The Client

Affinity was commissioned, through International SOS, to work with a large mining organisation in Australia. In 2022, Australia saw reports such as the Rio Tinto report into workplace culture (specifically focused on bullying, racism and sexual harassment), 'Enough is enough' (the result of a parliamentary inquiry into sexual harassment and the release of new legislation around sexual harassment at work. As a result, the compulsion for organisation to protect workers from harmful behaviours has never been stronger.

Need

• As part of an overall employee psychosocial assessment (also conducted by Affinity), a potential risk with regards to harmful behaviour was identified.
• The client wanted to better understand the incidence and prevalence of bullying, harassment and racism within their organisation, and commissioned a rigorous investigation to assess this.

Solution

• Affinity designed a multi-phase investigation to ensure that all employees were able to share their experiences.
• Stage 1: Familiarisation. This stage involved gathering data on policies, practices and processes within the organisation and talking to key stakeholders responsible for the management and investigation of harmful behaviour
• Stage 2. Survey: This stage involved an all employee questionnaire, which enabled employees to share their lived experience in their own words, as well as gather data on prevalence, experience and reporting.
• Stage 3: Focus groups and recommendation gathering: In order to ensure that the solutions recommended achieved buy-in and were as relevant, impactful and fit for purpose as possible, ten solution finding workshops and eight follow up interviews were conducted. At all times, we were able to maintain the confidentiality and therefore trust and safety of employees in addition to signposting them where necessary to further sources of support.
• Stage 4: Analysis and reporting: The data was analysed and synthesised into a series of recommendations at the systemic level for the client to take forward.
• Stage 5: Dissemination. Presentations were made to the senior leadership team within Australia and globally to discuss the recommendations and methodological approach
• Stage 6: Action planning: We are currently designing a 2 day action planning event which will bring together senior leaders from all divisions of the organisation to work together to take commitment on actions going forward.

Impact

• The process which our client has undertaken for this review has already been commended as best-in-space by WorkSafe Australia (the regulatory body in Australia, equivalent to the HSE).
• The client is currently discussing following a similar process in all parts of the business globally.
• Our work was highly commended and rated as excellent by the client.

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