A turning point for workplace harassment - key roundtable takeaways

Author: Robert Shore

To help HR leaders develop their strategies to tackle the practical and cultural challenges of recent and upcoming additions to anti-harassment legislation, Brightmine and HR Grapevine convened a roundtable discussion. During the event, industry professionals shared the key issues they currently encounter in dealing with workplace harassment.

Since 26 October 2024, employers have had a specific duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of workers in the course of their employment. As part of its Employment Rights Bill, the Government is now proposing to add the word "all" before "reasonable steps" in respect of this positive duty, as well as reintroducing employer liability for third-party harassment. When the Bill passes into law, employers will be liable if a third party such as a client, customer, contractor or supplier harasses an employee during the course of their employment and the employer has failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent this from happening.

The session began with a question - "Who feels confident in their organisation's current strategies to prevent harassment?" The muted response suggested that organisations felt there was still significant work to be done in this area. In the first place, some attendees suggested that it was often difficult to get people to understand what harassment is. One attendee said they used scenarios to show what a "minimal" incident might look like.

When talking about the complexity of conducting risk assessments, participants observed that it is extremely challenging to think through every possible scenario in which employees - variously frontline, remote and office-based, perhaps dealing with clients or customers online or face to face - might find themselves in the course of their duties. Added to this, with so much legislative change on the horizon thanks to the Employment Rights Bill, some HR departments feared "death by training".

The discussion highlighted other key themes, such as the challenges presented by third-party harassment, the importance of transparency, and the need for improved collection and sharing of data. This exchange of experiences and best practices illuminated some of the steps that organisations are taking to move towards harassment-free workplaces.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the discussion.

1. Risk assessments 

• Identify and prioritise the biggest risks, which might typically involve socialising and third parties.
• Engage with EDI groups and ERGs in identifying risks. Priorities should be reviewed regularly, on at least an annual basis.
• Think about getting the individuals who are arranging social events to carry out risk assessments, although this can prove off-putting for those involved.

2. Reporting 

• Create different reporting channels: organisations have found a correlation between the number of reporting channels available and the number of incidents logged.
• Make it easy for employees to register incidents anonymously as this is likely to increase reporting.

3. Training

• Use bitesize training modules rather than lengthy, one-time-only training sessions.
• Where possible, make training interactive (in person or online) rather than a box-ticking exercise.
• Empower employees who engage with third parties in the course of their professional duties by providing training to help them extricate themselves from difficult situations. Employees attending in-person meetings with clients or customers shouldn't have to tolerate unacceptable behaviours and, where these occur, they should feel confident that they are free to leave meetings and that their employer will pay for a taxi if necessary.
• Consider using trigger warnings before carrying out harassment training as you cannot be sure what employees may have experienced in their personal or professional lives.

4. Sharing information

• Make policies available in different ways to allow employees to easily find them when they need them, eg via social media or posters. 
• Use accessible language and avoid legalese.
• Collect and share data about complaints - and outcomes - with employees.
• Secure CEO buy-in: get senior leaders to talk about the issue at town halls, etc.
• Use key touchpoints to tell employees about the support available, for example by advertising it in a place where employees customarily look, for example where they book annual leave.