Despite the cultural shifts sparked by #MeToo, the reality is that, statistically, workplace sexual harassment remains largely unchanged.
McKinsey reported this year that it remains just as prevalent as it was in 2018. Meanwhile, regular headlines indicate ongoing issues of sexual harassment in well known businesses, and a repeated failure to address problems by people who knew about them.
In the UK, we’re finally seeing the wheels of more serious action begin to move, with the first legislative change on this for many years.
What’s changing?
From 26 October, a new legal duty will be enforced, meaning all UK employers face legal consequences if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace.
For over 20 years, we have partnered with businesses committed to building inclusive and respectful workplaces, including a desire proactively to prevent and tackle harassment. The difference now, is that there is a clear legal requirement to do this, and organisations must be able to demonstrate that they have actively taken reasonable steps to tackle the risks.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Employer 8-step guide on preventing sexual harassment states that workers, including managers and senior staff, should be trained on: what sexual harassment in the workplace looks like; what to do if they experience and witness it; and how to handle any complaints of harassment, with more helpful detail on these points provided in the EHRC’s technical guidance and ACAS guide.
Are organisations ready?
A survey of 2,000 UK employers, released one month out from the law change, revealed that just 5% said they were well prepared.
Now facing increasing time pressure, many organisations are opting for what is perceived as a 'quick fix'; rolling out tick box training.
Whilst it is understandable that organisations need to raise awareness and satisfy the need to train their people, there are a number of problems with this approach.
Above all else, it cannot drive meaningful change.
Training solely through a legal, information-focused lens risks organisations falling short on compliance and unprepared for real cultural change—keeping us stuck without meaningful progress since 2018.
Why doesn’t tick box training alone drive change? What does effective training look like?
Understanding the theoretical and legal aspects of harassment is crucial, but there's a big difference between knowing definitions and actually understanding problematic behaviours: how they manifest; how to prevent and change them.
Training should do more than inform - it must resonate, inspire action, and ensure that everyone sees their role in tackling this issue.
A human-centred approach is needed: bringing the issue to life so that employees can truly engage, see themselves in realistic scenarios, reflect on their own responses, and take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplaces - including when it is happening by and to other colleagues.
That requires storytelling, personalisation, and real engagement with an issue. Every senior manager and people leader needs to be able to understand why eradicating sexual misconduct is important to the organisation and connect with this personally. They need to see the early indicators, stepping in and challenging cultures and conduct that creates environments where sexual harassment can thrive.
Ideally, it should also be bespoke to be relevant to the organisation, the roles and the particular risk factors in the business, rather than generic information which is not tailored to the specific realities in this workplace. Organisations also need to be conducting risk assessments to identify what these risk factors are and how they are going to address them.
How do we make meaningful change?
This effective, resonating training is important, but it’s just one step of the ongoing effort needed to change your organisation's culture and eliminate sexual harassment.
It’s not just about compliance and risk—it's about recognising the profound impact harassment has on individuals and the wider organisation. It’s an issue that has huge impact, and needs focus. It is also an indicator for your entire culture, and whether it’s truly a supportive one.
We see addressing the six areas below, and continuously evolving your approach to them, as the roadmap for a corporate organisation.
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To truly embed culture, you need to shift habits, mindsets, structures, and processes. Each of these six areas is, in essence, a reasonable step.
This is not a one time fix. It takes constant effort, every day by everyone, and the strategy around this will need to keep evolving.
These moments are opportunities to live your culture through your actions, and to reflect on how you can improve in the future.
But I think we have enough of a handle on it from our compliance training that we probably satisfy the new laws. Do we really need to be doing all of this?
If the moral and imminent legal imperatives for going beyond tick box training and making a real difference aren’t convincing enough, there are many other compelling reasons leaders should be thinking about.
Wellbeing
The human impact of sexual harassment cannot be underestimated. This is about keeping your people physically and psychologically safe. It is a health and safety issue, and should be seen as such.
Regulatory
Regulators are requiring more focus and accountability on conduct issues from regulated people and businesses. The regulatory consequences for individuals, organisations and sectors can be severe, potentially leading to loss of career or licence to operate.
Financial
When sexual harassment occurs (and it is occurring), your organisation faces a tremendous financial burden, not just in the money spent on investigating the issue, but in the loss of productivity.
On the other hand, creating a positive, respectful culture will mitigate these factors, and can also help performance and productivity levels to rise independently. Gallup released the world’s largest ever employee experience study earlier this year, and showed that the businesses in the top quartile of employee experience achieved 23% higher profits than those at the bottom.
Talent
The stakes are now also higher when considering the expectations of the new generation of employees. Millennials and Gen Z, who now make up a significant part of the workforce, expect transparency, inclusivity, and a clear stance on social issues from their employers and are more prepared to speak up when things are not right.
And culture is rising as a key factor for them, too. Investing in a genuine shift to your culture is essential to attracting and keeping the best talent.
Reputational
And, related to that, are your reputational risks. In today’s digital age, employees don’t limit their grievances to HR departments. Unresolved or mishandled issues can quickly spill over onto social media platforms or sites like Glassdoor, putting companies at risk of public backlash.
Speak-up cultures are crucial for keeping issues in-house, but if employees feel unheard, they may turn to public channels, which can harm a company’s reputation. We’ve worked with many companies where this is the case.
Wider legal risks
The reality is that an environment where sexual harassment is allowed to go on, is an environment where illegality is tolerated, and not one where people are empowered to call out wrongdoing or other risks to the business. Misconduct of all sorts may thrive.
As the ACAS guidance states: Sexual harassment is less likely to happen in an inclusive workplace where everyone is treated with respect. By taking a proper stance on sexual harassment, you set the tone against other things, too.
It is also important to consider wider issues around respect and harassment in the workplace that stop people feeling safe to be themselves and thriving.
We know this stuff isn’t easy. In fact, that’s the whole point. Don’t be lulled into papering over the cracks. Make a real difference.
We are helping organisations at varying levels of preparedness with preventing sexual harassment, and we can help you too. Please get in touch with either of us (Samantha Mangwana or Helen Dallimore), if you’d like support.
