By Angie Newland @ Angels Admin Support
Wearing what I call my “HR Hat” when I read things like the new laws/duty coming into place on
preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, I become increasingly concerned for some of the
small firms that I work with in the Financial Services Sector. Why, you ask?
There are so many firms that I come across that do not have an HR department/or HR consultant
due to being a small firm and believing that they do not need that type of support (please refer to
one of my previous blogs where most of them do not even think they needed to have Employment
contracts!) or they tell me that they have an HR software/App, and on investigation I then find out
they do not use it for anything other than literally working out their employees holiday entitlement,
and generally none of the firms ever seem to think that anything in relation to HR applies to them!
So, when I read things like the Blog by Edwin Coe LLP by their Employment Team about the changes
coming into place from 26 th October 2024 in relation to what is expected of Employers to prevent
sexual harassment in the workplace, this is where I become concerned.
Although it states that the changes are going to be dependent on the size of company, the sector,
and resources available etc, I think it should be noted that this is something that the FCA have
already highlighted as being on their radar, and something that they will be cracking down on under
“non-financial misconduct”. It is crystal clear to me that firms “just” having a Sexual harassment
policy is not going to cut it anymore.
What is going to be expected then? Some of the “suggestions” have been -
A detailed Risk Assessment of the workplace
Providing tailored anti-harassment training to employees
Having a “speak up” culture
Appointing a person/committee/representative to oversee and ensure compliance
Review of policies and procedures and updates made to ensure they are effective and not
just a “tick box” process
What does it mean from a tribunal perspective? It means that if an employee takes you to a tribunal
the judges will expect to see documented proof of the reasonable steps taken by the employer
before the employee went to tribunal, and the employee will be asked to note down all the things
that they felt the employer should have done to prevent the sexual harassment.
The tribunal penalty for this is not yet clear, but ask yourself this question – Can my firm afford to
have a sexual harassment claim against it? - Aside from the overall cost and the time spent on
something like this, Imagine the unease and the high possibility of many of the remaining employees
leaving, the reputational damage, the additional costs for legal advice, the list just goes on.
So …….
What processes do you currently have in place within the firm to ensure that your employees are
protected in the workplace against sexual harassment?
Could you confidently prove at tribunal that you have done everything possible to protect your
employees against sexual harassment?
Do you include the risk of sexual harassment in your current risk assessing of the business?
Let me take a guess – you don’t think that this is something that applies to your firm? – Maybe it’s
time to have a rethink about that?!
Link to Blog by Edwin Coe LLP
If you would like to see how we at Angels Admin Support can assist you with Sexual Harassment
policies and procedures, Staff Training, or any of the other things mentioned in this blog, then please
do get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
Email: angie@angelsadminsupport.co.uk