Understand the risk
Identify where sexual harassment or other relevant unlawful behaviour could occur, who may be exposed and what existing information is telling you.
Sexual harassment prevention
Prevention needs more than a policy and training.
Organisations need practical ways to prevent sexual harassment and other sex-based unlawful behaviour, identify where risk may arise and respond appropriately when concerns are raised.
Nexus helps businesses and organisations examine the conditions, systems and practices that influence risk — and put prevention measures in place that match the risk and the workplace.
From obligation to practical prevention
Understand the risk. Test the controls. Put the right measures in place.
A policy, training program and reporting pathway can form part of prevention. The broader question is whether the workplace conditions, leadership practices and controls are actually reducing risk in practice.
Look at the immediate issue and the context
The risk does not always sit where the complaint appears.
A concern about one person’s behaviour may require an individual response. Sometimes the surrounding conditions matter too — for example unclear standards, reluctance to speak up, poor escalation pathways, tolerated conduct, leadership practices or power imbalances.
The purpose is not to assume every incident proves a broader cultural problem. It is to consider both the immediate matter and what can reasonably be learned from it.
The response should follow the evidence — not a predetermined program.
Evidence & obligations
The legal framework expects active prevention.
Under the federal Sex Discrimination Act, organisations and businesses subject to the legislation have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, certain unlawful conduct including workplace sexual harassment, sex-based harassment, sex discrimination, hostile workplace environments on the ground of sex and related victimisation.
Work health and safety duties also matter. Safe Work Australia identifies sexual and gender-based harassment as a psychosocial hazard and notes that policies and training alone are not effective or reliable controls. Effective prevention may require changes to the workplace, the work or how the work is carried out.
Australian Human Rights Commission — Positive duty
Safe Work Australia — Managing sexual and gender-based harassment risks
Contact Nexus
Talk through what your organisation needs.
You may be building a prevention approach, reviewing what is already in place, or dealing with an issue that has brought the risks into focus. You do not need to know the solution before getting in touch.
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