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Dyson conduct ‘no surprise’ to a profession that has not changed in 3 decades
In the last 30 years, an executive general manager commented that nothing within the legal profession had changed to address sexual harassment. Implementing strong and robust whistleblowing policies could be the key to finally addressing that.
Naomi Neilson
Upon learning that an independent inquiry had found a former justice of the High Court sexually harassed associates, the legal profession has responded with many debates, commentary and advice on changing the culture and implementing new policies. While it has spurred into action, one professional said the news was hardly surprising.
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Vicki Kennedy, executive general manager of Your Call – an independent provider of external whistleblowing programs – commented that in her 30 years’ experience as an HR manager, practicing solicitor and legal recruiter, “nothing changed, nothing has improved” in how the law profession addresses behavioural misconduct.
The news of the inquiry was not new or surprising to Ms Kennedy, who said her office had become a bit of a “confessional” for people – both women and men – approaching her about sexual harassment conduct and the concerns for their careers.
“Legal recruiters just move people around but the penny dropped when I realised that I had entered the profession when we had our last recession and in all my years since, [up until] the current recession was announced, nothing has improved,” she said.
The profession is not at a total loss and there are ways to enact real change. According to Ms Kennedy, it should start by ensuring staff are comfortable with reporting, taking a serious look at the culture and training people to report when needed.
Then there is enacting whistleblower policies. For Ms Kennedy, she was often moving lawyers from toxic companies and into healthier workplaces, but there was no chance to retroactively prevent and call out the workplaces for their behaviour. Working within a whistleblower disclosure management and reporting system has changed that.
Your Call CEO Nathan Luker said it is “absolutely crucial” that the discussions on new policies or procedures should consider and recommend implementing a whistleblower element to build up the trust and transparency within the workplace.
“A good service will have different types of reports and questions to be made. We have a policy of ‘when in doubt, speak up’ – and particularly females, with the sheer number of females impacted by sexual harassment or abuse – encouraging them to arrange a group call or report because there is safety in numbers,” Mr Luker said, adding victims can report through whistleblower services confidently and anonymously.
Having an external whistleblower agency in place can see that firms are appropriately managing complaints and affirming with staff that they can be trusted. As it stands very few firms have these processes, and very little include trauma-informed policies which [handle] post-incident assistance. These procedures should be defining what to do if there are complaints and what may happen if investigations take place.
Due to the insufficient effort in addressing and managing sexual harassment in the profession, Mr Luker said there has been an increase in the number of staff who have been abused or harassed. Moreover, 40 per cent of complaints tend to be from bystanders and witnesses, but most do not actually do anything about the conduct.
To appropriately manage sexual harassment in the profession, Mr Luker said firms will need to start by “creating something like a ‘speak up’ brand or something which really umbrellas the movement of being able to speak up” about inappropriate conduct.
