Tackling bullying in the workplace

Bullying is one of the most difficult workplace issues and often the ‘elephant in the room’ that seems either too difficult or risky to challenge.  To combat the potential costs to businesses suffering from the unwanted effects of workplace bullying, a half day expert conference has been organised by Rawlison Butler, featuring a world class panel of leading industry and academic experts on 13 February 2013 at Epsom Downs Racecourse.

With surveys indicating that more than two million people consider themselves as being bullied at work at any one time and 18.9 million working days (£2bn per year in sick pay) being lost in the UK each year as a direct result of workplace bullying, it is a problem that needs to be tackled. Add to this increased staff turnover, lower productivity, adverse effects on an organisation’s ability to recruit good staff and the management time and cost of handling grievances, disciplinary issues and legal claims - and the business case seems made for tackling this head on.

Help is at hand. There are strategies that businesses can use to address the causes and effects of bullying in the workplace and reduce the hidden costs to their organisation and their employees.

These could include:
• Introducing and maintaining dignity at work policies
• Setting and applying clear behavioural standards
• Including appropriate behaviours in appraisal, promotion and progression criteria
• Training managers
• Using occupational health effectively

Further details on the seminar and how to book at www.rawlisonbutler.com/events

By Peter Jones

and

Tony Hyams-Parish

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