When you hear the term bullying, your mind might go to harassment on social media or scuffles on the playground. It’s easy to forget that bullying is also prevalent in the workplace. According to a poll from Monster, roughly 90% of respondents have experienced bullying at work.
When it comes to workplace bullying, there are ramifications for not only the parties who are involved but also your company as a whole. Victims of workplace bullying may suffer from insomnia, depression, anxiety, and other mental health disabilities, while your company might suffer from the lack of productivity and the collective low morale of your staff.
Whether you’re an employer or a human resources manager, here are 10 ways in which you can help prevent bullying from occurring in the workplace.
1. Create or revise company policies
Written guidelines allow you to communicate behavioral expectations and leave no room for ambiguity on an issue.
If your company doesn’t have official policies regarding respect in the workplace and how others are required to be treated, spend some time crafting policies that can help stamp out instances of bullying and help create a more positive environment as a result.
Perhaps your company already has a set of policies and procedures that speak to the act of bullying but they have become outdated. Be sure to take some time to review them, improve them, and communicate them to your team.
2. Put bullying procedures in place
After you communicate policies to your team, it’s also critical that you also create procedures for handling incidents.
These should outline the ways in which employees should respond if they are privy to an incident, the parties that incidents should be reported to, and the potential ramifications for being the culprit in such an incident.
By putting these consequences in writing, you convey the seriousness of bullying and fairly communicate a warning to those who might be the culprits of bullying.
4. Provide workplace behavior training
One of the best ways to double down on written policies and reinforce them in the minds of other employees is to provide mandatory training opportunities for all of your staff members.
This can be in the form of a lesson and booklet, a video training session, or a class taught by an HR manager or third party.
Whatever the form, make a habit of holding these sessions at least once annually—perhaps even more frequently if your office has a history of inappropriate or disrespectful behavior towards other employees.
3. Always lead by example
If you want to put an end to bullying in the workplace, it starts at the very top. Unfortunately, those at the top can often be the problem. Monster’s poll revealed that 51% of respondents were bullied by a boss or manager.
By requiring your leadership to set the standard for how coworkers should be treated, that sense of courteousness and respect will trickle down to other employees as well.
Conversely, if you and other members of upper management fail to uphold the right standard, you won’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to addressing these types of incidents as they occur.
5. Encourage open communication
If you’re looking to eradicate bullying and harassment from your workplace, make sure that all employees have channels to communicate incidents with upper management openly and freely.
Make sure any employee is encouraged to come forward if they experience or witness bullying—without fear of bringing greater harassment and embarrassment on themselves.
To help facilitate this, consider providing hotlines, surveys, or message forums by which employees can communicate concerns or complaints—anonymously, if appropriate.
6. Keep an ear out for conversation
While listening in on every conversation might do more harm than good, try to be more mindful of conversations that take place at work.
By simply keeping an ear out for speech that could be derogatory or hurtful, you may be able to address certain patterns of speech before they escalate and cause even greater emotional damage to the victim.
7. Take complaints seriously
When a victim of bullying files a complaint, the worst thing you can do is to treat it flippantly—or worse yet—ignore it completely. According to the 2021 U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey from WBI, 63% of respondents reported negative reactions to complaints of mistreatment.
Carefully follow the procedures for handling a bullying or harassment complaint and make sure all parties know that the incident will be taken seriously. If the complaint is found to be true, make sure you provide support to the victim and consider passing down some type of disciplinary action to the culprit.
8. Make sure you put your biases aside
One way to lose control of bullying in the workplace and take a soft stance on the issue is to treat certain situations differently, depending on the parties who are involved. Unfortunately for you and your business, there may be times when one of your highest performers is the culprit of bullying.
Although you may be tempted to brush over the issue when it involves someone who is a key player at your company, it’s critical for the health of your organization to address the situation in the same way that you would in any other scenario.
Be sure to put any kinds of biases aside, treating each person fairly and equally in the process.
9. Seek to rehabilitate the culprit
In a situation that involves bullying or harassment, instinctively, you will probably focus on providing support and vindication to the victim while disciplining the culprit.
During the investigation process, however, don’t neglect the needs of the bullying party. In many cases, there may be deep-seated issues that are causing individuals to lash out and treat others poorly.
By getting to the root of the problem and attempting to rehabilitate the party at fault, you may find that you are more effective in preventing instances of bullying at the workplace.
10. Make better hiring decisions
An organization that is serious about taking a stance against bullying and harassment will also look to protect its employees and company culture going forward.
The truth is that bringing in the wrong hire might cause valued employees to leave your organization. According to a study from CareerBuilder, 20% of those who are bullied end up leaving their jobs.
Take personalities and attitudes into consideration when making hiring decisions. If you sense that an individual might clash with the positive and respectful company culture that you are working hard to establish, consider going in a different direction.
