While there are laws that protect against harassment in the workplace, we have yet to see much that addresses workplace bullying. A new California law requires that employers add training on prevention of abusive conduct to their existing harassment training, which is currently mandated for supervisors at companies with 50 or more employees. Even if you are not in California, it is still a good idea to address abusive conduct in your harassment prevention training and policy.
Create an Anti-Bullying Policy
Harassment specifically targets someone in a protected class (e.g. sexual harassment). If an employee is being bullied about something that is protected (e.g. sex, race, gender), then you probably have a harassment situation. But there are times when someone is being targeted for a reason that is not protected. A good anti-bullying policy addresses this type of behavior.
Many companies already include something about appropriate and respectful communication with coworkers. An anti-bullying policy should take this further by including definitions of bullying, the process for reporting it and the possible consequences of bullying others in the workplace (disciplinary action, up to and including termination).
Bullying is repeated behavior and can include verbal conduct such as taunts, threats, name-calling, insults, spreading hurtful rumors and any other verbal conduct of an abusive nature. It may also involve physical attacks on the victim, damaging a person’s property or workspace, making threatening gestures or excluding someone from work activities.
Your process for handling complaints about bullying should be similar to the way you handle harassment complaints. State who will handle complaints (e.g. HR) and that all complaints will be taken seriously and investigated immediately.
Provide Bullying Prevention Training to Employees
Whether you provide training to new hires through a group orientation or one-on-one review of the handbook their first day, you should review your anti-bullying policy with new employees. It is a good practice to regularly review your harassment policy with employees, and you should treat your anti-bullying policy the same way.
Training should review everything in the policy and include examples of bullying behavior. Be proactive by establishing that abusive behavior of any form will not be tolerated in your workplace. As with any training, have employees sign an acknowledgement that they have received and understand the policy.
Train Managers to Recognize and Address Workplace Bullying
In addition to what you share with employees, your manager training should also include tips for recognizing workplace bullying and ways to remedy the situation. The first step for any manager is to take a bullying complaint seriously. Get HR involved if you have HR at your company, and investigate the complaint. If you find that the employee accused of bullying is in fact engaging in that type of abusive behavior, address it in the same way you would tackle a harassment problem.
Meet with the bully, give clear examples of their problem behavior, explain your company’s policy and take some form of corrective action. Depending on the severity, it may be enough to issue a warning with the direction that further bullying behavior could result in further action, which includes possible termination. After such a meeting occurs, the manager should regularly follow up with the employee and the accused bully to see that the behavior has in fact changed for the better.
By being proactive with a clear anti-bullying policy and training as well as addressing bullying when it happens, you send the message that abusive behavior will not be tolerated in your workplace.
About the Author
Stephanie Hammerwold, PHR, is the owner of Hammerwold & Pershing Consulting and specializes in small business HR support. Stephanie is a regular contributor at Blogging4Jobs and The HR Gazette, and she gives presentations on a variety of job search and workplace topics. She specializes in training, employee relations, women’s issues and writing employment policy. Connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.