Sexual Harassment Guidance

Employers have a legal duty to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace. If an employee brings sexual harassment tribunal proceedings against you and wins, your failure to comply with your duty to prevent such acts can lead to the tribunal imposing an uplift of up to 25% on any damages awarded. Accordingly, ensuring you appreciate and comply with your legal obligations is vital. To help you understand your obligations as an employer more fully, our expert HR professionals have prepared this sexual harassment guidance for employers.

This sexual harassment guidance is for reference purposes only. There are no clearly defined rules governing what organisations must do to ensure adherence to their legal duties; it all depends on factors such as the industry they operate in, the work their employees undertake, and the size of the business. Accordingly, it is essential to seek guidance from HR and employment law experts like us regarding the policies and procedures you should implement to comply with the law.

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When Do You Need To Act?

You cannot wait until the sexual harassment has occurred to take action. Your legal duty is a positive one to prevent sexual harassment before it happens. Accordingly, you must take preventative steps to mitigate the risk of sexual harassment in your workplace.

What Must You Do?

A general overview of the steps you should take to prevent sexual harassment in your workplace is as follows:

• Consider The Risks

Different organisations will present different risk factors for instances of sexual harassment. As an employer, you must identify any areas of particular risk inherent in your organisation so you can take steps to effectively mitigate them.

Examples of the types of factors that might pose a particular risk include the following:

Power imbalances
Vulnerable workers, such as those who are young or have specific needs
Employees undertaking regular travel for work, particularly when it involves overnight stays
Employees regularly socialising and attending networking events
Employees with irregular working patterns which mean they may be working in small groups after hours
Employees regularly interacting with service providers, clients, or the public
Employees regularly working in an environment in which alcohol is consumed to excess, such as those in the hospitality industry

• Consider The Steps You Should Take To Prevent Sexual Harassment From Occurring Within Your Organisation

You have a duty as an employer to prevent sexual harassment in your workplace. Once you have identified the measures that may mitigate the risk factors you have recognised as being present in your business, you should then consider which of those measures you could implement.

When considering what steps might be reasonable in your situation, you should bear the following matters in mind:

The size and nature of your business
The extent of your resources
The types of work your employees carry out
The workplace environment
Whether there have been any previous instances of sexual harassment and, if so, how they arose
The extent to which your employees come into contact with third parties, and the circumstances in which they usually do so. For example, do young employees meet with clients alone? Do your employees regularly attend social events? Do your employees regularly interact with third parties, such as suppliers or the public?

Depending on your answers to the questions posed above, the types of steps you might take to prevent sexual harassment in your workplace include the following:

Proactively nurturing a workplace culture in which sexual harassment is unacceptable.
Devising and implementing a sexual harassment policy.
Communicating your zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment to everyone who works in or with your organisation.
Providing regular training on issues relating to sexual harassment. Your training should include matters such as the standards required of your workers, how they can report sexual harassment, and the consequences of an individual flouting your policies.
Ensuring senior management understands what is required of them in terms of preventing sexual harassment within their departments and responding to any complaints of sexual harassment.
Ensuring systems are in place to protect vulnerable employees, such as junior staff who work late or attend social events.
Installing emergency devices such as panic buttons.
Ensuring everyone responsible for investigating complaints of sexual harassment understands how to undertake the investigation.

The above list is not exhaustive. The measures you are required to take to abide by the law will depend on what is reasonable in your organisation. If you need any assistance in understanding how the law affects you, our leading HR experts are here to help.