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dignity: harassment and discrimination
:
The role of HR
Introduction
1 The Center’s HR staff, particularly
the HR Manager, has a key role in five aspects of preventing and stopping
harassment and discrimination. These aspects are:
- supporting management by developing Center policy and procedures for preventing and stopping harassment and discrimination;
- educating staff, particularly through induction and retraining, with specialized training for line managers;
- assisting management in establishing avenues of assistance at all duty stations for staff members who have experienced harassment or discrimination;
- providing support and guidance to people directly involved in harassment and discrimination issues; and
- providing guidance to committees investigating harassment and discrimination complaints.
Supporting management in
the development of the Center’s policy and procedures
2 HR has a key role in developing, reviewing
and refining policies and practices and referring them to senior management
for decision. These guidelines provide a model policy and a
range of sample practices to aid HR in this function. However, it remains up to each Center’s
HR Manager to:
- undertake whatever refinement/revision is necessary for the practices to mesh with other relevant policies (e.g. Code of Conduct, disciplinary policy, performance evaluation, rewards, etc.), and
- recommend their adoption by senior management and, where revisions to the Center’s Personnel Policy Manual are involved, prepare appropriate recommendations to the Center Board.
Educating staff
3 Prevention of harassment and discrimination
is key to establishing a workplace of dignity. This requires careful planning
to ensure that:
- all new appointees, including contractors, consultants and, particularly, line managers and supervisors have relevant policies explained to them as part of their induction, early in their appointment;
- appropriate retraining occurs across the workforce from time to time, to reinforce staff understanding of the purpose, ramifications and implications of sustaining a workplace of dignity;
- line managers receive specialized training on harassment and discrimination issues because line managers are the “first line of defense” and thus must be acutely aware of harassment and discrimination issues, act as role models, be alert to the emergence of harassment and discrimination problems in their workgroup, be aware of their responsibilities to act expeditiously and appropriately, and be empowered to do so; and
- the above requirements are met effectively, not just at Center headquarters but across the Center’s entire spectrum of regional and country offices, no matter how small the group.
Providing support and guidance
to people directly involved in
harassment and discrimination issues
4 HR Managers are usually the ultimate sources
of expert advice and guidance on harassment and discrimination in their
Centers. They need to be knowledgeable of Center’s policy but also
have an understanding of harassment and discrimination beyond the policies
themselves.
5 HR Managers need to be alert to potential
harassment and discrimination issues and act appropriately, either directly
or through the appropriate line manager/s. They also must be able to give
impartial and expert advice to people involved in harassment and discrimination
cases, both complainants and alleged offenders.
6 Victims of harassment in particular may
need support and reassurance about the Center’s policy and procedures
as well as assurance of confidentiality. The HR Manager should identify
appropriate sources of professional counseling for victims at/for each
duty station.
Assisting management in establishing avenues
of assistance
at all duty stations
7 While the HR Manager is usually the ultimate
source of expert advice and guidance on harassment and discrimination
in each Center, she/he obviously cannot be at every duty station simultaneously.
The HR Manager may even operate in a different time zone than some of
the Center’s duty stations.
8 Consequently staff members at all duty stations
who may be experiencing harassment need to have immediate avenues of assistance.
These would either be at their duty station or for their duty station
if it has a very small staff.
9 A good contingency plan for avenues of assistance
will have (but not necessarily be limited to) the following features:
- one or more Local Harassment Advisors;
- a hotline for reaching Center HR personnel with accessible phone numbers for the HR Manager and a specified alternate for harassment matters;
- documented information about harassment;
- access to professional counseling.
The sample practice: “Avenues
of Assistance for Staff Who Have Experienced Harassment or Discrimination” contains
a more comprehensive explanation.
10 While it is senior management’s responsibility
to establish avenues of assistance, it will be the HR Manager who works
out the detail of these arrangements for each duty station, particularly:
- informing all staff about the avenues of assistance at each duty station;
- establishing the linkages from the Local Harassment Advisors to Center HR for training and advice;
- establishing the linkages from local management to Center HR for policy advice and practical advice on managing incidents;
- establishing the telephone hotline to Center HR that ensures that someone knowledgeable can respond to questions from all duty stations during normal business hours for those duty stations;
- transforming relevant sections of the Personnel Policy Manual (or equivalent) on harassment and discrimination into reader-friendly brochures, Web pages, etc.;
- establishing arrangements for providing professional counseling to victims of harassment.
Providing guidance to Panels
investigating harassment and
discrimination complaints
11 When harassment or discrimination culminates
in a formal complaint, the HR Manager has a key role in establishing and
supporting the Investigating Panel. The HR Manager typically is the common
link across Panels, being the one person in the Center who sits on all
harassment and discrimination investigation Panels. Therefore she/he not
only needs expert knowledge of the Center’s investigation process,
but she/he also needs to understand the basic requirements of conducting
effective investigations. The HR Manager needs both forms of knowledge
in order to provide support to Panel members and chairpersons.
© CGIAR Gender & Diversity
Program 2006