Acas urges UK employers to strengthen harassment prevention ahead of October reforms

Acas is urging employers to prepare now for the tougher sexual harassment prevention duty coming into force on 30 October. In new advice published on 15 September, Acas says employers need to make preventing sexual harassment part of how their organisation operates every day. It points to recent YouGov polling commissioned by Acas which found that 41% of employers were unaware of the forthcoming change.
For employers that already have policies, training and other preventative measures in place, there is another important question – how do they know whether those measures are actually working? We’ll speak to discrimination expert Susi Donaldson about that.
The effectiveness of employers’ existing arrangements is also attracting attention in the HR press which reports on research by compliance training provider VinciWorks involving 985 UK HR and compliance professionals. People Management reports that one in five employers provide no specific sexual harassment training for their managers. HR Review highlights wider concerns over the quality of training, with almost half of respondents – who were HR and compliance professionals – saying their sexual harassment training needs improvement. 
Those findings are particularly relevant given the higher standard employers will soon have to meet, with the existing duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment being strengthened to require all reasonable steps, a key point covered in our Global EDI Conference in May.
So, how should employers be testing the effectiveness of their preventative measures? Susi Donaldson joined me by phone from Glasgow to discuss the issue and I put that question to her:
Susi Donaldson: “Employers need to move beyond simply measuring whether training has been completed and consider whether their preventative measures are actually effective. So the conference findings showed that while three quarters of participants in the survey had delivered workplace-wide sexual harassment training, fewer than a quarter had internal systems in place to actually monitor the effectiveness of the training and other preventative measures. The type of training that you implement does matter too. So, the conference found that 66% of participants were using e-learning, while only around a third supplemented that with small group discussion and given the nuances and the grey areas involved in this area, we do recommend that that employers should consider opportunities for their employees to discuss the issues, ask questions, and raise concerns rather than relying on compliance-based e-learning alone. Of course, it's imperative that employers use anything they do learn to improve their approach. So, employee engagement can help employers understand what people are actually experiencing, and whether they feel comfortable speaking up, allowing training and other preventative measures to be reviewed and then adapted where necessary.”
Joe Glavina: “What role should line managers play in preventing harassment, and what support and training do they need to do that effectively?”
Susi Donaldson: “Line managers are often on the coal face. They're often closest to what is happening within teams and are therefore very well placed to identify concerns and take early proactive action rather than waiting for an employee to make a formal complaint so we do recommend that that managers undertake specific training on how to manage harassment issues effectively. They really do need to understand the organisation's expectations, and they need to understand how to recognise inappropriate behaviour and how to respond in the moment and escalate those concerns when they arise. A top-down approach is also important. So managers need to understand that preventing harassment is part of their role and be equipped and supported to reinforce expected standards within their own teams.”
Joe Glavina: “What can employers do to create a culture where employees feel able to speak up about harassment, and how can employers identify problems before they escalate?”
Susi Donaldson: “Employee engagement is a is a hugely important part of prevention. Employers need to understand what their employees are actually experiencing and whether they feel comfortable speaking up, rather than just assuming that the absence of formal complaints means there's no problem. Quite often, it's actually the opposite, and could be indicative of a lack of confidence in the reporting mechanisms. Engagement can help uncover risks that formal processes may miss, so small group discussions and conversations with employees can help identify known secrets within the organisation, geographical hotspots, and perhaps particular departmental risks which need to be reflected in your organisation's risk assessment and in the corresponding preventative measures being adopted. And again, it's so important that this sits alongside a clear top-down approach from senior management, creating an environment in which employees are able to raise concerns, combined with managers who are equipped to identify and act on problems early, should help employers identify the risks and take preventative action before problems escalate.”
Susi and the team are currently helping a number of clients strengthen their approach to harassment prevention ahead of the 30 October deadline. If you would like help with this, please do contact Susi – her details are on screen for you.