HARASSMENT AT WORK
Posted on , in ADVICE & TIPS and INSIGHTS, by Saki MimuraHow Much Do You Know About Harassment, And How Do We Tackle It?
How well is your company prepared for tackling harassment? When your employees experience a form of harassment at work, who would they talk to? Would they ever talk to somebody in the first place? Creating a safe and respectful working environment is your responsibility as a manager to protect each of your staff from harassment.
What Is Workplace Harassment?
When you want to get your workplace ready for tackling harassment, you need to understand what exactly harassment is. This topic is vital to pay close attention to, especially if you are a manager because you can be accused of harassing someone as well as being a victim without even realising in your workplace.
PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY HURTING SOMEONE
Harassment in a workplace can be broken down into various types of actions that hurt a specific individual. According to Sentrient, those actions can be categorised into 10 different types of harassment, which are…
- Discriminatory harassment: done based on one’s race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, or religion
- Religion-based harassment: disrespecting the ones with the specific religion
- Personal harassment: targeting an individual regardless of their race, gender, or age
- Physical harassment: done by physical attacks and threats
- Power harassment: abusing power to harass an individual
- Psychological harassment: any actions that cause one to feel mentally stressed
- Sexual harassment: harassing by unwelcomed sexual behaviours
- Third-party harassment: done by customers, clients, and others outside the company to the lower level of workers
- Verbal harassment: being continuously rude to an individual
- Cyber harassment: done in online platforms
As you can see, harassment is an umbrella term for a wide range of different behaviours and actions that cause a worker to feel distressed and can be unlawful. Your takeaway point is that there is always a possibility that you are unintentionally harassing your employees or colleagues. What you think of as a casual joke in a daily conversation might be making your staff feel uncomfortable and hurt. That is why it is crucial for you to understand what is and can be harassment in the workplace.
What Can We Do To Address, And Ideally Avoid, Harassment?
PREPARE A SECURE SYSTEM AND NETWORK
When tackling harassment, you need to prioritise the physical and psychological safety of the victim. Hence, create a system that is easily approachable from the employees’ perspective. Setting up your company’s ‘Employee complaint form’ would be your first step, if you don’t have it yet, to make it an easy way for your employees to seek help or make a complaint.
Creating a safe and comfortable environment is also your job to lessen the possibility of harassment happening. In addition, managers like you are likely to be the ones who your employees reach out to when in need of help, so it is vital for you to build a trusting relationship with each of your staff. Regularly contacting your company’s health and safety representative can help you get proper advice for improving your workplace.
TRAIN YOURSELF AND YOUR STAFF
Furthermore, holding a training session that is specialised in workplace harassment can help you improve your employees’ understanding of the issue. Plan to host it on a regular basis so that you and your employees can keep your knowledge and understanding updated to best tackle harassment.
Unique Team Building provides a range of development programs that enable you and your staff to learn new concepts, including collaboration and morale. We will design a special activity according to your needs and help you build a more secure and pleasant team of your employees.
CONCLUSION
Harassment in your workplace is a serious issue that can cause a lot of harm to one of the most significant assets of your company: your employees. Just because you do not see any form of harassment happening in your office, does not mean it is absolutely not happening among your employees.
Acknowledging the agenda of workplace harassment is very important. Start with making sure that each of your staff is feeling comfortable working at their office today.
Contact us and let us help you build a safe working environment where every worker can do their job in their best condition with their colleagues.
Email us or call 07 3186 1026.
07 3186 1026