Abusive conduct at work impacts employees' performances and overall wellness. This makes it imperative for companies to actively protect their workforce—here's how:
Employees are invaluable assets; they keep the business operational and serve as the “human side” of every organization. With such a critical role, employees deserve—at the bare minimum—a workspace free of abuse, hostility, and toxicity. That said, it comes as no surprise that one of the top concerns for employees is fair treatment in the workplace.
What Constitutes Abusive Conduct
Abusive conduct in the workplace is an umbrella term for a collection of hostile behaviors like bullying, discrimination, harassment, verbal abuse, and violence that happens between and among supervisors and employees. These faces of abuse, while distinguishable, can sometimes overlap in nature. For instance, bullying can be considered harassment, and instances of harassment can come off as discriminatory. These abusive workplace behaviors may eventually lead to workplace violence.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defines violence in the workplace as “any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.” The Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) also cited violence and injuries in the workplace as the third leading cause of fatal occupational injuries. With so many ways risks and hazards manifest on the job, we’ve outlined five steps to nip workplace abusive conduct in the bud.
Five Steps to Prevent Abusive Conduct in the Workplace
- Understand your company culture and open your communication lines. This will help you recognize the dynamics that exist between and among employees and the administration, what potential communication styles will appeal to the majority, and which areas of abusive workplace conduct you should emphasize during training and prevention programs. You should also encourage employees to voice pressing issues concerning problematic workplace behavior that corporations may not be aware of.
- Establish a comprehensive policy. Once you have analyzed your workplace and built a foundation on your policies, you can formulate a fitting and inclusive policy on abusive conduct. The policy should address the basics like definitions, coverage, preventive measures, procedures (complaint, investigation, hearing, etc.), disciplinary action and sanctions, anti-retaliation guarantee, and focus people. This said, policies are arbitrary and must evolve to correspond to the needs of the company and its employees.
- Adopt a zero-tolerance policy. This policy maintains the company’s stand on abusive and hostile behavior at work. While there is a delicate balance between nurturing a safe workspace and imposing disciplinary actions, zero tolerance should uphold a worker’s dignity—a way of telling employees that “you have not been treated right, and we have your back.”
- Cultivate a healthy and responsive environment. By this, we mean welcoming feedback on the established abuse prevention policy and all work matters and adjacent issues that may affect the employees. Specifically, employees should be able to air their concerns without fear of reprisal or reprimand, and your company must respond without malice.
- Innovate abuse prevention training. Conventional training designs simply don’t work—and worse, they have backfired. Education on sensitive and serious matters like abusive workplace conduct should apply relatable training that keeps users engaged. Common Ground 2, the new and improved version of our acclaimed anti-harassment training, explores topics on sexual harassment and abusive conduct while keeping participants grounded, informed, and entertained.
Summary
All companies should strive to maintain a happy and healthy workplace. This not only keeps employees positively engaged but also increases productivity and the bottom line while building a resilient workforce. It’s ultimately a long-term initiative to improve a company’s human capital.
