Workplace harassment is a serious issue. To start, it severely damages company culture and your employees’ mental health. In turn, productivity goes down. Over time, a company that ignores or endorses harassment will gain a bad reputation among job candidates and potential customers. Retention drops, recruiting costs go up, and your budget steadily shrinks.
This vicious cycle won’t go away on its own. Fortunately, HR is in a perfect position to help. When you’re ready to end workplace harassment, it’s time to train your team in bystander intervention.
What Is Bystander Intervention?
The short answer is – it’s just what it sounds like. Bystander intervention is when a person witnesses bad behavior and steps in to help. And anyone can do it! Bystanders don’t have to be bosses or HR leaders. In some cases, having a peer step in is even more effective.
Bystander intervention doesn’t always happen right away. Sometimes, it’s better to wait a few minutes or hours, and then approach the person you saw being harassed. Speaking to them one-on-one can be less intimidating, and therefore more supportive. However, it can be hard for employees to know which tactic would be best. Proper training and HR support empower people to navigate these difficult situations.
Recognizing Harassment and Microaggressions
Before you can interrupt harassment, discrimination, or bullying, you need to know what it is. While there are countless types of harassment, these are some of the most common.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is an umbrella term. It normally refers to inappropriate behavior, comments, or gestures, but it’s sometimes used to describe unwanted physical touch. Sexual harassment might seem innocuous at first, but context matters. For example, politely asking a person out on a date isn’t necessarily harassment. But asking your direct report on a date, or asking a peer repeatedly even after they say no would be inappropriate. When left unchecked, sexual harassment often leads to sexual assault or abuse.
Sexual Assault or Abuse
Sexual assault – sometimes referred to as SA – is unwanted physical touch. The term could mean any kind of touch, from groping to rape. SA survivors use this term in a wide variety of ways, but it most commonly refers to rape. Sexual abuse typically refers to ongoing or repeated sexual assault, especially between people with a clear power differential.
Gender-Based Harassment
Sexism and transphobia are gender-based harassment, but not necessarily sexual. For example, asking a woman if she’s on her period could qualify as gender-based harassment.
Racial Discrimination
Race-based discrimination isn’t limited to intentional racism. For example, some employers see textured, natural hair as unprofessional. Supporters of the CROWN Act, however, say that policies prohibiting natural hair are a form of race-based discrimination. One study found that Black women’s hair is 2.5 times more likely to be seen as unprofessional at work (CROWN Workplace Research Study).
Verbal Harassment
Whether it’s bullying, discrimination, or outright emotional abuse, verbal harassment has no place at work. It can include yelling, name-calling, personal attacks, and other inappropriate comments.
Microaggressions
Of all the different types of harassment, microaggressions are the hardest to spot. These small comments or actions convey bias against historically marginalized groups. Microaggressions can relate to any form of discrimination – sexism, racism, homophobia, ableism, and so on. But unlike sexual assault or verbal abuse, microaggressions are often unintentional. For example, telling a woman she “should smile more” implies that her worth is tied to her looks or her emotional state.
Why Bystander Intervention Matters
Bystander intervention decreases violence and harassment (MIT). Training your team in these techniques serves several purposes. First, it empowers them to help when they witness bad behavior. What’s more, it opens up a company-wide conversation about harassment. Drawing attention to the problem empowers your team to hold each other accountable and recognize their own implicit biases.
In addition, the mere act of training your team sets the tone for company culture. It sends the message that HR cares about DE&I and that any reports of harassment will be taken seriously. The next step, of course, is for you to follow through on that commitment. Make sure you have a clear process in place to support anyone who experiences or witnesses harassment.
Methods of Intervention
Every situation is different, and it’s not always safe to intervene. Bystander intervention training teaches employees how to choose which response is the most likely to be effective.
Distract
Bystanders can distract the harasser’s attention to interrupt a difficult situation. Done well, this strategy should diffuse the situation. It can also buy time for the person being harassed, in case they want to leave the room or just take a moment to think.
Delegate
It’s not always safe – or appropriate – to intervene as soon as you witness harassment. For one thing, bystander intervention is not meant to put the bystander in harm’s way. And you might not have the skills or expertise to offer effective support. Imagine an employee sees his direct supervisor harassing someone on his team. He might not feel safe to join the conversation or stand up to his boss, for fear of retaliation. In that case, it would be better for him to get help from HR.
Document
Bystanders can help document the events of an incident. That could mean writing notes to explain what happened, transcribing verbal abuse, or taking pictures of any damage done by the harasser. Recording an event might be more complicated. In some states, it’s illegal to record people without telling them. However, a simple email describing harassment can constitute a paper trail.
Delay
After you witness harassment, check in with the person who you saw being targeted. Offer support, validate their feelings, and remind them that they can take action if they want to. No one deserves to be bullied.
Direct
When it’s safe, direct bystander intervention can be extremely effective. This is when the bystander interrupts harassment and speaks firmly against what’s currently happening.
Barriers to Bystander Intervention
According to decades of research, there are several common barriers to bystander intervention (American Psychological Association). HR leaders should learn about these concerns to understand where employees are coming from. Then, use that information to design an anti-harassment policy that supports and empowers bystanders.
Fear of Retribution
People tend to ignore interpersonal violence when they’re afraid of retaliation. This is especially important in a work context, where employees follow a clear hierarchy. If your boss is harassing you, you might be afraid to report them in case it jeopardizes your career.
HR can address this concern by designing a very clear investigation process and sharing it with workers in the employee handbook. Assure them that you’ll follow the same steps every time you receive a report, no matter who makes it. Then – most importantly – follow through. If you give certain employees special treatment, you’ll risk losing the trust of your entire team.
Not Recognizing Discrimination
When it comes to harassment, not everyone knows what to look for. Everyone has implicit biases, and it can be hard to recognize some types of discrimination. People with more privilege may have a harder time noticing microaggressions. And if you can’t see a problem, you certainly can’t address it.
Company-wide training might not eliminate this issue, but it can make a big difference. Educate yourteam on issues like privilege, discrimination, and allyship. Once you learn how to recognize harassment, it’s much harder to ignore.
Social Norms That Tolerate Harassment
If your company culture tolerates – or worse, accepts – habitual harassment, bad behavior can start to feel normal. People will take discrimination for granted instead of standing up for each other.
More than any other department, HR can disrupt these social norms. First and foremost, you should lead by example. Refuse to ignore problematic behavior. You might want to work with an executive partner to assess the scope of the problem. Then, HR can design an action plan to address it.
Creating a Culture of Bystander Intervention
If DE&I is a priority for your company, bystander intervention training is essential. And by the same token, HR professionals should develop the skills to respond to reports of harassment. That’s a highly sensitive process, and it may require specialized training for the HR team. Leaders need soft skills – like empathy, cultural intelligence, and communication skills – along with a strong background in compliance and anti-discrimination laws.
Improving your company culture isn’t a one-and-done, set-it-and-forget-it task. On the contrary, best practices are constantly changing. Be prepared for team members to approach you not only with reports of harassment, but with feedback on how you respond to those reports. HR should always be willing to listen. Note your team’s concerns and review them when it’s time to update your company policies.
How Paycor Helps
Paycor empowers leaders to foster a safe and inclusive company culture. Our learning management system makes anti-harassment training accessible to everyone on your team. Paycor Paths gives managers the soft skills they need to support every team member through difficult situations. Our compliance solutions keep you informed of changing employment laws, so you can keep your company and employees safe.
