Workplace harassment

Harassment in the workplace refers to unwelcome conduct or behaviour based upon a particular personal characteristic such as age, race, gender, disability, religion, or sexuality. This is an objective test which means just because an individual may not consider their behaviour unwelcome, doesn’t mean it isn’t.

All circumstances must be considered when assessing whether conduct is unwelcome. It’s important to consider the nature of the conduct and whether the victim has communicated that the conduct is welcome/unwelcome. It can also be useful to assess the difference between the two individuals. Often, an individual may feel like they can’t speak up if they perceive they’re in a position of substantially less power.

Whilst someone can suffer bullying and harassment at the same time, harassment can consist of one single incident.

Harassment, like bullying, is unlawful and should be dealt with following the same process of prevention and action: ensuring there’s a policy, staff are thoroughly trained, and any complaints have sufficient detail and are adequately investigated.

Luckily, where there’s a workplace harassment problem, there’s a workplace harassment solution.

Citation HR helps tens of thousands of businesses across two countries and has a go-to suite of both quantitative and qualitative well-being measures – essentially, antidotes for harassment.

Perhaps more importantly, Citation HR can guide you through the correct response when instigating, receiving, or investigating harassment accusations. Get in touch with our friendly team for a confidential, no-obligation chat here.