Employer resources

Tip sheets
Sexual harassment in the workplace: Vicarious trauma
Tip sheet for human resources and employees


Workplace sexual harassment can harm and upset people even if they weren’t the person who was harassed. This is called vicarious trauma.

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Sexual harassment in the workplace: Disclosure and Reporting

Tip sheet for human resources & employees

Your workplace sexual harassment policy should contain safeguards to ensure that people who make reports of workplace sexual harassment are not subject to punishment or retaliation.

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Privacy and confidentiality 

Tip sheet for human resources & employees

Maintaining confidentiality over workplace sexual harassment complaints is an important part of encouraging workers to come forward with complaints and ensuring a fair process for everyone involved.

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Witnessing sexual harassment in the workplace
Tip sheet for bystanders


Increasingly, employers are offering bystander training for their employees, particularly in labour forces and industries which are typically comprised of men. Bystander training equips you as an employee with the confidence and skills to appropriately respond to sexual harassment in the workplace.

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How employers should support respondents during and after the complaint/investigation process

Tip sheet for human resources & employees

Employers have a legal duty to treat respondents fairly and should not discipline respondents without first conducting a fair investigation.

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Reasonable Workplace Investigations

Tip sheet for human resources & employees

Investigations are an important tool to assist employers in fulfilling their legal obligation to provide a safe workplace that is free of bullying and harassment.

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More resources

Workplace sexual harassment is legally defined as unwelcome behaviour (for example, touching, comments) of a sexual nature that:

  • has a negative affect on  the work environment or causes job-related problems for the person who is being harassed, and 
  • doesn’t require intent (the harasser can be guilty of harassment even if they didn’t mean to cause harm by their behaviour).

It can happen:

  • in the workplace or outside of it, and
  • during working hours or after working hours.

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Le harcèlement sexuel au travail: de quoi s’agit-il?

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crédit à Association des juristes d’expression française de la Colombie-Britannique

When it comes to workplace sexual harassment, you have certain responsibilities as an employer. For example:

  • don’t make sexual comments to your workers,
  • don’t touch your workers in a sexual way,
  • create procedures for workers to report bullying and harassment and make sure they know about them, and
  • create effective procedures for investigating bullying and harassment.

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Investigations manual

There are lots of things to consider when you’re dealing with workplace sexual harassment as an employer, including your legal responsibilities. This manual will give you some tips for investigating workplace sexual harassment effectively and legally.

 

Read more | Download SHARP Workplaces Investigations Manual

 
Traiter le harcèlement sexuel au travail: une démarche tenant compte des traumatismes

télécharger SHARP GuideTraiter le harcèlement sexuel au travail

crédit à Association des juristes d’expression française de la Colombie-Britannique

If someone has experienced or witnessed (seen or heard) workplace sexual harassment, they might tell you about it but not want to make a report. This guide explains what you can do if you find out about workplace sexual harassment but the people involved don’t want to make a report.

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Disclosing (talking about) workplace sexual harassment isn’t the same as reporting it. A worker who doesn’t want to make a report might still tell you they’ve experienced or witnessed workplace sexual harassment because they want to ask questions or find out where to get support.

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Use this Word document to help you make your own workplace sexual harassment policy and procedures.

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Someone who takes a trauma-informed approach to workplace sexual harassment investigations is trained to identify trauma and knows that people involved in the investigation might be experiencing trauma because of other things that have happened in their lives.

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