Sexual harassment at work: tick-box training is not enough.

This is a guest article by one of Ben's partners, Byrne Dean, workplace behaviour and culture experts. This article will form part of a series of content from Ben's partners that we believe will be useful to employers and their people.

Despite the cultural shifts sparked by #MeToo, the reality is that, statistically, workplace sexual harassment remains largely unchanged.

McKinsey reported this year that it remains just as prevalent as it was in 2018. Meanwhile, regular headlines indicate ongoing issues of sexual harassment in well-known businesses, and a repeated failure to address problems by people who knew about them.

In the UK, we’re finally seeing the wheels of more serious action begin to move, with the first legislative change on this for many years. 

What’s changing?

From 26 October, a new legal duty will be enforced, meaning all UK employers face legal consequences if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplace.

For over 20 years, we have partnered with businesses committed to building inclusive and respectful workplaces, including a desire proactively to prevent and tackle harassment. The difference now, is that there is a clear legal requirement to do this, and organisations must be able to demonstrate that they have actively taken reasonable steps to tackle the risks.  

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) Employer 8-step guide on preventing sexual harassment states that workers, including managers and senior staff, should be trained on: what sexual harassment in the workplace looks like; what to do if they experience and witness it; and how to handle any complaints of harassment, with more helpful detail on these points provided in the EHRC’s technical guidance and ACAS guide.

Are organisations ready?

A survey of 2,000 UK employers, released one month out from the law change, revealed that just 5% said they were well prepared.

Now facing increasing time pressure, many organisations are opting for what is perceived as a 'quick fix'; rolling out tick box training. 

Whilst it is understandable that organisations need to raise awareness and satisfy the need to train their people, there are a number of problems with this approach.

Above all else, it cannot drive meaningful change. 

Training solely through a legal, information-focused lens risks organisations falling short on compliance and unprepared for real cultural change—keeping us stuck without meaningful progress since 2018.

Why doesn’t tick box training alone drive change? What does effective training look like?‍

Understanding the theoretical and legal aspects of harassment is crucial, but there's a big difference between knowing definitions and actually understanding problematic behaviours: how they manifest; how to prevent and change them. 

Training should do more than inform - it must resonate, inspire action, and ensure that everyone sees their role in tackling this issue.

A human-centred approach is needed: bringing the issue to life so that employees can truly engage, see themselves in realistic scenarios, reflect on their own responses, and take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in their workplaces - including when it is happening by and to other colleagues. 

That requires storytelling, personalisation, and real engagement with an issue. Every senior manager and people leader needs to be able to understand why eradicating sexual misconduct is important to the organisation and connect with this personally. They need to see the early indicators, stepping in and challenging cultures and conduct that creates environments where sexual harassment can thrive.

Ideally, it should also be bespoke to be relevant to the organisation, the roles and the particular risk factors in the business, rather than generic information which is not tailored to the specific realities in this workplace. Organisations also need to be conducting risk assessments to identify what these risk factors are and how they are going to address them.  

How do we make meaningful change?

Click here to read the rest of the article on Byrne Dean's website.