What you permit, you promote: does your organisation’s culture enable sexual harassment?

In October, changing legislation means employers will have an increased duty of care towards employees to better prevent sexual harassment. In a society where women in particular already face sexual harassment online, on the streets and even in their own homes, it’s vital that the workplace is not another addition to that list.

What is sexual harassment?

Sexual harassment is defined as ‘unwanted conduct (verbal, non-verbal or physical) of a sexual nature that has the intent and/or effect of violating a person’s dignity. It creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for people experiencing harassment and often those that witness the harassment.’

To put this into context, below are a few real, anonymised experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace:

“Having worked on and completed an important legal document, I’d printed it out and placed it on the Managing Director’s desk to read and sign. He came out of his office with the document rolled up in his hand and hit my butt with it as he walked past.”

“While discussing a business matter with me, a senior leader in the company out of the blue reached up and stroked some strands of hair out of my face in an incredibly intimate gesture. He apologised when he saw my shocked reaction, but all I could say was, ‘would you do that to one of our male colleagues?’”

“I discovered all the men in the agency had a secret Slack channel where they would rate the girls in the office and call out who was looking hot or not.”

What is the impact?

Ultimately, you’ll see the impact on your bottom line. If people are not safe to contribute effectively and inclusion is not considered, performance plummets.

Let’s take a hypothetical example of the only woman in an important strategy meeting not standing her ground, because she’s tired of being told to “stop getting her knickers in a twist”. Or the real example we shared earlier of the Slack channel. How comfortable would a female colleague feel collaborating with one of those men?

What may seem harmless to those participating can have a huge impact on their colleagues’ psychological safety, damaging trust and respect between colleagues. It may also result in a loss of talent, because people leave toxic workplaces. Diverse opinions and experience are the backbone of innovation and decision making, but diversity won’t flourish without inclusion.

Our human desire to fit in combined with the need to pay our bills leads to many instances of sexual harassment at work not being reported. Research shows the three most common reasons for victims not reporting sexual harassment are thinking it did not seem serious enough (32%), thinking it would affect their own career progression (23%) and thinking that it would make their work situation uncomfortable (21%). This allows these behaviours to go unchecked and unchanged.

Inclusive cultures matter when it comes to business. Just as one bad apple can spoil the bunch, permitting poor behaviours in one area of your organisation allows that to become the cultural standard throughout.

You’ll see lower levels of reporting and potentially end up with a whistleblowing situation, because people who experience sexual harassment aren’t able to address the issues using internal channels. This is especially true if those in positions of power and influence are the perpetrators.

We’ve talked a lot about the impact on business and performance but fundamentally and most importantly, sexual harassment impacts people.

So, what can you do about it?

We must tackle the culture than enables this behaviour to take place at all; the culture that brushes it off or under the carpet, the culture that doesn’t want to pander to a “woke” agenda, the culture that thinks all the fun will be sucked out of work or that “you can’t say anything anymore”.

Let’s start by saying that banter is not bad. It is defined as ‘the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks’ but it has become a loaded term used to excuse inappropriate comments that make one party in the exchange feel uncomfortable. Having positive relationships at work is crucial, so how do we make sure we get it right?

1. Set expectations through frameworks, policy and reporting

We work with clients to create and carry out inclusive reviews of values aligned behavioural frameworks. These give clear positive and negative indicators of what good and bad behaviours align to their values, and they can then be embedded into recruitment, performance management and career development conversations and processes.

You could also state expectations in a policy. An anti-harassment and bullying policy is only useful if it gives clear examples of language and behaviours that are or aren’t acceptable, and the consequences of breaching that policy.

In our policy review work for clients, we often find policies are written in ‘legalese’ or unfriendly, unsupportive tones, which put colleagues off referring to and using these documents. By carrying out an inclusive review of policies and process you are more likely to encourage positive behaviours and safe reporting to address issues.

Legally, employers have a duty of care to employees. As the law strengthens regarding sexual harassment through the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act, you need to prioritise having strong reporting processes and usable policies.

You are at higher risk as an employer if your policy is not embedded or adhere to, so comprehension and consistent application are crucial focuses.

2. Inclusive leadership and behaviours training

Helping leaders and managers lead inclusively can be transformative and is a great place to start, where issues are known. A government report revealed over 50% of workers surveyed didn’t know if their workplace offered sexual harassment training – which goes to show that perhaps employers have not taken anti-sexual harassment and inclusive behaviours training as seriously as they could.

3. Culture Audit

If you’re unsure of your workplace culture or notice undesirable behaviours going unchallenged, a culture audit can be an impactful exercise. In delivering these audits we help organisations understand exactly what is going on, how employees are feeling and – crucially - how to tackle culture holistically.

A culture audit and implementing the subsequent action plan from our reporting will help your organisation progress beyond legal compliance and the bare minimum. It will help to drive an inclusive, equitable and optimal performing workplace, and secure your organisation as an employer of choice.