WITH allegations of harassment, bullying, and abuse of power increasingly common in workplace across the north, the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) is offering a lifeline to employers in the form of a new support guide.
‘Encouraging Respectful Conversations at Work’ is the latest in a series of workplace guides, developed by the LRA to help organisations maintain a positive, safe and inclusive culture.
The need for the new guide has also been driven by the explosion in remote working, sometimes blurring boundaries between work and home life. Its key messages include:
• The need for respect across all work-related conversations, including those held remotely or on video, audio and messaging apps.
• Encouraging awareness and focus on mutual listening, choice of words and their potential impact.
• Noticing personal bias and its impact on understanding and perception.
“Our aim is to support employers who wish to encourage an open and genuinely inclusive workplace around potentially sensitive topics,” said Mark McAllister, director of employment relations services at the LRA.
“By embracing mutual listening, suitable language, and awareness of the nuances of tone, employees should feel valued and have a genuine sense of belonging.
“Employees may have opposing opinions on social matters, but in a workplace context, there needs to be parameters for such discussions to take place and opinions to be expressed.
“Our podcast and advisory guide offer support to both employers and employees, to ensure they don’t stray into the realms of harassment but provide a safe space for opinions and dialogue without using free speech as a weapon of choice. This requires maturity on both the part of the employer and employees and will speak to the culture of the organisation at its core.”
Nuala Murphy, director of Diversity Mark, who is interviewed in the podcast, welcomed the new LRA guide.
She said: “It's vital to have conversations around diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The podcast and the toolkit are two mediums that I believe will be very valuable as they demystify and at the same time enable and empower conversations based on respect and good intention.
“These activities are examples of our signatory organisations of the Diversity Mark Accreditation and can have far reaching impact; not just enabling their own organisations but also industry and wider society.”
The ‘Encouraging Respectful Conversations at Work,’ guide and supporting podcast (listen at https://www.lra.org.uk/resources/guide/encouraging-respectful-conversations-work) is freely available on the LRA’s website.
