Does your organisation comply with the Worker Protection Act 2023?

Effective from 26th October 2024, The Worker Protection Act 2023–an extension of the Equality Act 2010–represents a pivotable step in establishing a zero-tolerance approach to workplace harassment.

In this article, we’ll break down key elements of the Act and provide practical steps to help your organisation meet legal obligations and build inclusive and safe workplaces. If you don’t have time to read our full article, download our free infographic using the button below.

What is the Worker Protection Act 2023?

The Worker Protection Act 2023 states that an employer must take steps to prevent harassment of employees during the course of their employment. As mentioned on our recent webinar, this is a transformative shift as employers have to put in preventative measures from harassment occurring, in contrast to prior the act going live where employers were involved after the event occurred.

5 steps you can take to comply with the Worker Protection Act 2023

The following insights come from our recent Be the Change webinar, featuring guest panellists Aliya Vigor-Robertson and Sue Shaw, founders of consultancy Journey HR. They shared their expertise in helping organisations navigate compliance with the Act. Click here to explore our previous blog article and listen to the full webinar.

1. Defining psychological safety

Psychological safety can be defined as creating an environment where employees feel comfortable to speak up to express their thoughts, healthily challenge ideas and take risks is crucial. This requires creating a balance of comfort and challenge, so employees feel empowered to start or participate in conversations without fear of judgement or negative consequences.

How to implement it:

• Define what psychological safety means to your organisation, including what ‘good’ psychological safety is and what behaviours you don’t want employees to see.
• Train leaders to invite feedback into meeting by asking open-ended questions like, “What’s missing from this plan?”
  Set ground rules that promote constructive feedback and discourage dismissive behaviors.
• Celebrate examples of employees speaking up and making a difference–no matter how big or small.

2. Take steps to proactively prevent workplace harassment

As Aliya Vigor-Robertson, Co-Founder of JourneyHR, highlighted the transformative shift introduced by the Worker Protection Act during our recent webinar: “Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent harassment before it happens, not just react after the fact.”

How to implement this:

• Conduct a workplace risk assessment. As discussed by Sue Shaw, Co-Founder of JourneyHR, this should look at all aspects of your organisation–office interactions, suppliers, online meetings, and social events like Christmas parties.
• Develop a zero-tolerance policy for harassment and train your teams to understand what it means in practice.
• Create a step-by-step action plan to address risks, and regularly update it based on feedback and incidents.

3. Build safe channels for feedback

To foster an environment where people feel comfortable speaking up, it’s important to evaluate your existing feedback channels and processes while identifying potential gaps. For example, does your current setup include a way to share feedback or issues anonymously? Implementing a reliable, anonymous solution can empower individuals to voice their thoughts freely.

How to implement this:

• Set up an anonymous reporting platform, ensuring employees know it’s secure and easy to use.
• Assign a group of trusted individuals to handle reports with discretion and care, and follow-through issues raised.
• Regularly communicate how feedback has led to positive change, no matter how small, to build trust in the system.

4. Training and education

Regular training helps everyone understand feedback processes, their roles in fostering a psychologically safe working culture, and tools available for raising feedback. By raising awareness of workplace behaviours, organisations can enhance their compliance with the act, and demonstrate their commitment to transparency and accountability.

How to implement this:

• Run regular mandatory training sessions on recognising and preventing harassment, psychological safety, feedback processes and the tools available.
• Encourage leaders to role-model by sharing their own experiences of mistakes and growth.

5. Review and tweak strategies

As with any strategy that is implemented in the organisation, it’s critical to monitor progress and tweak strategies along the way.

How to implement this:

• Gather regular feedback to gauge psychological safety, inclusivity, and employee trust.
• Analyse key metrics, such as retention rates, absenteeism and feedback participation to track progress.
• Share updates with your teams, indicating how their feedback is shaping the workplace.

How Trickle can aid compliance

We’re here to help you turn these principles into action. Trickle’s platform is designed to make it easy for organisations to encourage open feedback (including capture of the feedback recommended above to gauge psychological safety, inclusivity etc), implement safe reporting systems, and meet the requirements of the Worker Protection Act.

Want to find out more? Book a demo with one of our friendly team.