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How can we step up to stop workplace bullying and harassment?

Steve Bridger

It takes courage to speak up about inappropriate behaviour at work and from experience we know that CIPD members reach out to their peers here in our Community. There is quite a bit of evidence from these forums that this behaviour is quite common, and we often discuss what we can do if allegations are made. 

We have a specific group to discuss bullying and harassment (although I've posted this to an open access group for a wider circulation).

This is in the news again at the moment and it would be good to hear how you think HR should tackle bad behaviour and toxic culture in the workplace. 

 Sharing experiences helps us all to have the confidence to step up and lead in creating safe cultures for everyone.

CIPD research shows mixed and disappointing results on the ability of managers and organisations to deal compassionately and effectively with complaints.

The people profession must be at the forefront of fostering open, inclusive working cultures that don’t tolerate inappropriate behaviour anywhere in the organisation. People need to know they will be listened to, treated fairly and that complaints will be acted on quickly and resolved. This gives a clear signal to the workforce that bullying and harassment won’t be tolerated and supports better working lives for everyone.

Conflict ranges from low-level differences of opinion to more serious incidents of bullying and harassment. These can become even more likely if bad habits become entrenched in company culture, so it’s vital that we and our employers are proactive, and act swiftly on any unwanted behaviour.

Finally, I just wanted to signpost our resources on navigating this space here.

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  • I was tweeting about this only this morning Steve. It's a regular topic of my tweets. I think HR professionals have a large part to play in the culture of organisations we work for and with. Our specialism is about people and culture is partly about how collectively the individuals within an organisation show up. HR are the custodians of culture but only in that we should have a particular interest in it and support what behaviours we tolerate organisationally. That said, HR are people and I've worked for some bullying bosses and withint toxis teams where bad behaviour is left unchecked and tolerated within and outside of the team.

    What can we do about it?
    *Well it's good that it's talked about, uncovered, dealt with and we should expect a strong culture, that lives by espoused values we often see on the wall or in the handbook or constitution, to deal with behaviour that transgresses those values. We shouldn't be afraid of increased numbers of grievances, complaints etc necessarily, if we are serious about rooting this out and dealing with it numbers could go up.
    *Create safe spaces. Psychological safety to state when we are unhappy and know where to go to confidentially speak about it is critical. This could be HR or an employee assistance line or any number of other sources of support and not always a manager.
    *Train our people well. To spot behaviours in themselves and others. I tend to see less and less cohesive and coordinated training and learning across the employee lifecycle these days in favour of specific programes and self service, self directed learning. I think it needs to be strategic and systemic approach to development.
    *Tackle transgressors. This isn't always about firing them, it depends on the allegations and the case to answer for but leaving things unaddressed allows transgressors to believe they are doing nothing wrong and then, when they do get caught perhaps later on in their career, they have a hard time dealing with it, taking accountability for their own behaviour and making the changes they need in order to be effective in the workplace. That's when we see the apology / non-apology strategy coming out which is very, publicly in evidence these days.

    It's a complex issue that starts way back before people even get to work. It requires a systemic approach and HR have to walk the walk and deal with poor behaviours in their own team as well as support tackling that across the organisations and clients we work with.
  • in reply to Sharon
    That's great, Sharon. Thanks for sharing.
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