Half of employees do not report sexual harassment in the workplace

A new survey of 2,000 employees by Personio has found that one in ten of those questioned have witnessed or experienced sexual harassment at work, but just less than half (49%) do not report it. Almost a third (30%) had seen or experienced bullying, but 44% did not report it.

The survey also revealed that 43% were worried about retaliation or retribution if they were to report an issue. Only 56% felt confident that sensitive workplace misconduct situations would be properly handled by their organisation. 30% of the respondents believed more would be achieved if they went to the media about workplace misconduct, rather than their own management team, and only 48% trusted their senior leadership. 18% did not believe their organisation would protect their anonymity.

Employers are urged to incorporate zero-tolerance workplace cultures and to ensure that trustworthy and reliable reporting processes exist to encourage victims and witnesses to speak up.

Source: Half of employees do not report workplace sexual harassment, peoplemanagement.co.uk, 26 March 2024

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