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WARNING: THIS WEBSITE MENTIONS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY ANY OF THIS CONTENT AND ARE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT, CLICK HERE
WARNING: THIS WEBSITE MENTIONS SEXUAL HARASSMENT. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY ANY OF THIS CONTENT AND ARE LOOKING FOR SUPPORT, CLICK HERE
December 2021
In its 110+ year-old history, IBM has constantly been at the forefront of inclusion. From 1899, when we hired our first female employee to today, IBM’s commitment to celebrating the talent of diverse constituents has been at the heart of our business and a key driver of our success.
This became a business imperative for us before any Civil Rights Act or legislation; we established our ‘Equal pay for Equal work’ policy back in 1935. What we’ve learned over this time is that diversity and inclusion efforts can’t sit with the HR department alone. At IBM, we see it as a business responsibility, too.
You can have all the right policies and systems in place, but they won’t take flight unless you focus on changing the experiences of your people for the better. To do this, you need commitment from your leaders to build, roll-out and continually evolve inclusion training for employees across all levels. This needs to be paired with a clear and consistent message – everyone is an ally and needs to actively participate in building a diverse and inclusive workplace.
At IBM, we call on our employees (IBMers) to be upstanders – people who are allies and ready to support each other.
By facilitating an inclusive culture, we place equality in the heart of everything we do. This means we do the work needed to ensure our culture is free of sexual harassment, discrimination and inequality.
Over the years, we’ve run many different diversity and inclusion programs across our global teams and a significant one is the ‘Be Equal program’, which is undertaken by all IBM managers.
Be Equal training was launched in 2021 as part of a larger program called ‘Emb(race)’. Emb(race) was IBM’s message to all employees to stay inclusive as we rallied around the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While IBM also conducts mandatory training for managers and leaders on addressing sexual harassment in the workplace, the Be Equal training program goes a step above that. It’s not just about not discriminating against others but learning how to embrace and celebrate them.
The half-day training sessions are segmented into three pillars and tap into what we believe to be the elements of a truly diverse and inclusive team. This training includes information on:
Importantly, we’re not saying to managers, ‘Do these five things and then you’re inclusive’. This training sparks long-term, ongoing conversations and ensures inclusion is layered into all conversations and decision-making processes at IBM.
How do we know that training like this works? Because it gets discussed every day; it’s organic. People talk about bringing their true self to work. It’s part of our vernacular and it doesn’t feel forced.
Since running this training, and similar training in the past, leaders have started taking more responsibility for instilling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their own units. That makes all the difference. We haven’t got HR or diversity leaders chasing up managers to meet their DEI objectives, it’s just part and parcel of how things are done.
By implementing programs such as Be Equal and others over the years, reported instances of sexual harassment have reduced significantly. We also lead from the top. All senior executives have inclusion index goals, and they understand that D&I is a business and a human imperative.
Progress on inclusion scores is measured through our annual engagement survey. We ask questions to get an understanding of how employees feel at the workplace and if they would recommend IBM as a great place to work to their family and friends.
If results are poor, we don’t leave it until the next annual survey to check in and see if progress has been made. A deeper analysis is facilitated for that team and gaps are addressed.
Sexual harassment and equality are important topics and tie back into empowering bystanders to become upstanders. We train our people on what sexual harassment looks like, what’s not appropriate, and make it clear that we have zero tolerance for it.
The key take-aways from our experience include: to educate and empower all people across the workplace; continually evolve the training content; measure progress on multiple levels; and constantly work to embed inclusion into your organisation’s DNA.
Thanks to Prachi Rastogi, Diversity and Inclusion Leader APAC at IBM, for her contributions to this article.
CEW has developed a range of resources to help leaders bring about real change in their organisations, and to track and eliminate sexual harassment.
When we talk about women, we include anyone who identifies as a woman.
Thanks to MinterEllison for their generous pro bono support for content and Mahlab for website development.
Chief Executive Women acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We especially recognise the women who have been the strength of their communities for thousands of years.
We need to set the tone and lead from the top. With this in mind, here are examples of some things we should never say or accept from others:
We need to ensure our people feel safe to come forward and report instances of sexual harassment or related inappropriate conduct in the workplace. The only way they’ll do this is if they can see that leadership takes this issue seriously.
We take the health and wellbeing of our people very seriously. We work hard to improve our safety outcomes and reduce injuries, and overall we do a good job of preventing physical harm to our people.
As we have seen in many other organisations, sexual harassment is more prevalent than a lot of people think. This represents a real risk to keeping people safe in the workplace, and to our people’s wellbeing and productivity.
It can also cause significant damage to our reputation, our brand as an employer of choice, lost business, and to our corporate standing. If we fail to take steps to address this conduct, we may be subject to enforcement action and/or civil penalties. Our organisation may also be held liable for inappropriate conduct committed by our employees unless we took all reasonable steps to prevent the conduct occurring.
We need to make it crystal clear to everyone in the organisation that we have zero tolerance for any form of sexual harassment. We will always take appropriate action when sexual harassment or related inappropriate conduct occurs. We seek to prevent these unlawful behaviours and to have a zero-harm workplace. We welcome the new Australian positive duty placed on organisations by the Anti-Discrimination and Human Rights Legislation Amendment (Respect at Work) Act 2022 and commit to implementing its provisions in a timely fashion and demonstrating our leadership.
We need to treat sexual harassment and related inappropriate conduct risks as we would any other physical or psychological risk in the workplace. We already have existing systems and processes in place for identifying and mitigating workplace health and safety risks and hazards, and for defining our desired safe and respectful culture.
We need to embed these sexual harassment response frameworks into our existing risk reporting practices and organisational culture, so all forms of sexual harassment and related misconduct are eradicated.
We can’t afford to wait on this; we need to act urgently.
Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other conduct of a sexual nature. It’s not only a human rights issue, which is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act, but also a workplace health and safety (WHS) risk which can cause significant psychological, physical, reputational and financial harm.
Existing systems and processes for managing WHS risks and hazards should be used to eliminate the risks and control the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring in the workplace.
Board members and senior executives have a duty to address this. Everyone deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment. Respect is everyone’s business.
Sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favours or other conduct of a sexual nature. It’s not only a human rights issue, which is unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act, but also a workplace health and safety (WHS) risk which can cause significant psychological, physical, reputational and financial harm.
Existing systems and processes for managing WHS risks and hazards should be used to eliminate the risks and control the likelihood of sexual harassment occurring in the workplace.
Board members and senior executives have a duty to address this. Everyone deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment. Respect is everyone’s business.