From October 2024, The Worker Protection Act (amendment of Equality Act 2010) will come into force, changing the duty on employers from redress to prevention. This change will strengthen the existing protection for employees against sexual harassment. 

Whilst employers already have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, the new duty represents an important opportunity to further increase awareness and ensure compliance amongst their staff. 

For many businesses, understanding what constitutes as sexual harassment has been something of a challenge. We’ve supported a number of employers over the years with this, who have come to us with questions such as:

  • What do we do if someone claims they have been sexually harassed in the office?
  • What are we responsible for as employers? What aren’t we responsible for?
  • How do we handle it?
  • How do we support the employee?
  • How do we support the person alleged of this misconduct?
  • How do I protect myself from a false claim?
  • Should I not conduct 1-1 meetings on my own anymore?

 

Metro_HR Sexual Harassment Advice, inappropriate behaviour

A really important first step for employers in preparation for the updates is to ensure they fully understand what sexual harassment is. 

The Equality Act 2010 defines sexual harassment as ‘unwanted words, conduct or behaviour of a sexual nature which violate someone’s dignity OR creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.’ Conduct having one of these effects can be harassment, even if that was not the intention. 

It’s important to remember that harassment can happen to men, women or people of any other gender identity or sexual orientation. Sexual harassment can come from staff members on the same team, senior managers, business-owners, contractors, customers and job applicants.

Practical Suggestions for Employers

In preparation for the upcoming changes, we thought it would be useful to give you some further practical suggestions on how to ensure compliance. Prevention will now be key, so look at ways to create organisational and cultural change. 

  • Ensure your policies and procedures include anti-harassment, which not only covers harassment and bullying in the workplace, but sexual harassment specifically and clearly articulate what this means;
  • Ensure your policy and your employees are clear about what sexual harassment is and what is and isn’t appropriate behaviour;
  • No doubt that hard to define word ‘banter’ will crop up here – ensure staff are aware that sexual harassment can include flirting, gesturing, inappropriate questions, jokes and innuendos, the sharing of photos, memes and videos – not just touching or assault;
  • Consider developing a team charter or code of appropriate behaviour to get everyone to input into. We find that if your team have a say in the instigation of policies and procedures, they are more likely to adopt and uphold it;
  • Reference anti-harassment in other policies such as including the consequences of sexually harassing someone in your disciplinary policy and providing clear guidance on how to report such incidences in the grievance policy;
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  • Add training on anti-harassment to induction programmes and checklists, get the dialogue going from day one and outline your company approach for newcomers;
  • Provide guidance, support and training to line managers and senior staff so they understand the company approach and confidently know how they can support an employee that makes a complaint;
  • Hold regular training sessions on sexual harassment and anti-harassment so that all staff are aware of what it is and how to prevent it;
  • Map out the reporting channels and procedures for sexual harassment – and make this clear to all staff, empowering them to know what to do in the event of an issue, so that complaints can be logged and investigated as swiftly as possible – don’t wait to figure all this out in the aftermath of an incident;
  • Consider how you would support an employee that makes a complaint and put appropriate measures in place – perhaps you could provide access to a counsellor or employee assistance programme;
  • Take any and all allegations seriously and ensure experienced managers investigate them thoroughly communicate that commitment to do this;
  • You may even like to use an external provider to give employees an independent and impartial person to report their concerns to.

Further Support for Businesses

If you would like to discuss this in more detail and find how Metro HR can help you get your policies and procedures in shape, click the button below to book in for a consultation call. We can help you with getting the right documents in place, and also with best practice for rolling this out across your workforce.

 

Book a consultation call here >>
Metro_HR Sexual Harassment Interview

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