Workplace Bullying
Reduce Employee Misconduct to Improve Productivity and Morale
Employees are your greatest asset; however, employee misconduct can be your greatest liability.
Employee misconduct can harm your organisation and its public brand/image.. Inappropriate behaviour such as bullying and harassment can cause humiliation and harm to individuals. This can create wider employee morale problems and lead to lower productivity.
Failure to detect employee misconduct can damage more than just the bottom line. It can lead to costly litigation and negatively affect individuals as well as company and brand reputations. Therefore, it is critical that organisations minimise the risk of employee misconduct.
Under federal anti-discrimination law, an employer, regardless of size, may be legally responsible for discrimination and harassment which occurs in the workplace. Therefore, employers must implement measures to minimise the risk of employee misconduct.
Incidences of workplace bullying also fall within the jurisdiction of the OHS legislation. They can have an adverse impact on the psychological wellbeing of an employee and prolonged bullying often manifests as a physical health issue for the aggrieved party.
As such, matters of workplace bullying fall within Australian Courts have determined that “reasonable” steps or precautions to prevent discrimination and harassment in the workplace must be taken. Merely having a policy stating that employee misconduct won´t be tolerated is insufficient. The policy framework needs to be supported by a feedback program.
This is supported by a recent Drake International survey of over 800 Australia-wide employees has revealed bullying is still rife in Australian workplaces . More than 50% of survey respondents had witnessed bullying behaviour and over 25% had been a target of bullying themselves.
Your-Call´s web-based whistleblowing and feedback solutions of Your-Alert and Your-Say provide real-time reporting whereby employees monitor behaviour, increasing the likelihood they will report employee misconduct.
Traditionally, fear of reprisals or not wanting to upset the status quo stops vital information on employee misconduct from being provided to senior managers, possibly exposing them to risks from unchecked employee misconduct.
Directors and executive management can be personally exposed to the legal fallout of employee misconduct by not only legislation but also through the legal doctrine of “vicarious liability”. This is a legal doctrine which holds an organisation responsible for the wrongful actions of another i.e. employers are legally responsible for the discriminatory acts of their employees.
By implementing Your-Call, organisations can be pro-active and protect themselves and their employees from the risks associated with employee misconduct.
The Your-Say service enables companies to unearth employee misconduct via feedback. This includes not only staff unrest, but valuable operational and management suggestions from all levels of the organisation.
Your-Alert and Your-Say sit alongside the organisation’s Code of Conduct promoting honesty, integrity and transparency. They do not replace existing processes for raising concerns or feedback in the workplace, rather they complement these reporting mechanisms by providing an external independent reporting option to an organisation´s whistleblower policy.
Our systems analyse information as it is reported and automatically flag any inappropriate or bullying behaviour which is contrary to policy.
Your-Call’s “iAnalysis” case management dashboard and analytics module allow the company to create a seamless workflow when documenting, investigating and resolving disclosures (whistleblower complaints) of illegal or unethical behaviour. From the initial notification of the disclosure through to resolution, the company can document activities in a convenient, centralised system maintained by Your-Call that helps you ensure disclosures and information are resolved effectively, efficiently and appropriately.
Such real-time immediate reporting puts leaders in control, enabling them to respond to employee misconduct quickly and decisively, before it becomes a problem.
Get Started?
If you´re looking to implement an effective employee reporting or whistleblowing service that will reduce the incidence of employee misconduct, click here to email us and download our FREE The Ultimate Whistleblowing Checklist on how to establish a best-practice whistleblowing program, or call 1300 788 712 to discuss how Your-Call can benefit your organisation.