Anti Harassment and Bullying Training

People need to feel safe and secure when they go to work.  When someone is being bullied it can impact their emotional and physical health in a number of way including anxiety, muscle pain, depression and sleep loss. Bullying can take many forms including physical bullying, psychological bullying and cyber bullying.The impact can also be felt acutely by the company so having anti harassment and bullying training available to managers is important. A company can suffer by reduced performance of employees, a hostile working environment and the bullied employee frequently taking days off sick..

According to research carried out by the TUC and ACAS,

• nearly one in three people have experienced bullying in the workplace,
• women are more likely than men to be the victims of bullying.
• Those between 40 and 59 years old are also more likely to be the victims of bullying.
• 72% of cases reported that the instigator of bullying in the workplace was their line manager
• Of those who reported that they were being bullied, 36% left their job because of it.
• 17% of employees have experienced some form of cyber bullying

Harassment definition – any threatening conduct that has the purpose of violating a person’s dignity. It can by physical, verbal or non-verbal and creates an intimidating, hostile or humiliating environment for the target.”

Bullying definition – offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour. It involves the misuse of power that can make a person feel vulnerable, humiliated, undermined or threatened.”

This course is aimed at anyone who employs staff. For smaller companies, where there is no HR department, anyone in a management role is advised to understand how workplace bullying should be handled.  This is an ideal course for these purposes as it enables these companies to set up robust anti bullying policies in advance of any bullying taking place, which will make dealing with bullying easier for everyone involved. It is also likely to avoid loss of productivity and will help to make large cost  saving.

The course is also a useful tool for HR managers and supervisors or managers of any sized company who are currently trying to solve the problem of workplace bullying in their department. HR departments should also be more aware of the heightened risks to employees of cyber bullying, especially as more people work remotely and are often more isolated.

All companies who employ staff must have an “Anti-Harassment and Bullying Policy”.  Companies must also demonstrate a commitment to providing a working environment free from harassment and bullying.  Employees must understand and follow codes of behaviour that respects the rights of their co-workers. These rights should be clearly set out in the company’s anti-harassment and bullying policy. Staff should understand the potential consequence of any abusive behaviour towards co-workers covering all forms of bullying, including cyber bullying.. 

Managers should also observe the requirements of the policy.  If they are unfamiliar with the procedures, they should consider taking an anti-harassment and bullying training course. This will help them to understand their responsibilities to all employees under the policy.

This training course give you the material to set out processes and procedures on how the company deals with bullying in the workplace.  Using widely recognised definition of bullying in the workplace, you will have the tools to set out an effective “Anti Harassment and Bullying Policy”, along with codes of behaviour in employee handbooks.

You will learn what advice an employee needs in the event of reporting being bullied. Importantly the course shows managers how to seek out informal resolutions before  more formal proceedings need to be pursued.

Where formal proceedings cannot be avoided, on completion of the course, you will understand what needs to be done, and in what order.  Depending on the nature of the harassment or bullying, the person making the complaint may be wish to use The Equality Act, 2010 to support their claim.

The course looks how any investigation should be conducted and who should, and should not, be the investigating officer in the case. This is to allow for objective and impartial treatment of all parties involved.

By the end of the training you will also understand the time frames all parties should work towards and ways to protect the rights of the accuser and the accessed.  This can include rights to change working arrangements while an investigation is in progress. We also look at confidentiality, data protection and the rights of witnesses in these cases along with any rights of appeal.