‘Our results indicate CEOs and boards can play more of a role’: New workplace data shows cultural change needs to come from the top
Australian workplaces have taken positive steps to address sexual harassment and discrimination in 2024, but there’s more work to be done.
This is according to new results released today by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), which provides the first look at how successfully employers are implementing initiatives to provide a safe workplace, since the introduction of the positive duty rules.
The WGEA crunched data about prevention and response to sexual harassment in 2024 from more than 7,000 medium and large employers, covering more than 5 million Australian employees.
This follows the Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report, drafted in 2020, which offered up a number of recommendations to overhaul the current Sex Discrimination Act 1984, which Kate Jenkins from Australian Human Rights Commission blasted as being “simply no longer fit for purpose.” A new ‘positive duty’ law was introduced at the end of 2022 placing the onus for workplace safety on the employer.
WGEA’s new results reveal that more is needed to ensure company leaders understand, and promote, expectations of a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace.
While nearly 99% of employers have a formal policy on work-related sexual harassment and discrimination, WGEA’s new data shows 28% of bosses are not monitoring how prevalent it is.
“While we are seeing comprehensive policy coverage, this is only a critical first step,” WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge said.
“Long-term culture change within organisations also requires employees and company leaders to know the policy, understand what’s in it and the part they play in its implementation.
“One of the insights from the Respect@Work Report is that proactive engagement by leadership is critical for long-term change.
“WGEA’s new results show that most CEOs are highly engaged in reviewing, signing off on and then communicating these policies (85%), however just over half (55%) of their Boards are similarly involved.”
WGEA’s results also show that anonymous disclosure is not treated as the priority it should be, with only 68% of companies offering this.
“The ability to protect a reporter’s identity with anonymous disclosure is important, given widespread underreporting of these serious issues,” Wooldridge said.
While 88% of employers reported offering training to their workforce, they are “most likely to provide training to all groups at induction and/or annually.”
Nearly all these employers cover respectful workplace conduct and behaviours expected of workers and leaders in training programs, however just 70% of these programs cover drivers and contributing factors of sexual harassment, 62% covers bystander training, and less than half (45%) tackle the diverse experiences and needs of different people.
87% of employers reported incorporating some kind of sexual harassment prevention activities in risk management processes.
“While employers are training employees with the knowledge and understanding to respond to complaints, employers also now have a responsibility to stop sexual harassment before it starts,” Wooldridge said.
“Our results indicate CEOs and Boards can play more of a role in proactively enabling a safe and respectful culture by communicating the employer’s expectations more regularly to all employees.
“Overall, we are seeing positive progress in relation to the prevention and responses to sexual harassment but there’s more to be done. Future WGEA reporting will be able to monitor progress on this.
“WGEA’s new results expand employers’ understanding of where they are doing well and helps to inform their plans for action to create safer, more inclusive and more respectful workplace environments for all employees.”
85% of employers had their sexual harassment and discrimination policy reviewed by the CEO and 55% had it reviewed by the Board. However, just 25% of CEOs communicated the organisation’s expectations with new staff at induction, while less than one in ten will reiterate this ahead of big work events, like Christmas parties.
While 72% of employers indicated that they collect data when taking a report, just 64% also record the number of formal complaints made in a year in their company. Less than one in three record the gender of the complainant/aggrieved or victim – or of the person who perpetrated the abuse (30%).
“Where safe and practicable to do so, employers should collect and use prevalence information to better understand experiences of sexual harassment in their workplace, as well as across industries, and to identify areas requiring action,” the report recommends.
Later this month WGEA will release “a comprehensive analysis of the private sector’s performance on workplace gender equality” in the Australia’s Gender Equality Scorecard – 2024.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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topics
Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report
WGEA
Workplace Gender Equality Agency
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