Experiences of Women in the Workplace survey

HR Buddy poll on experiences of Women in the Workplace
58% of women say they have experienced harassment in their workplace, 4 in 5
experienced sexualised comments being made towards them at work whilst 3 out of 4 say
they are not confident that they will not experience harassment in the future.

A poll of women in the workplace has revealed that 58% of women say
they have experienced harassment in their workplace, whilst 3 out of 4 say they are not
confident that they will not experience harassment in the future.
The survey also revealed that of the women who say they have been harassed, only 4 in 10
reported it.
Of those who did report it, when asked how well they felt their employer dealt with it, 1 in 4
said the employer dealt with it “very well”, 1 in 4 said it was not dealt with at all and half said
that the employer “did not deal with it very well”.
Harassment is unwanted conduct which is related to discrimination or sexual harassment
which is unwanted verbal, nonverbal or physical contact or unwelcome propositions.
27.59% of those who experienced harassment also said that they had experienced the
workplace harassment following through to their personal life and 4 in 5 of all those surveyed
said they had experienced sexualised comments being made towards them at work.
When asked what had been most impacted as a result of the harassment, 31% choose their
mental health, 24% choose morale, 13% choose attendance, with productivity and impact on
personal relationships both polling at 11% whilst 9% choose career progression as being
impacted.
When asked, was the person who inflicted the harassment upon you -Male, Female or both?
52% choose Male, 15% choose female and 33% choose both.
The survey also revealed that nearly 30% of women who are harassed leave that workplace
because of it.
3 in 4 also revealed that their workplace had not invested in training and educating their
people in this area.
Founder & CEO of HR Buddy, Damien McCarthy, said: “The poll was an important
starting point in what he hoped would lead to more joined up thinking that would deal with the
cultural problems we have in workplaces with regard to the treatment of women. It is very
clear that much harassment happens in silence. Only 4 in 10 of those women who said they
had been harassed at work said that they reported it”
Damien McCarthy continued: “3 in 4 said that their workplaces had not invested in training
and educating their people in this area and confidence in the possibility of harassment not
happening in future was very low. There is an argument that more initiatives and supports need
to be put in place to help employers positively work through this and workplaces need help in
training their people and shifting this culture in the right direction.
Over 1.1 million people are employed by SME businesses in this country and more needs to be
done from a government level to help these employers achieve a cultural shift and change in
standards in the workplace through training and education of not just employees, but the
employers themselves”
Damien McCarthy CIPD, Founder & CEO, HR Buddy
Damien@HRBuddy.ie / 064 66 98034 or 086 1936752
www.hrbuddy.ie