As more research highlights how widespread sexual harassment still is at work and how little many employers are doing to tackle this, the spotlight is on coaches to explore how they might help.
Despite nearly 4 in 10 (37%) women having been sexually harassed at work in the past 12 months and the rise of the #MeToo movement helping increase awareness of the problem, many employers are failing to take adequate steps, according to a survey.
Coaches can support clients to come forward about sexual harassment, and can help unearth common organisational cultural themes and patterns of behaviour that contribute to normalising harassment.
Some 52% of respondents to a survey of 2,000 women by law firm Slater and Gordon said their employer had taken no action to combat sexual harassment, while 56% said their organisation did not have a sexual harassment policy, or they weren’t aware of one. The firm is urging the UK government to make it mandatory for all organisations to have such a policy, which it hopes would help tackle inappropriate behaviour.
“It takes courage to report sexual harassment and the confidence that your employer will listen and support you, but I think many companies are still ignorant to the severity of the problem or are choosing to turn a blind eye,” said Clare Armstrong, an employment lawyer with the firm.
“Sexual harassment at work is unlawful and can be the basis for an employment tribunal claim against the employer and the individual perpetrator. Employers are obliged to take reasonable steps to prevent it and if they fail to do so they are unlikely to have a good defence,” she said.
The survey revealed that not only have many female employees experienced harassment, 39% have witnessed a colleague being abused. Some 28% claimed they still had a predatory male colleague or boss who harassed female members of staff. Comments deemed suggestive or inappropriate were the most common form of harassment reported (16%) while 11% reported having been subjected to sexually explicit or sexist conduct and 6% having been groped by a colleague.