Supporting UK employers as the law changes
The Labour Relations Agency and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has published new guidance on eliminating sexual harassment from the workplace. Whilst this guidance is for NI, it's really useful for Great Britain too. What's very clear to me in this great piece from Lewis Silkin are the ways that SaferSpace will become an important tool in preventing and managing workplace sexual harassment in three standout areas.
1. Employers need to create a safe working environment where reporting is encouraged. Employees should feel confident to report sexual harassment and that they will be believed and taken seriously. They should also know who to report sexual harassment to and how. Employers should consider using anonymous reporting tools to enable workers to report sexual harassment such as telephone helplines or online portals.
👉 This is a prime area where SaferSpace can support organisations. It is a straightforward mobile ‘app’ that enables users, (with just a few taps on their smartphone) to report unacceptable behaviour: sexual harassment, discrimination, racism etc… in the workplace or on campus.
2. Employers must also have a sexual harassment policy (anti-sexual harassment policy, perhaps?). Such a policy should demonstrate that the organisation takes a zero-tolerance approacdownload from hereh to sexual harassment, with allegations of sexual harassment being investigated and dealt with appropriately according to an employer’s disciplinary policy.
👉 Again this is where SaferSpace can help - there's a freebie template that you can download from here:
3. Sexual harassment risk areas. Employers should be alert to work environments in the organisation where sexual harassment would be more likely to occur. They should consider areas where there may be power imbalances between individuals, for example, inequalities between men and women, abuse of power between senior and junior staff, or where staff are in a customer facing role or working in isolation or in isolated locations.
👉 Check-out the SaferSpace example dashboard, you'll be able to see where the 'hotspots' are occurring.
