UK: EHRC research recommends effective interventions to prevent harassment

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published research examining the causes of workplace harassment and the most effective interventions.  

The proactive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment will be enhanced to a requirement to take all reasonable steps, with effect from 30 October 2026.  Given that regulations setting out a (non-exhaustive) list of reasonable steps are not expected until 2027 at the earliest, this research provides a useful list of recommendations worth considering when preparing for the October reforms (in addition to the EHRC's 2024 Technical Guidance).  We discuss this research and the forthcoming reforms to harassment laws in our latest podcast available here.  

The research identifies hierarchical structures, male-dominated workforces and precarious job contracts as key risk factors for workplace harassment, along with poor supervisory relationships. It notes that low reporting rates do not necessarily indicate a lack of harassment, as employees may feel unable to report due to fear of retaliation, and reporting rates may increase in response to improvements in workplace culture.  Recommendations include:

• collecting good organisational data on the prevalence and scope of harassment, in order to identify the specific organisational risk factors and inform tailored plans to reduce workplace harassment.  Data sources could include employee culture surveys and quantitative metrics such as staff turnover, promotion or absence rates;
• at least one internal and one external reporting route, including anonymous reporting;
• clearly-communicated zero tolerance policies (which it suggests should set out what sanctions could be imposed on perpetrators and what factors are relevant when determining sanctions);
• integrating anti-harassment interventions into existing structures of performance management and professional development for leaders and managers, for example through accreditation schemes or performance targets;
• timely and repeated training tailored to job level and team/site, which ideally should be behaviour-based and interactive and use real scenarios;  bystander training is recognised as particularly effective.

Please do get in touch with your usual HSF Kramer contact if you would like to discuss in more detail how to prepare for the 30 October changes.