Why does a respectful culture matter to your business?

Evidence suggests that gender inequality is often an underlying condition where instances of sexual harassment occur.

Due to the typical gender ratios in the building and construction industry, it’s even more critical that business owners are working to create a respectful culture for everyone.

Whether your business is small, medium or large, supporting diversity, respect and a gender balance is critical to the safety and wellbeing of your employees, subbies and trainees.

Keep it fair

A respectful work culture can help prevent instances of sexual harassment.

You can take some actions to create a healthy, respectful culture at your workplace or site:

• Lead by example – senior staff should actively role model respectful behaviour and immediately call out instances that aren’t acceptable.
• Do risk assessments – assess the risk of sexual harassment, along with mitigations, just as you would assess other safety risks.
• Encourage trust and respect – build these values into policies, induction, training and ongoing communication.
• Educate – keep finding new ways to address harassment and make sure all workers understand what’s expected of their behaviour.

Talk about it

The simplest way to build and maintain a respectful work culture is to keep talking about what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour. Keep the conversation going and encourage people to call out inappropriate behaviour. Also give people options for speaking up anonymously.

A healthier culture will keep your entire team focused on the job.

Find more tips from Safe Work Australia.