Managing Workplace Bullying & Harassment
Bullying and harassment is a very real workplace experience for many employees. For many people, going to work every day can feel like entering a war zone. Research undertaken for the Department of Labour in 2009 revealed that the majority of employees will, at some time during their careers, be exposed to workplace bullying directly, or indirectly as observers.
Workplace bullying affects people physically and mentally, resulting in increased stress levels, decreased emotional wellbeing, reduced coping strategies and lower work performance. Bullying is bad for business, affecting productivity, disrupting the workplace and impacting on reputation and bottom line results.
Many employers and people leaders struggle with first identifying that there is a workplace bullying or harassment problem, and secondly what to do about it. At Shine People we have years of experience in advising and supporting employers to adress this issue, putting in place the frameworks and tools to deal effectively with workplace bullying and reduce the risk of failing to comply with the Health & Safety at Work Act and other relevant legislation. We can support you with the following:
- Policy development and implementation
- Training of line managers and supervisors to identify and manage workplace bullying and harassment issues
- Training of your people to understand what workplace bullying is, and isn't, and their role in creating respectful and bully free workplaces
- Training of Workplace Bullying and Harassment First Responders - people in your workplace who are first points of contact for WPBH issues
- Coaching to help a bully to understand the behaviors that are getting them into trouble
- Coaching of a target to help them to become 'bully proof'
Check out the workshops we do around preventing workplace bullying:
Understanding and Dealing with Workplace Bullying & Harassment
Preventing and Managing Workplace Bullying & Harassment
Did you know?
Workplace bullying is a significant hazard in New Zealand
Employers who don’t deal with it risk breaching the:
- Employment Relations Act 2000 (ERA)
- Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSAW Act)
- Human Rights Act 1993 (HRA)
Workplace Bullying defined
Workplace bullying is repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. (source WorkSafeNZ - Guidelines: Preventing and Responding to Workplace Bullying)
- Repeated behaviour is persistent and can involve a range of actions over time
- Unreasonable behaviour means actions that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would see as unreasonable. It includes victimising, humiliating, intimidating or threatening a person.
- A single incident of unreasonable behaviour is not considered workplace bullying, but it could escalate and should not be ignored.
We've written a range of blog posts and journal articles around this subject. Check them out below.
Workplace Bullying - The Silent Epidemic (Human Resources magazine)
Workplace Bullying.... what it is and isn't
How to address poor performance... and avoid a bullying allegation
Preventing and Responding to Workplace Bullying?
We've also got some resources you may find useful:
Factsheet: Bullying and Gender
Sources