Whilst all reputable employers want to protect their employees from sexual harassment at work, new legislation is in place from October 2024 which puts the responsibility on employers to take all “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment from happening in their workplace. 

If you aren’t focussed on this already, now is the time to get everything in place so that you can both safeguard your employees and protect your bottom line. Did you know that tribunals will now be able to increase compensation awarded by 25% where it is found that the employer has not done everything possible to prevent sexual harassment from taking place?

To give some background, in 2022/2023 the average award for sexual harassment claims in UK employment tribunals was £37,607 (the maximum award was £995,128). 

I’m sure you will agree that these are significant amounts of money for any businesses to pay where an employee claim is successful. 

You may be asking yourself the question what do I need to do to get this right?

In summary, I recommend taking the following steps without delay:

✅ Put in place a fit for purpose harassment policy, or if you have one already carry out a review to make sure it is covering everything needed to be effective.

✅ Provide training for everyone with line management responsibility so they are clear on what they need to know, be and do to deal with complaints of sexual harassment.

✅ Brief all employees on sexual harassment, including what is it, why it is not acceptable, the consequences of inappropriate behaviour at work and importantly, how employees can report concerns. 

✅Plan to revisit all of these areas regularly, after all, a tribunal judge is very unlikely to consider a one-off training programme as taking all reasonable steps.

This may feel like there is a lot to do but protecting your people at work and avoiding the financial cost and reputational damage that a tribunal claim could bring is really important to address.

By taking the actions I have outlined here without delay you will keep your business on track. 

If you are concerned about putting a suitable sexual harassment policy in place, or you don’t have internal expertise to deliver training for your people let’s have a confidential conversation about how I can support you to get this done.

You can put some time in my diary directly here (link: https://calendly.com/blackkat-hr/20-minute-exploration-call)  or drop me over an email at [email protected]