Getting the balance right between having a healthy culture where people can have a laugh at work but without causing offence to others is tricky for employers.
Everyone has different values in life based on their upbringing, life experiences, personal circumstances, religion and myriad other factors, meaning you don’t know whether a colleague will be offended by a remark that you feel is completely harmless and where you had no intention of upsetting them.
In fact, it’s even harder to judge as people tend to have different ‘thresholds’ of what offends them in different areas or circumstances e.g. an individual may be very sensitive regarding comments about race but quite tolerant of jokes about a colleague being gay.
So what should employers do? Some choose to have a sterile environment where nothing is allowed that may remotely cause offence. Others say the world has gone mad and take their chances by accepting over the top behaviour and not challenging those who go too far.
Most employers we talk to want a balance somewhere in the middle and that is why we put together the ‘banter and behaviour in the workplace’ e-learning course.
In the course we discuss, with actual Tribunal examples to bring learning points to life, where the bar is in terms of what is acceptable banter so you can hopefully avoid Tribunals altogether or at least be able to defend a claim succesfully. We also explain a proven way of tackling individuals who go too far – without having to sack half of your workforce!
This approach helps to ensure a healthy culture, which has been shown to improve staff retention and also make the workplace a more enjoyable place.
For more information please see the link below that gives more details about the 40 minute course, along with a 2 minute demo that discusses the learning points from a well known swimming pool case where lifeguards made lewd comments about a female swimmer.
Banter & Behaviour in the Workplace
This new e-learning course describes the various forms of harassment and discrimination in an easy-to-understand format so organisations can appreciate where the bar is at work between acceptable behaviour and that which is likely to lead to a grievance or successful Tribunal claim.
The course, which was developed with the excellent e-learning specialists e-aspire costs £49.95, with discounts available for bulk purchases e.g. if you wish to train the management team or all employees.
For more details about the course, HR, discrimination or harassment in general please contact us. We would love you hear from you.