People's roles and responsibilities

Everyone working at your organisation has a responsibility to help create a respectful culture, and eliminate inappropriate behaviour. Here are examples of the responsibilities of different groups of people.

Our responsibilities as an employer

• Develop a positive culture across the University community where inappropriate behaviour cannot thrive.
• Create, reinforce, monitor and review policies and processes which promote your values and support against inappropriate behaviour.
• Identify hazards associated with inappropriate behaviour and put controls in place.
• Review and strengthen complaint handling processes.
• Take complaints seriously and listen without judgment, taking an impartial approach.
• Ensure all staff, especially managers, are trained to create a respectful workplace and able to work with your policies and processes for resolving issues with inappropriate behaviour.
• Ensure effective, timely response to allegations.

Our responsibilities as employees

• Contribute to a positive workplace by demonstrating positive, values-led behaviours.
• Engage with and follow your approaches and policies to build a respectful workplace, and to limit and resolve issues of inappropriate behaviour.
• Where possible, speak up about instances of inappropriate behaviour you may witness.
• Look for ways to resolve incidents through discussion before escalation, where possible.
• Report incidents of inappropriate behaviours against yourself or a colleague, and keep a behaviours diary.
• Support colleagues who may be experiencing inappropriate behaviour.

Additional responsibilities of line managers

• Work with their teams to agree how to sustain a positive team culture, develop team guidelines and model appropriate behaviours.
• Support positive culture-change programmes.
• Lead by example.
• Role model your values and behaviours.
• Support people to give feedback respectfully and receive feedback as a chance to learn.
• Record and investigate complaints fairly and in line with University policies and processes.
• Ensure feedback is given to all parties involved.
• Look for informal solutions before escalating to higher levels, e.g. mediation or investigation.
• Seek help if you don’t know what to do.

Responsibilities of Human Resources

• Use recruitment practices to hire the right people for the role who will be positive influencers in your culture.
• Raise awareness of what constitutes inappropriate behaviour (including bullying).
• Establish open communication systems.
• Maintain and update policies and processes to ensure these promote your values and your other behavioural expectations.
• Support managers and supervisors to meet their people management obligations.
• Have processes for both informal resolution and formal investigations.
• Analyse workplace information (e.g. absenteeism records, exit interviews) for indicators of inappropriate behaviours not being addressed.