their current measures for preventing sexual harassment are insufficient - whether due to lack of training or failure to enforce current policies. However, a poor workplace culture that doesn’t prioritise the safety of employees or allows harassment to occur or go unchallenged can undermine even the most well-intentioned policies.
McDonald’s realised the need to tackle this situation head-on and completely revamp its current policy and procedures, especially how they communicated this to colleagues. Here are some measures the company has taken to transform its current toxic workplace culture:
· Training for all employees, especially managers.
· Ensuring transparency throughout the process by involving employees to help rebuild trust and affirm the company’s commitment to a harassment-free workplace.
· Signing a legal agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to protect workers against sexual harassment.
McDonald’s is an extreme example of a workplace that needed to be willing to open, encourage more honesty and conversations that deal with root issues of power and inequality. That doesn’t mean more cases of whistle blowing but making constructive forms of challenge a normal and healthy part of the workplace culture.
What would you say?
Research suggests that sexual harassment courses aimed at preventing workplace discrimination can have the opposite effect! Teaching employees what they ‘should’ do fails to acknowledge the barriers and human tendencies that prevent people from doing the right thing, therefore limiting the impact of the training.
Employees can’t recognise and stop misconduct if they don’t know what to look for! One of our global clients highlighted a barrier that their colleagues do not always know what to say, ‘in the moment’, in a socially acceptable way. We helped them design a series of behavioural interventions, including short videos with experts from around the globe explaining how they might respond to a specific situation. This sets positive social norms by giving the audience language they might use in a stressful situation where they are asked to make a fast judgement: If a phrase resonates and stays uppermost in someone’s mind, this may make the difference between staying quiet and interrupting the sexual harassment. Key messaging was also transmitted through different scenarios relevant to the audience where they were able to answer questions in a ‘safe’ environment.
Culture counts
Understanding behavioural science around power and authority is key to preventing sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s important to create a culture where there isn’t lenience regarding the behaviour of people in power. This can influence the behaviour of employees where they think the behaviour of the person above them is OK because they are the leader. All employees need to be aware of their biases, and training at all levels is key.
Zero tolerance
The #MeToo movement has undoubtedly given courage to many others to come forward and call out unwanted, unwelcome sexual harassment in the workplace. It has also shown the sheer scale of it. It’s essential,therefore, to foster an environment where sexual harassment and discrimination,are unable to take hold. Dealing solely with the consequences of sexual harassment is not a solution to the problem because it wrongly focuses attention on individuals, rather than concentrating on the workplace culture that has allowed the behaviour to occur in the first place.
Like other safety hazards in the workplace, success means making eradicating sexual harassment everyone’s responsibility - it isn’t just about leaders or a top-down directive. The impetus of the new legislation and appropriate framework offer a way to make that happen.
Prevention is always better than the cure.
