How to create a culture of trust?

In this edition of #todayinposh, I want to continue to discuss on how to build trust in the system so that the survivors of sexual harassment feel comfortable and safe in reaching out to the Internal Committee.

For that, we need to understand that the most important step to tackle sexual harassment is cultural change. Culture in the workplace is often set by the biggest personality or the person who is the most senior. But what is really needed is to create open and inclusive cultures so that every staff member can feed into equally and feel able to speak out, to call out behaviour that is unacceptable or makes them feel uncomfortable.

Sexual harassment often is an escalation of behaviour. In many cases, it may start with a seemingly "harmless sexist joke or a crude comment". These perpetrators often have a specific set of tactics that allow them to “test the water” with small behaviours, showing them what they can and can’t get away with. If these actions don’t elicit or draw any response from those around them who notice it but don’t necessarily call it out, they will see that as a sign that they can continue to escalate their behaviours.

This is why it is vital to not let these actions go unnoticed or unreported. Such behaviours need to be called out from the beginning.

Does your organisation support a culture where anyone, regardless of who they are, feel empowered to speak up and call out a behaviour that is making them uncomfortable?

To create such a culture, one of the ways is to build a robust reporting mechanism system, which means:

• Do the employees know the names and contact details of Internal Committee members?
• Are they aware of the process of how to raise the complaint with the Internal Committee members?
• Do they have confidence that it will be a fair and impartial inquiry process?
• Are they protected from retaliation?