The abuses at The Voice dominated the news last week. It is understandable that the attention is high: a well-known programme, a well-known family. But I have encountered such situations in my practice for years. While the change can be initiated so easily. Organisations: learn from The Voice and make the change. Even (or especially) when the media attention has declined.
MeToo and Black Lives Matter
MeToo has been a global concept since 2017, the BlackLivesMatter movement has been in the spotlight since 2020 and the ‘woke workplace’ has been given attention since 2021: an inclusive workplace where people act with respect for the differences in the world. Is there a scandal, like last week The Voice, then the social indignation is (rightly) great. Experts and media tumble over each other to interpret the situation. Even politicians feel the need to speak out. We’ve seen this attention before. But if we’re not careful, we’ll see this again in the future.
Don’t get me wrong: social attention is needed to initiate change. But this change requires that we go beyond outrage. Because if we’re honest: what have we learned in the workplace from the MeToo movement and the BlackLivesMatter protests? Have we changed our organizations? Are we prepared to investigate what an inclusive workplace in 2022 really means? Isn’t one of the lessons from the past that what may have been ‘acceptable’ at the time may no longer be the case today?
Willingness to change
If you as an organization are prepared to do this, then it requires constant attention from the subject. Not just when there’s a scandal that gets media attention. There must be a willingness to (continue to) look at the organization and to (continue to) make changes. Integrity should be a permanent item on the agenda. But how? A pass.
Know your organization. There is no organization where integrity violations do not occur, but there are risk factors: an imbalance between men/women, an imbalance between people of color, hierarchy, dependence, work pressure, (feeling of) undervaluation, no possibility of contradiction, absence of checks and balance. It takes guts to look your organization in the eye, because there is a good chance that you will find one or more risk factors. Recognizing this and acting on it, however, is the first step.
Make sure the basics are in order. This seems like an open goal, but the current run on confidants shows the opposite. The basics: a code of conduct, a whistleblower scheme (for organizations with more than fifty people), an (external) confidential adviser, a hotline and a complaints committee. Do not forget to consult applicable laws and regulations and any collective labor agreement.
keep in touch. What do we mean by integrity, what does an inclusive workplace look like and how do we deal with the risks we see? Avoid surprises. By staying in touch with each other, the subject comes alive and you can respond to (social) changes. Give employees (including managers and supervisors) training/retraining, discuss a dilemma at the lunch table, make it part of a work meeting.
Act appropriately in the event of a breach of integrity. Do not panic, do not look away, but act and learn: provide a listening ear, engage the right people, have an eye for all interests (of reporter and injured party), draw up a clear step-by-step plan and establish the legal framework. Then it is important to look back: what can we learn from this situation and what does it say about our organization? What is needed to prevent the risk of recurrence?
Make sure the circle stays complete. It doesn’t end with going through the previous steps. So keep looking your organization in the eye, ensure that the basics remain in order, keep in touch with each other and act appropriately in the event of an integrity violation. Go beyond the social outrage, dare to take steps and above all don’t stop.
Loes Wevers is a lawyer in employment law and her specialization is integrity in employment relationships.