Prevyman and the prevention of workplace harassment
Where have I been and what happened to me?
A few months ago I met a businessman friend who has work centers throughout much of Spain, with the headquarters located in Madrid and serving 1,250 workers in the company.
You are concerned because in the last two years several harassment problems have arisen with some workers and in different areas of the country. Until now, the line of action has been mainly reactive and not preventive, basically consisting of some measure taken a little 'blindly' and without addressing the issue in depth. This has meant more than one requirement by the Labor Inspection that has led to the imposition of sanctions on the company in addition to the decrease in the corporate image of the company when these harassment situations occur.
My friend is aware that it is necessary to address this problem but the day-to-day life and the dynamics of the company itself make him delay addressing this issue, even despite living with the underlying fear that a situation of serious harassment may occur among his staff that could have important consequences.
My businessman friend asked me to help him in this task of addressing harassment prevention in depth and introduced me to the person in charge of the company's own Prevention Service (SPP) and the Director of Human Resources (HR).
What means does the company have to avoid this situation?
We held several meetings, the two managers, the General Director and I to focus on the matter and propose an action plan that would address the problems that arise in the company regarding workplace harassment.
We start from the existence of a rather obsolete work environment study and some very superficial psychosocial risk assessments prepared in certain centers and always required following a request from the Social Security Labor Inspection.
The company also has a document called “Harassment Prevention Protocol”, which was prepared a few years ago but was never put into practice and remains a 'weed paper'.
PREVYMAN decides that the first thing to carry out is a global psychosocial risk assessment in the company, counting from start to finish on the participation of the workers through their prevention representatives.
The result of the evaluation has mainly revealed problems in the leadership style and interpersonal relationships in some of the company's centers; The rest of the parameters analyzed show non-worrying results.
In this situation, a Work Plan is designed with the following actions:
- It is necessary that, from Human Resources and the SPP, training on command styles be carried out for all people who have responsibility for the work of others, training that will be recycled every 6 months for at least two years. Likewise, a process of random monthly evaluation of managers by base workers is established.
- A new Workplace Harassment Protocol is being drafted, with the participation of the Prevention Delegates and the people from the company mentioned, with the real commitment between the company and workers that this time it will be put into practice.The content of said protocol, broadly speaking, is as follows
- Concept of Harassment and value of Confidentiality throughout the process
- The figure of Mediator is created in the company for these purposes, who is agreed upon with the Prevention Delegates who performs this role. function.
- A Complaints process, Mediation Phase, Action by the Investigative Commission and, where appropriate, a Formal Phase is defined if it has been estimated -by the Investigative Commission- that there could be harassing behavior work.
- Proposal of measures to be adopted.
- Monitoring and review of the case.
- All of this, without prejudice to the legal actions that the person who feels they have been harassed could take.
- Once the protocol has been agreed upon and approved, it has been disseminated to the entire organization and very basic training is given on the operation of the protocol and the basic concepts of harassment work.
- An anonymous and confidential communication channel is established where you can report possible situations of harassment within the company and thus implement the protocol procedure. harassment.
- It is agreed that, after 12 months, the psychosocial risk assessment will be repeated, which is also required by the ITSS when the defined plan is provided.
What results have been obtained?
The 12 months have passed and the Psychosocial Risk Assessment has been repeated, which has been carried out in the same way as the previous one so as not to introduce other variables. It is a good time to check the results of the implementation of the described plan and I decide to visit the company.
- First of all, the results of the Psychosocial Risk Assessment are significantly better, in terms of relationships with managers, leadership style and interpersonal relationships.
- The cases of possible harassment reported have been two, compared to seven in the previous year.The implemented protocol has worked and it has been proven that the measures adopted have been effective after monitoring the cases.
- Obviously, the problems with ITSS have decreased considerably.
- HR has carried out a new work environment study that shows that, little by little, a more pleasant, productive work environment is being generated and where workers begin to feel more identified with the company.
- The assessment that workers make of their managers improves gradually, achieving greater group cohesion, teamwork and commitment to the company.
- R___eduction of absenteeism, especially in those pathologies derived directly from harassment and mobbing.
