What's Needed For Women Employees' Wellbeing Against Harassment In Workplace
Today, most corporations are believed to prioritise employee wellbeing, but does this belief specifically run for women employees? Apart from mental and physical health, a woman can have a critical concern in the workplace, which is harassment.
Harassment can be of any kind, be it psychological, discrimination, retaliation-based or sexual harassment. It can even cause severe damage to her mental and physical wellbeing affecting her work-life negatively.
Richa Telang, founder and CEO, TrueBlue Advisory-Employer Branding Consultancy said, "Women for me is a gender-neutral topic. I do not see them as underprivileged or something that needs separate attention. If you do so you are already putting yourself down the radar. We are humans at the end of it and just like any community protecting our own identity is our responsibility. If women or men are strong enough this won’t even surface. Equality has never been easier for men or other communities historically in the workplace.”
What is women's harassment status?
Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (WICCI) Council of Ethics' report named 'The Annual Review on the State of Sexual Harassment in India' says that 50 per cent of women face sexual harassment at workplaces, while 55 per cent experience bad touch or inappropriate physical contact.
Discrimination Report 2022 report by a charity organisation, Oxfam said that India's labour force sees less female participation due to gender discrimination. It said India's women's work participation rate was just 25 per cent for 2021, which is among the lowest for emerging economies. For every woman, 98 per cent of the inequality she faces would be caused by discrimination because of gender. The remaining 2 per cent would be because of education or work experience, the report said.
Also, in another study, it was found that the majority of women (67.3 per cent) harassment was verbal in a manner whereas 22.7 per cent was physical.
Harassment of women has been a common issue these days. Every now or then, we read newspapers or news channels' headlines on crime against women. Whether it physical or mental harassment, the issue has not been resolved since the women of India have got a work-life. Along with women themselves, employers should also have a responsibility to take care of women's employee wellbeing.
Does this need awareness?
Before starting with a workplace, women should be aware of the harassment they could face there, and also the laws against them. Also, if they face something unpleasant, they should not ignore or remain quiet.
Christopher ‘Chris’ Roberts, founder and MD, Engaged Strategy said that with the vast majority of accused stating they are unaware and/or did not mean to offend when accused, claims like these can get complicated.
Mayurakshi Das, founder and CEO, elixir.ai said, "Awareness starts with the knowledge that Harassment need not always be physical, mental harassment is more pre-dominant. It is one of the biggest problems our women are facing today in different sectors of life. We rarely pass through a week without a reminder of these kinds of incidents which should be termed as social problems."
In India, mental health is something that is taken very casually and mostly ignored, which ends up as the biggest reason for suicides in the country. It is high time that people start talking about workplace harassment and help the victims around. For anyone who is being subjected to mental harassment, raising their voice against the wrong is important and leaving the organisation should be the last resort.
The solution on how to write a letter of a mental harassment complaint to HR is that it should address the right personnel and contain all the details of the repetitive incident, including evidence if possible. It could be a mental harassment complaint to the police in case of a serious offence, Das said.
How organisations must play a role against women employee harassment?
Organisations can provide anti-harassment training programs for not just women but all employees.
Das said, "In a nutshell, every employer must divert their focus towards workplace bullying and mental harassment of employees, and implement stricter rules to curb it. Also, he/ she must take appropriate action against those people who commit such acts to their juniors. The reason behind this is that workplace bullying is a significant cause of mental and physical health problems suffered by an employee, especially females."
Roberts said, "There is a fine line between being casual or funny in the workplace and being highly inappropriate. Every organisation big or small must recognise the halo-like negative impact on other employees and the massive risk of brand damage and subsequent revenue loss. Therefore, a robust program must be developed that includes strict policies, procedures and most importantly the severe repercussions for inappropriate behaviour to prevent such incidents from occurring."
By following these key steps, all organisations can prevent these occurrences from happening:
