Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER FEBRUARY 2019 NEWS 9 who's experiencing it because it really creates a toxic work envi- ronment and people start think- ing, 'Oh, am I next?' And then it creates a feeling of helplessness and then you end up (with) higher turnover where people may just choose to leave." Training, culture important One way to get out in front of workplace harassment and abuse is to adopt a more stringent edu- cation regime, said Boucher. "Our research indicates the most successful tool for reducing harassment involves workplace training," he said. "For managers and front-line supervisors, they need training that's going to help them enforce the zero-tolerance policy around harassment." But there must be an ongoing process for training to succeed because a lot of people think one time is good enough, according to Giuff re. "It's like any education, it's got to be an ongoing or recur- ring theme. It can't just be 'Yep, we can check that box off . We've talked about our anti-harassment policy and procedures.' It's got to be ongoing, and you have to foster a culture of acceptance of diverse cultures, races every day." Training also needs to be un- derscored for those who witness workplace abuse, according to Highnam. "By far, the most powerful de- mographic in the workplace are bystanders. To say that 'We're going to bully-proof targets' or 'We're going to hunt down all the bullies' is probably not advisable or even possible. We try to ad- dress the bystanders as the most prevalent and the most infl uential component of creating (a positive) workplace environment." But that training needs to be followed up with a corporate cul- ture shift, he said. "Education and training is es- sential but it has to be embedded in a corporate or workplace cul- ture that says, 'We're also going to support you when you (report) it,' because when people take a step out onto the limb and try and call people on their behaviour and management doesn't sup- port them, then they learn pretty quickly that that's not a safe thing to do." e large-scale culture change must begin in the C-suite, accord- ing to Boucher. "Addressing harassment in the workplace shouldn't just be a concern for human resources, it needs to be a priority for senior leadership," he said. "They set the tone and they communicate in a lot of ways by their actions what the company culture is. If you have a culture that accepts harassment, that's going to embolden harassers, and it's going to dissuade people from reporting harassment." For human resources, the message must be consistently reinforced, said Giuffre, citing employers that say, "I want our culture to be this." "You can't just state a culture, you've got to create culture and policies are a big part of that. But there's more to that — there's communication, evidence-based culture where you show that you practise what you preach, those kinds of things." Communicating to clients and customers Communicating an anti-harass- ment message to clients and cus- tomers is also crucial to prevent- ing workplace abuse, according to Highnam. "Often, people don't realize that the obligations of creating a safe and respectful workplace extend to service providers and contrac- tors. Communication is obviously the most important preventive piece for any contract for service that you extend; it should have that respectful workplace type of clause in it." Even though employers might be reluctant to chastise customers for uncivil behaviour towards em- ployees, it is a necessary endeav- our, said Giuff re. "If you become aware of an abusive situation with a client, you have to show that you're pro- tecting your employees and that you don't tolerate that inside your organization or outside your orga- nization," she said. "That's a tough one because that's money coming in the door — but you also have to show that you stand up for your employees." Training must be ongoing HARASSMENT < pg. 3 Focus on health care The problem of harassment in the workplace is most acute for health-care workers, with 22 per cent reporting an incident of abuse during the past year, according to Statistics Canada. That number is not surprising, said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) in Toronto. "The workforce in health care is predominantly female, probably 85 per cent female, and Canadian society has a very high tolerance of violence directed against women." Unique challenges in the health-care industry are also why there is a high number of incidents, he said. "People are more likely to be working by themselves and more vulnerable to being threatened and… we see people who are intoxicated." OCHU data has found even higher numbers for health-care harassment, said Hurley. "In the hospitals, 70 per cent, approximately, of front-line care workers reported that they were physically or verbally assaulted at least once in the last year, and 20 per cent were assaulted more than nine times. And 42 per cent reported that they were sexually harassed or sexually assaulted."

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