What this means is that from this date, you need to be taking reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment from happening in your workplace. This covers not only the way your employees treat one another but also the way contractors, members of the public, customers and clients treat your employees.
Companies who don’t take steps to prevent sexual harassment may face investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC. As this is a ‘preventative’ (or ‘proactive’) duty, it’s not enough to wait for problems to pop up before you fix them. If the EHRC finds you’re not doing enough to prevent sexual harassment from happening, they can take action.
The duty will also affect the outcomes of sexual harassment employment tribunals. If an employee successfully claims for sexual harassment, the amount of compensation they get will go up by 25% if there’s evidence their employer didn’t meet the duty’s requirements.
What sexual harassment means
So, let’s look at what we’re aiming to prevent. Quite simply, sexual harassment describes any unwanted sexual advances. This might be:
- Verbal: catcalling, wolf-whistling, asking intrusive questions, offensive banter or making sexual jokes or comments.
- Physical: sexual gestures, unwanted sexual touching such as brushing up against someone, hugging, kissing or massaging them.
- Behavioural: unwanted flirting, sexual requests, someone discussing their own sex life or spreading sexual rumours.
- Digital: sending sexual emails or texts, displaying sexual images, making sexual posts, sending sexual messages on social media or taking a photo or video under another person’s clothing.
Assess your risk
We completely understand the challenges that come with adapting to new regulations. That’s why we’re offering a free risk assessment to help you spot areas of concern and develop a proactive compliance strategy.
The risk assessment will guide you to:
- Understand the impact of the new regulations
- Identify potential risks and gaps in compliance
- Create actionable plans to meet the new requirements
Contact us for your free risk assessment today to make sure your business is ready for the 26th October.
How to prevent sexual harassment
ICENA offers a training course for teams designed to prevent acts of sexual harassment. We run it either online or face to face. For large organisations, we can create a bespoke train-the-trainer or e-learning package enabling you to run the training independently.
Our trainers create a safe, judgement-free space for participants to better understand the topic, before exploring ways harassment could be prevented in your workplace. As part of the process, we’ll audit your existing policies and procedures around sexual harassment, suggesting improvements where necessary. We’ll then share the updated policies with your teams so everyone knows exactly where they stand and where they can go to get help.
By the end of the session, participants will:
- Understand the organisation’s legal responsibilities under the Worker Protection Act (2023) and what your organisation needs to do to prevent sexual harassment
- Understand how sexual harassment is covered by the law
- Understand the social context of sexual harassment
- Be able to identify instances of harassment and victimisation
- Know how to respond to instances of sexual harassment
- Understand the importance of professional boundaries in preventing sexual harassment
- Know how to deal with instances of third-party sexual harassment or harassment related to sex
- Understand who is responsible for dealing with instances of harassment
- Begin to think about new ways harassment could be prevented in your workplace
As well as a general version of the course suitable for most workplaces, we also offer specialised versions with sector-specific information for the following industries:
- Entertainment (clubs, pubs, bars, music venues)
- Food (restaurants, cafes and takeaways)
- Retail and services (shops, banks)
- Leisure (gyms, leisure centres)
- Healthcare (GP surgeries, hospitals and domiciliary care)
- Transport (taxis, buses, trains)
- Police
- Emergency services (Fire & Rescue, paramedics)
How to report sexual harassment
If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed sexual harassment, you don’t need to wait for it to become a pattern or happen many times. You can report it after the very first incident.
Where you report it depends on your organisation’s policies and procedures. If you don’t know what these are, start with your welfare, human resources or pastoral care team. If you don’t have these, your manager or the person you report to might be able to point you in the right direction. If they need help supporting you, they can reach out to us.
ICENA offers sexual harassment training which is designed to meet your organisation’s specific needs, policies and procedures. We’ve trained public and private organisations from team members through to team leaders on how to recognise, respond to and deal with disclosures of sexual harassment. Equally, if you’d like help to update your policies and procedures, hold a risk assessment or create a shift in your company culture, our consultants are ready to help.
Get in touch to find out more.
For confidential HR advice: ce people
For confidential HR advice regarding sexual harassment in the workplace, we’ve partnered with CE People, HR specialists, who will be able to assist you organisation with any HR matters.
View website here: https://www.ce-people.co.uk/
