New duty under the Equality Act 2010 will require employers to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees.
We’re pleased to report a significant upturn of interest coming to our website in last two months! Enquiries surrounding the additional responsibility or duty placed on employers to prevent confront and reduce sexual harassment in the workplace, not forgetting that the ‘workplace’ can at times extend beyond the employers’ premises (eg a retirement function or awards ceremony or Christmas party! Etc etc).
This change has been put into active law from 26th October 2024
Please see https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-protections-from-sexual-harassment-come-into-force
Many leaders are realising that having a safe, easy and trusted means to raise concerns at work provides the organisation with actionable intelligence and opportunities to take direct action (eg investigate, confront, change behaviours)
This together with a misconduct policy (including a bespoke sexual harassment element), and competent trained managers to proportionately and fairly investigate the matter raised will demonstrate the employers’ determination and vigilance to protect their workers.
We have always known that an impartial 3rd party reporting service that conducts in-person outreach work with employees to explain the motivation and safety measures in place builds the necessary trust and confidence that stimulates an optimal level of concern raising. Posters, leaflets, stickers and flashy websites are not enough!
The issues raised when enquiries are made with Say So seem to be:
- We want to ensure we take positive steps to prevent sexual harassment
- How can we optimise Speak Up ?
- We want to know about sexual harassment so we can stop it
- How does listening to staff help my business?
- How can we best listen to or hear from employees?
- How is Risk management enhanced by listening to staff / employees?
- Whistleblowing at work
- Whistleblowing policy
- Optimising staff engagement
- How can make my staff feel safe to raise concerns?
- How do you build trust and confidence in speak up service?
- Why does personally briefing staff about speak up issues matter?
- Saving money with Say So
- Optimising diversity in business settings
- Making workplaces safer
- Preventing sexual harassment at work
- Preventing bullying at work
- Helping HR identify staff problems
- Supporting compliance measures
- Supporting Equality at work
- Identifying persistent problems at work
- Identifying patterns of problems at work
- Building data for ‘actionable intelligence’ to make workplaces better and safer
- Safeguarding at work
- Supporting a People Strategy
- Employer duty to make workplaces safe
- Benefits of listening to your staff
- Leadership qualities of listening to staff
- Improve leadership
- Supporting People Strategy
- Understand what is going on in a business
- Understand what is going wrong in a business
- Identify and confront rogue employees
- Identify workplace issues early for early resolution
- Many benefits of speaking up
- We want to keep our employees safe
All of the above are issues and questions that are resolved by a good proficient speak up service that gains the trust and confidence of employees.
Shaun Keep
Co-Founder – Say So Ltd
20/12/2024
Help for employers on this issue can be found at https://www.acas.org.uk/sexual-harassment/steps-for-employers-to-prevent-sexual-harassment
