This amendment emphasises the responsibility of employers to actively safeguard their employees by implementing proactive measures, such as clear policies, regular training, and effective reporting mechanisms, to minimise the risk of harassment and create a safer work environment.
Sexual harassment prevention with six reasonable steps
Failure to take such steps could lead to legal consequences, strengthening protection for workers under the Equality Act 2010. Here are six steps you could take to help you meet this requirement and demonstrate your commitment to a safe and respectful work environment.
1. Develop & distribute a clear anti-harassment policy
If you already have one, review and update it to ensure it clearly defines and prohibits sexual harassment and sets out everyone's responsibility to prevent it. Ensure the policy is well-publicised and attested by all employees, including new hires, during onboarding. If you need help digitising and automating policies and attestations, contact Skillcast.
Engender provides a model sexual harassment prevention policy that you can adopt or reference for developing or updating your own.
2. Provide training & awareness on sexual harassment
Training should involve educating everyone in your firm on the consequences of sexual harassment. Ensure all staff know what sexual harassment is and what to do if they experience or witness it. A good way to provide such firm-wide training is e-learning.
Skillcast provides readymade e-learning courses on sexual harassment and other compliance issues to thousands of companies. We've also created a set of five Compliance Bites (microlearning modules) on this topic:
- What is Sexual Harassment – try this bite-sized training for free
- What is Unwanted Behaviour of a Sexual Nature
- Targets of Sexual Harassment
- Crossing the Line into Sexual Harassment
- Compliments vs Sexual Harassment
Each of these Compliance Bites integrates with our LMS to provide reporting and an audit trail so you know who has – and hasn’t – completed the training.
3. Provide additional specialist training for HR personnel & managers
This training should ensure HR personnel and managers have the confidence and required sensitivity to deal with disclosures, conduct investigations, and support their teams. Given the complexity and sensitivity of supporting victims, witnesses and even those accused, such training will likely be in-person seminars or coaching sessions. Skillcast provides tools for scheduling and tracking such training alongside firm-wide e-learning.
4. Establish multiple reporting channels
A nationwide survey by the UK government has found that employees report barely 15% of the cases of sexual harassment in the workplace. They were uncomfortable or embarrassed or felt they would be victimised.
To address this, encourage psychological safety and have clear reporting channels to make disclosures (anonymously, if preferred, for anyone reluctant to speak out).
Set up an online register to collate reports and help identify trends or risks (such as a predatory employee, high-risk activities - such as lone working, etc). Skillcast provides online breach registers that allow for anonymous reporting and case management.
5. Deal with reports properly
Treat all reports as serious. Take appropriate actions promptly, fairly and confidentially. This includes:
- Immediate response and resolution for incidents that don't require a lengthy investigation
- Thorough, confidential investigations where required
- Disciplinary action, where required
- Support for victims, including counselling and changes to work schedules or work locations, if required
6. Monitor & review
Gather data and keep informed about the existing culture. Conduct regular surveys, read reviews and arrange exit interviews so you know of any problems early on. Periodically review and update the anti-harassment policy and procedures and monitor the work environment to ensure they are followed. To help, download:
- the results of the nationwide UK government survey on sexual harassment
- a free sexual harassment survey template (best conducted confidentially) to benchmark your company against the findings of the nationwide UK government survey
Skillcast helps thousands of companies provide compliance e-learning, policy attestations, surveys, and online registers to their staff to prevent harassment and other regulatory breaches. Contact us to find out how we can help your company.
