Why Dignity at Work matters

Similar to many workplaces, at GC we’re continuously developing or ways or working and as part of this we want to embed and promote what Dignity at Work means in our workplace.

We've made lots of progress so far and learned a number of things along the way.

Tackling unacceptable behaviour

We’re an equal opportunities employer and we support a safe working environment for all our colleagues, and the people and businesses we work alongside. This means Dignity at Work rightly takes centre stage in our organisation and is at the core of our being.

We have adapted a zero-tolerance approach to any form of behaviour that constitutes as bullying, discrimination, harassment or victimisation. These are traits and behaviours which are not aligned to our organisation’s values.

To make this happen, and to be robust and sustainable, it is important to articulate our approach to Dignity at Work, and be clear that this not only applies to our colleagues, but our learners, associates, and contractors. In fact, anyone we work and engage with, including our suppliers, customers, clients, volunteers. Anyone who our organisation engages must be aware of, and respect our values and EDI principles.

From the start of this journey, we were clear this needed to be a collective responsibility - that all our colleagues must have personal responsibility for their own behaviour and are responsible for making sure their conduct is in line with GC’s standards and values. We’ve successfully promoted a culture where colleagues are empowered to report any incidents of bullying and harassment - whether it be an incident involving themselves, or someone else.

Our ‘Dignity at Work’ Charter

To help pull together the key parts of our approach and raise awareness of Dignity at Work and what it means in real terms, we produced a charter. It contains four pillars which outline our key principles and commitments:

• Inclusive culture
• Promote diversity and equality
• Respect others
• Ownership and accountability

You can see our full ‘Dignity at Work Charter’ by clicking on the link below:

Bringing ‘Dignity at Work’ to life

It’s important we can continue to learn about what dignity at work means in the workplace. We’ve encouraged colleagues to fully embrace themselves in everything that is Dignity at Work.

To give this some structure and signpost our progress so far, we pulled together a campaign of activities for colleagues. Our campaign also highlighted the changes we’d made to our policies to better define our expectations and commitments to Dignity at Work.

As one of the main anchors within the campaign, we ran a ‘Let’s Talk Dignity at Work’ session in 2022– open to all colleagues to attend, facilitated by Michelle Leeson - Managing Director of The Growth Company Employment, Fiona Miller - Operations Manager for the Justice Division and Cheryl Madden - Organisational Development and Learning Consultant, the session walked through the steps we’re taking together as an organisation to make sure Dignity at Work happens day-in, day-out.

In the session, we also introduced colleagues to our ‘Dignity at Work Policy’ and our ‘Dignity at Work Charter’ – walking them step-by-step through these two vitally important reference tools which set out ‘what good looks like’ for Dignity at Work.  The session also provided clear definitions and examples of how we can all actively role model the right behaviours and what our colleagues’ responsibilities are if they hear or see something which is unacceptable. To help put some of the key sections of our policies into perspective and help set our expectations, we provided a few practical examples of how to respond to unacceptable behaviour - if colleagues did encounter it whilst at work.

Embedding a culture and checking understanding

It’s important that we keep Dignity at Work high on all our managers’ agendas and encourage them to maintain conversations with their teams as part of the new Let’s Talk workshops launched in 2023. Like many endeavours to make a culture shift across an organisation, we need to keep a drum beat of activities and communications to make sure Dignity at Work remains front of all our minds, with clear signposting to information and support and what’s coming up next across our campaigns.

In September 2023 – we held a 'lunch & learn' event joined by 150 colleagues during National Inclusion Week. We. discussed what actions our organisation is taking to make positive and lasting impacts across inclusion and dignity at work. We  also celebrated our EDI achievements from the last 12 months and reminded colleagues of the importance of treating others with dignity and respect – to help us create an inclusive culture where we can all respectfully challenge or report unacceptable behaviour.

We want all colleagues to understand their responsibilities going forward and empower them to challenge unacceptable behaviours. By upholding these standards, and having clear and transparent dialogue and processes, it sets clear expectations for new colleagues and lets prospective applicants know what we stand for.

Getting feedback from colleagues is vital to us, so that we can see whether our messages have landed in the right way – and identify what else we can do to support colleagues. When embarking on a campaign of culture change, it has to be a two-way process. We made sure we gave colleagues the opportunity to ask questions and feedback on the content we’ve delivered to them – this is also a key part of knowing that we’re on track and learn any lessons for future activity.