From compliance to culture: how the new legislation can truly enhance workplace safety and trust, by Paul O’Donnell 

HR teams are great at compliance. When a new piece of legislation comes in, like the Worker Protection Act (from October 2024), there will be a list of measures in place. Ready for the board, ready for an employment tribunal to check. Belt and braces. 

HR teams need to review systems and policies and ask themselves whether they are working, do staff at all levels feel able to come forward without concerns about implications for their career? 

The real question is not whether employers are ‘ready’ for the new WPA legislation, but if the usual kinds of recommendations for compliance will make any difference to the lives of employees. Are they actually being ‘protected’ from stressful, disturbing, depressing situations that they can feel powerless to do anything about? 

In other words, there’s a need for an intervention in terms of learning and development, and work that leads to long-lasting culture change. 

HR departments are being warned that the WPA is serious because, although there is already the duty of care and liability to have taken “reasonable steps” to prevent harassment at work, now tribunals will have the authority to increase compensation by 25% if those steps haven’t been taken.  

They’re expected to ensure the right anti- harassment policies are in place, there’s training for everyone on the policies, and a formal process to ensure incidents are addressed in a consistent and “appropriate” way. But that’s not touching on the root issues.  

Addressing root issues, not just symptoms

The point of the WPA is to prevent people having to work in an organisational culture where they might be subject to sexual harassment, or other kinds of bullying, and nothing is done about it. Where the culture would rather not know. Where the power relationships involved mean it’s best to stay quiet if careers aren’t going to be curtailed or ruined. There’s the use of non-disclosure agreements and a general state of acceptance when it comes to misuse of different forms of power and authority.  

So, the WPA should not be just a minor amendment that can be addressed through box-ticking ahead of October. The Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance is due to be published in September 2024, which will help with providing some clarity and consensus around the many grey areas involved in what are “reasonable steps”. But too late in terms of making progress on actual change to behaviours and culture. 

The spirit of the law  

What’s important is taking the opportunity to do something about the spirit and intention of the legislation: there’s a problem inside many different workplace cultures – as has been demonstrated by the series of scandals, everywhere from the Houses of Parliament to the CBI and McDonald’s – and there needs to be change.  

Not just for compliance, but to create an environment of trust, a confidence that line managers and organisations as a whole will do the right thing; that there can be open conversations to deal with concerns early on; and all the kinds of positive cycles of behaviours that ultimately lead to more engagement and motivation. And because employees are becoming more alert and sensitive to what might constitute harassment; more willing to use social media. New scandals are only waiting to be exposed.  

HR can use the Worker Protection Act as an opportunity for competitive advantage; by creating an environment where sexual harassment is very unlikely – not because of those basic reasonable steps, but because it involves a ‘Clear Air’ culture. That means a workplace that is willing to open up, encourage honesty and more conversations that deal with root issues of power and inequality, making constructive forms of challenge a normal and healthy part of how things are done. 

Effective training and support  

HR teams need to review systems and policies and ask themselves whether they are working, do staff at all levels feel able to come forward without concerns about implications for their career? But that’s just the beginning.  

There needs to be training around conversation skills and what’s needed for a framework for informal resolutions among staff generally, to:  

• Ensure there are trained staff able to provide mediation, not as a last resort when there is a serious conflict, but as a typical means of dealing with grievances.  

• Build up levels of conversation skills among managers in particular when it comes to dealing with sensitive situations and conflict, but staff more generally around listening, self-awareness and empathy etc. 

• Take time to understand what’s happening in the workplace environment, making use of an approach like neutral assessment within teams to get to the truth around relationships, attitudes to speaking out and feelings of psychological safety. 

• Demonstrate how there is the commitment to impartial investigations – and again, that means having staff internally who have been trained to professional standards. 

• Make sure the work on creating a culture of informal resolutions has active support from senior leadership and involves someone with personal responsibility for delivery. 

Where there’s a core of openness and trust at the heart of relationships and management, the idea of sexual harassment in the workplace will become something alien and unthinkable. 

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Paul O’Donnell is Managing Director at CMP Solutions