HARASSMENT ADVISERS
Workplace bullying often involves employees with highly charged emotions and a lack of clear factual evidence. It is essential for organisations that wish to tackle the bullying issue effectively to have a group of fully trained volunteer harassment advisers to whom the bullied person can turn to for help and advice at an informal stage of the complaint.
The volunteer Harassment Adviser plays a vital role in the successful running of an informal mechanism provides good quality guidance and help to employees complaining of harassment. The helping relationship between complainant and adviser needs to be one of guidance, information giving and problem solving - not of advice or instruction - as the complainant needs to feel comfortable and able to follow through on the actions agreed as a result of the relationship.
The Adviser must also have a good understanding of harassment and related legislation, a familiarity with the formal complaint procedures, and an understanding of the disciplinary and grievance procedures of the organisation they are working in. In essence, advisers must be properly trained and highly skilled to carry out this role effectively.
Harassment Advisers should be employees who have volunteered willingly to be available to support fellow employees in this capacity Advisers will offer support to fellow employees, usually in addition to doing their normal work. By implication this involves a high degree of personal commitment.
The AAC Harassment Adviser Training is adaptable, and is able to cope efficiently with participants who have different experiences, different levels of awareness and different expertise. These, in themselves, will present good-shared training and development material. The training given is able to focus on the nature of participant’s normal advisory experience and work with and from this, e.g. different perceptions and needs of male advisers, female advisers and black advisers in relation to their main clients. Additionally, our training is supportive of the different business environments, cultures and values within the organisation in which the advisers are working.
Our intention is to support the development of an effective volunteer (i.e. not professionally qualified) advisory service, to help ensure employees are treated fairly at work for ethical, business and legal reasons.
It is estimated that this training will take a minimum of three days to deliver and has been designed for a maximum of 12 delegates.
The main training objectives are:-
- To develop awareness, sensitivity and understanding of equal opportunities and discrimination, with specific reference to the nature of harassment/victimisation/bullying and how they work.
- To develop the essential listening and counselling skills required of the first contact adviser and an understanding and acceptance of adviser codes of conduct.
- To begin to develop awareness, sensitivity and understanding of particular areas of discrimination, their nature and how to begin identifying when they are operating, with specific reference to bullying.
It is recommended that the training inputs are designed so that they will be appropriate both for existing harassment/diversity advisers seeking either a refresher or a conversion course and for new advisers undergoing training for the first time.
Within our consultancy for Harassment Advisers the AAC can provide a detailed set of papers on job specification and recruitment criteria, process, application forms, interview questionnaires and interview assessment forms. We will, if required, also assist in the recruitment process by providing a specialist resource to both help in the vetting of applications and by joining the panel of interviewers.
FOLLOW UP DAY FOR HARASSMENT ADVISERS
AIM
The follow up day is designed as a skill-building exercise for Harassment Advisers, which will reinforce the theory and practical sessions experienced on the three-day programme.
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the workshop, participants will have consolidated their knowledge of harassment and bullying as a topic and gained practical experience of how to support a target/perpetrator effectively.
If you would like more information, call The Andrea Adams Consultancy on 01273 275099 or email us at mail@andreaadamsconsultancy.com
