Bystander Intervention Training: Why Your Company Needs It
In the context of workplace training, maybe you’ve heard of leadership training, anti-harassment training, or even sensitivity training - but what about bystander intervention training?
First, let's paint a picture: Imagine a situation where one of your coworkers is being sexually harassed by a manager. If others are around to witness this, they would most certainly intervene to stop it from continuing, right?
Wrong. It has to do with the bystander effect, which occurs when individuals stay silent or refrain from engaging in assistance to a victim when in the presence of other people.
But what about all that workplace harassment training? Certainly, people now understand that this conduct is inappropriate in the workplace!?
Shockingly, the Harvard Business Review reports that "when companies institute this kind of training...women in management lose ground," and worse, "men who are inclined to harass women before training become more accepting of such behavior after training."
Enter the idea of Bystander intervention training. This training follows the idiom, “If you see something, say (or do) something.” Typically incorporated as a supplement to current sexual harassment training, it provides guidance for individuals to recognize inappropriate conduct and tools on how to take action to stop, intervene, or de-escalate the behavior.
The New York Times describes bystander intervention as "a strategy that teaches onlookers to insert themselves both indirectly and directly into harassment incidents, overriding the common instinct to feel frozen or unsure in such situations."
Why Anti-Harassment Training Alone Isn't Enough
Despite many jurisdictions implementing anti-harassment training and companies adopting internal training requirements of their own, Harvard Business Review found that “40% of women still say they have been sexually harassed at work - a number that has not changed much since 1980." But there is hope, with the authors discovering that bystander-intervention training is the most “promising alternative” to address occurrences of sexual harassment in the workplace. And it has a history of success: the practice was adopted years ago at college campuses (since around 2006) and is now also used at military bases with positive results.
In 2022, and while serving as American Bar Association (ABA) Labor and Employment Section President, Kelly Dermody, Managing Partner of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein’s San Francisco Office, called on attendees of the International Forum of Senior Executive Advisers in London, UK to embrace bystander intervention training during the forum's opening remarks. Dermody has been a staunch proponent of companies embracing bystander intervention training, explaining in 2019 to Bloomberg Law that “the idea behind the practice is that every person is responsible for cultivating the culture we work in.” And the movement is gaining momentum.
Just this year, the City of Chicago enacted a first-of-its-kind regulation mandating bystander intervention training as an expansion of the city’s sexual harassment training while New York City now also requires incorporation of bystander intervention training to its mandated sexual harassment training. Other states, like California, provide that an employer “may” provide bystander intervention training as part of its sexual harassment training requirements, and some jurisdictions, like the City of West Hollywood (CA), require bystander intervention training for certain industries, such as establishments that serve alcohol for onsite consumption.
Tools for Bystander Intervention in the Workplace
Non-Profit Right to Be teaches the "5 D's" method for bystander intervention, a strategy now adopted in New York's Commission on Human Rights bystander intervention training, as well. The non-profit's workplace bystander intervention training boasts its post-training success with the statistic that "98% of employees leave our training committing to intervene next time they witness disrespect or harassment" with employees acknowledging that “If you were to walk out of here and witness harassment in your workplace, do you feel there is at least one thing you could do to intervene?” To date, 97% of our trainees respond ‘yes’ and 3% respond ‘maybe’."
So what are Right to Be's 5Ds of intervention? The New York Times explains as follows:
“Distract” (pretending to know the person being harassed, dropping a drink near the harasser, etc.),
“Delegate” (asking a nearby authority figure for help),
“Delay” (checking in with the harassed person afterward),
“Direct” (verbally confronting the harasser), and
“Document” (recording video of the incident).
Contact Moxie to Discuss Bystander-Intervention Training Today
Interested in developing bystander intervention training for your company? Contact Moxie today for a free consultation to discuss our bystander intervention training services.