In life and in business, we are often blindsided by ignorantly thinking that it won’t happen to me.

Unfortunately, in today’s business environment, it is no longer a case of ‘if’ it will happen, but rather ‘when’ it will happen. And ‘when’ it happens, if your organisation does not have the right workplace training, policies and reporting in place, then you may be subject to some or all of the following impacts.

Did you know?

  • 30% of workers have experienced some form of bullying behaviour in Australian workplaces
  • 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual harassment in Australian workplaces
  • The Australian Human Rights Commission receives more than 2,000 complaints each year in relation to bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination in Australian workplaces
  • There were 191 worker deaths in Australian workplaces in 2015
  • The estimated total cost of work-related injury and disease is more than $20 billion each year in Australia
  • Breaches in safety, invasion of privacy and incidents of bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination can occur in any workplace, regardless of its size

Common sense tells us that the metrics given in this article are not something that we want happening in our workplace, or in any Australian workplace.

However, too often, we do not take the time out of our busy work schedule to plan an appropriate workplace compliance message to our people so that they are educated around health and safety, privacy and fair work practises such as workplace bullying, sexual harassment and discrimination.

Unfortunately, even for businesses that do educate their staff, they often do not back it up with appropriate workplace policies to manage situations when incidents arise. Nor are they able to report on which staff have completed compliance training if they are put in front of a tribunal to settle claims of legal liability.

Nobody really loves doing compliance, however, I think you would agree, that is never a reason to allow yourself to become complacent and subscribe to the mindset of ‘it will never happen to me’, because as soon as we go down this path, we’re sure to be surprised, in the most unpleasant of ways!