Royal Mail Group (RMG) employs over 190,000 people in the UK – that’s almost one per cent of the entire working population. Due to its size, tackling the matter of bullying and harassment, including a number of high profile cases, was never going to be an easy task.

Added to this, in January 2003, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) considered a formal investigation into the high number of sexual harassment complaints filed by women at Royal Mail. In August 2003, both parties agreed a three-year action plan to deal with sexual harassment within the organisation.

While the EOC helped to provide focus RMG recognised that it could not turn round the business without addressing the B&H issue. So Royal Mail Group overhauled its approach to bullying & harassment and introduced a new policy which comprised:

• A 12-step investigation process – this sets out rights and responsibilities of all parties, emphasises RMG’s commitment to dealing with B&H et.
• An online database to track case progress – this ensures ‘just in time’ information is always available.
• Diversity training for all 190,000 employees.
• A new 24-hour confidential telephone helpline to advise employees who feel they are being bullied.
• A Diversity & Inclusion awards scheme introduced by Chairman, Allan Leighton – to recognise the fantastic achievements of our people.
• A Listeners programme – offering colleague to colleague support. These people act as a sign post to the support available to employees.
• Award winning ‘With Friends Like These’ video to tackle banter in the workplace. At RMG we know that ‘banter’ is the No1 issue causing unhappiness to our people.
• Launch of Dignity & Respect at Work (DRAW) groups where managers, employees and Union representatives get together to identify local issues and improvement action.
• Web-based training programme for managers.
• Detailed B&H questions as part of our annual employee opinion survey to measure confidence and progress in the B&H process. This information is used to report back to employees and the Board.
• A team of independent harassment investigators who handle serious / complex cases.
• Specially trained locally based diversity managers to support ‘hot spots’.
• Ongoing support for National Ban Bullying at Work Day including ‘walk the talk’ site visits – these present a great opportunity for managers and staff to speak about the issue.
• Ongoing communications campaign using a range of media including posters, TV Screens, team discussion, employee newspaper and intranet to feature real-life stories and outcomes.

Since the new approaches were implemented, the number of employees experiencing bullying and harassment has fallen significantly. Overall confidence has increased and there is an increasing recognition that bullying and harassment is not tolerated at RMG.