One month left for employers to prepare for the new duty to prevent sexual harassment – what steps is your organisation taking?

The latest guidance can be found here.

A month from today, employers in the UK will be subject to a new duty to take reasonable steps to prevent their employees being sexually harassed in the course of their employment.

In anticipation of the duty coming into force on 26 October, and with the volume “up” on how organisations are responding to this, we’ve been working with businesses across all industries and sectors to support them in preparing for the introduction of the new legislative requirements.

Devising a strategy and taking a proactive approach to this change in law should be a central focus for employers in the coming month. That way, employers will be able to demonstrate a clear commitment to their workforce from the outset.

If you are looking to discuss some ideas or work through your proposed plans, please get in touch with us. However, in the meantime, here is our first round of top tips for getting your organisation ready:

1. Carry out an audit to help you establish what approach is right for your workforce. This should look at what you are already doing in terms of diversity, equality and inclusion and how you can build on this in compliance with the new duty. As part of any audit, you should also be looking to establish whether there are specific areas of your organisation that are more susceptible to risk or where there have been prior complaints of this kind. This analysis should help inform an appropriate strategy.
2. Train your workforce and make sure that this training is engaging, meaningful and properly tailored to the recipients. Many businesses are looking at company-wide training, along with bespoke sessions for leadership, managers and other key stakeholders.
3. Prepare and introduce a sexual harassment at work policy which clearly articulates what such behaviour can look like and how the organisation will be responding to it. Through this type of policy, you should be providing your workforce with a clear understanding of how to report sexual harassment at work, what to do if they witness this happening and how complaints/concerns will be managed.

Our recent training webinar on how to comply with the new employer duty to prevent sexual harassment discussed the above and more. If you would like to discuss getting access to the webinar recording, as well as a copy of the slides and a template sexual harassment policy, please contact your usual Burness Paull contact or reach out to Jamie.Meechan@burnesspaull.com.

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