Harassment Prevention

(October 2003)

Authored by Melissa Yee

Harassment is a particular form of discrimination and is behaviour designed to make a person feel unwelcome, offended, humiliated and/or intimidated. It is illegal if it adversely affects a person's employment. There is an emphasis on it being repeated behaviour, often in front of co-workers, clients or customers. In the workplace it can be identified by looking at increased levels of sick leave, staff turnover and decreased productivity in a particular area. Specifically, the types of injuries r esulting from bullying and violence in the workplace are both physiological (bruising, cuts, fractures) and psychological (anxiety disorders, depression, social phobias, insomnia and stress conditions). The effects are not limited to the target of the attacks as witnesses may also suffer significant distress and anxiety. Businesses are being forced to recognise bullying's impact as costs have been shown to impact the Australian economy between $6 billion and $13 billion each year up to $36 billion if a high er incidence rate occurred (O'Hagan, 2002).

Indications that bullying may be occurring in the workplace can be direct (complaints, incident reports) or indirect (negative feedback on working relationships from staff at exit interviews, high absenteeism and turnover, difficulty in retaining new recruits, physical cues from an individual such as regularly torn uniforms and broken tools or, multiple minor workplace injuries). In particular, organisational change (internal restructuring potentially causing poor informational flow, and poor wor kplace relationships) and job change (particularly without clearly defining new role) can lead to environments that foster bullying behaviour. Warnings signs that bullying is occurring should be addressed by management. Approaches can include reviewing work hours and staff rosters, fostering open communication, conducting anonymous staff surveys, and scheduling 'casual' meetings with potential victims.

Employers are responsible for providing a safe working environment to their employees without health risks. Thus, the employer has a duty to ensure as far as is practicable that bullying and violence do not occur in the workplace. The main way this can be accomplished is to establish an open system of communication at all levels within the organisation and ensure mechanisms are in place to allow employee input in decision making. The employee is in turn responsible for ensuring they take reasonab le care of their own safety and of others', and that they co-operate with management in any action taken by the organisation to provide a safe work environment.

To prevent bullying and violence in the workplace, an organisation must set clear guidelines and have simple precautions in place at the commencement of employment to counter all forms of harassment, including bullying. These can be used as the basis for a program to identify, investigate and resolve instances of workplace bullying and violence against all staff (including supervisors and management) occurring in an organisation from internal (co-workers, supervisors and management) and external sources (clients and customers). Employers can use the guidelines to reduce the risk of this occurring and to educate employees on how to reduce the risk of exposure to bullying and occupational violence within the workplace. Employers must ensure they have the employee read the company policy and sign a declaration that they have. These policies need to be absolutely clear on what would be seen as serious misconduct. In general, workplace training should be implemented immediately, before any problems aris e. Induction is the time to devote significant amount of time to this. Employees should also be regularly updated, preferably with fresh approaches to keep the issue and the information alive.

Preventative measures which can be taken to minimise the risks of bullying occuring within the organisation include:
§ consult and discuss within the organisation,
§ create an awareness of the issues,
§ develop policy,
§ provide training, information and instruction for staff,
§ look for warning signs, and
§ encourage reporting of incidents.

An organisation needs to consult with their staff (including management and supervisors), drawing on their experience, knowledge and ideas when first realising a workplace bullying and violence strategy. This should happen in the most productive setting for the organisation (committee meetings, informal discussions, staff meetings, etc). All levels of staff should have input in the decision-making process (awareness raising policy, no-bullying policy, reporting procedures, incident investigation procedures) as open organisations with good channels of communication at all levels tend to have lower incidence of bullying. During this process organisations should provide employees with information (e.g. policies and procedures), training (e.g. employee in a supervisory role provided with training to acquire appropriate skills) and instruction that enables staff to work safely and without risk to their health.

Management should encourage staff to report any incidents of bullying and violence. The formal reporting of incidents allows an employer to address specific instances of bullying, to understand the nature and extent of bullying occurring within the organisation and to provide assistance promptly to individuals affected by bullying. The system of reporting should be regularly evaluated to ensure it is working effectively. After an incident is reported management needs to conduct an investigation, consider options for complaint resolution, and offer support to the complainant (by debriefing and counselling. Investigations should be conducted by an appropriate person (e.g. H&S manager, Equal Opportunity manager) and if the complaint is supported, an agreed strategy for resolution needs to be implemented. Both parties need to be informed of the decision, and options for resolution considered. Resolution of a complaint is a vital step in dealing with bullying in the workplace. The nature of resoluti on needs to be determined on a case by case basis, as each case is different. Training, counselling and discipline for the offender, counselling for the target, removal of the perpetrator and mediation, with an apology from the offender should all be considered possible paths to resolution. The offence, if substantiated should be recorded in the perpetrator's personnel file.

To avoid any possible 'conflicts of interest' and to ensure people have confidence in the process the option of bringing in a skilled person from the outside should always be seriously considered an option. Every claim should be taken seriously and investigated discreetly and thoroughly

Consultation should occur regarding the development of:
- an awareness raising strategy
- a no-bullying policy
- procedures for reporting incidents
- incident investigation procedures

Consultation should also occur in relation to the following changes that may increase
the risk of bullying:
- job changes
- organisational changes

As an employer you should provide appropriate information about your policy and
procedures on bullying when you:
- recruit staff
- provide induction training
- engage contractors or supply services to others
- appoint or promote managers and supervisors

Seek help from a GP, WorkCover (131 050), a psychologist (The Australian Psychological Society has a national referral service, 1800 333 497) or a grass-roots organisation such as Beyond Bullying (http://cwpp.slq.qld.gov.au/bba).

Disclaimer:

The information provided on this page does not constitute treatment and in no way replaces direct advice from qualified professionals providing tailored solutions to particular workplaces and individuals.

References

O'Hagan, J. Bully Busters. The Sydney Morning Herald, July 20, 2002