Background and Objectives

With the Worker Protection Act coming into force and placing an increased responsibility on organisations to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, the HR and senior leadership team in this leading charity identified that they needed to equip everyone – including managers – to take on their new responsibilities with confidence  

The forward-looking HR manager, in particular, understood that they needed to be proactive by providing support well ahead of the legislation deadline 

Our Solution

We created two workshops 

The first was for the whole team, including the managers and senior leadership team, working together to:

• bring clarity to what constitutes sexual harassment 

• look at the myths around what sexual harassment is  

• find practical ways to be able to address a situation where they or others are feeling uncomfortable 

Like so many organisations the areas where people needed most help were to navigate the lines between what is OK and what isn’t – particularly in terms of jokes, banter and humour 

The second workshop was specifically for those with line management and leadership responsibility to ensure:

• the right tone and behaviours were being role modelled from the top 

• all managers felt equipped to address situations when they happen and deal confidently and fairly with any concerns raised 

Outcomes

While there was a compliance impetus to run this training, the HR manager understood from the start that a sensitive and nuanced subject like this could not be addressed through a method such as e-learning.  

The feedback from participants was that they found the opportunity to discuss different scenarios, ask questions to ensure understanding and hear different points of view from colleagues was invaluable in building their confidence to play their part in stamping out sexual harassment 

Among the participant feedback were the following comments:

 “It showed the importance of reflection on self conduct and how this may make others feel.​ Good to discuss these ideas with colleagues”​ 

“Great to create conversation around this topic​. It was useful to reflect on scenarios and awareness of the permission to be proactive in situations”