The best practice approach on dealing with allegations of bullying in the workplace.
As a leader or manager, do you know how you would respond if an employee came to you raising an allegation of bullying in the workplace?
You may be fortunate enough to have never experienced this so far in your career. However, in a survey of 2,000 employees across the UK by SME Loans, 23% felt they had been bullied in the workplace. That’s nearly 1 in 4 employees. Furthermore, when workplace bullying occurs, there are serious negative consequences across the board, especially if it is not dealt with well.
What can the effect of bullying be?
For the victim, bullying can reduce job satisfaction, lead to job isolation, increase mental health concerns and result in them resigning. Beyond this though, there are widespread effects across the team and organisation, with dramatic impacts on organisational culture.
With all this considered, workplace bullying remains a significant matter for organisations, and something that managers should be prepared for and well-equipped to deal with.
How should a manager respond to bullying allegations?
Here are our main recommendations on how a manager should respond to bullying allegations.
- Refer to the organisation’s anti-bullying and harassment policy
Your first port of call should be to check your organisation’s anti-bullying and harassment policy. This should provide useful guidance and ensure you are acting in line with company policy.
Unfortunately, not every organisation will have strong anti-bullying and harassment policies in place. If, while dealing with an allegation, you notice that your company’s policy is inadequate or not comprehensive enough, this is a good time to flag the issue so that improvements can be made.
- Conduct a fair process
It’s vital that you are fair in how you treat the issue. While protecting the needs of the victim is the key priority, you must remain fair and objective towards the alleged bully until you have evidence of their misdemeanour. Remember- the concept of innocent until proven guilty.
Having said this, it is important to understand that in cases of alleged bullying, the issue of whether the behaviour in question constitutes bullying often will not be clear cut. Ultimately, the victim’s perception of whether the behaviour is offensive, is what counts. Nevertheless, remaining fair and objective when dealing with an allegation is paramount. This, of course, includes avoiding discrimination…
- Don’t discriminate
It is of legal importance that you do not discriminate against either the victim (perhaps by disregarding the allegation/not believing them) or the bully (perhaps through jumping to conclusions on their guilt) based on their ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.
However, avoiding discrimination and dealing with the situation fairly also means being highly aware of any cognitive biases that might influence your thinking. For example, the halo and horn effects describe our tendency as humans to judge everything about a person more positively or negatively based on one single trait or event. Combined with confirmation bias, we then unconsciously seek further information that confirms those existing beliefs, discarding information that doesn’t fit these expectations.
Say an employee comes to you with a bullying allegation, claiming that another employee has been purposefully and continually leaving them out of meetings. It might be easy to think, “Oh, Lucy would never do that, she’s an outstanding employee and she’s always been so friendly to me… and James can be a bit needy and insecure sometimes…”. Perhaps an exaggerated example, but these kinds of biases pervade our everyday thinking all the time, and managers must keep these in check. As a rule of thumb: treat every allegation seriously.
- Be sensitive
As established already, bullying allegations are serious matters. They therefore require being dealt with in a sensitive manner. It can be very difficult for employees to raise bullying allegations, especially if the issue has been ongoing, or if the individual is concerned the allegation will not be dealt with properly. As a manager you must be sensitive to respecting the needs and privacy of potential victims, bullies and witnesses. Indeed, the victim may not be the person who made the allegation in the first place. Maintaining confidentiality is key.
However, dealing with the allegation effectively may require you to discuss the matter with a trusted colleague who is equipped to deal with bullying allegations. Your company’s anti bullying and harassment policy should cover this.
- Refer to ACAS
The Advice, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) works to resolve work-related disputes and promote harmony in the workplace. They have useful resources and information on their website regarding dealing with bullying allegations, and they also provide a free and confidential helpline for help dealing with work-related problems such as this.
One recommendation from the ACAS website is to talk to the person who raised the issue, to help understand the situation better. This should include checking how they might like the issue to be handled. Although you may not be able to do exactly as they suggest, managers should keep these preferences in mind and try to take a collaborative approach to finding the solution. ACAS explains that if managers are in any doubt, they should deal with the complaint formally, and again there are instructions for doing so on the ACAS website.
- See the bigger picture
As we explain in our blog Banter or Bullying, Humour or Harassment?, the effects of bullying are not limited to the individual in question and the causes may not be either. A good manager will be aware that potential causes and impacts of bullying can extend beyond individuals to the team and even the company as a whole and will account for this in how they deal with the allegation- keeping an open mind throughout the process.
- Work proactively
Earlier in this blog, we mentioned that as a manager you may be fortunate enough to have never experienced someone presenting you with a bullying allegation. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there is no bullying going on under your watch.
Bullying can go un-reported for a long time, and some employees may choose to stay silent, or even resign, rather than raise an allegation. Therefore, it is not enough just to act when an allegation is consciously brought to your attention; it is important to be the kind of manager who actively looks out for and prevents bullying, too.
We have some resources that might help you to do this. For example, our blog on micro-inequities in the workplace can help you to understand and spot these subtle comments and gestures which could build up to acts of bullying, or our blog on creating healthy and inclusive teams covers tips for fostering a team environment where employees feel valued and accepted, and where bullying is less likely to occur.
Should you need further support our Dignity at Work eLearning module for managers covers bullying and harassment in more depth, providing practical support for dealing with bullying allegations. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us.
