2005 Survey of HR Professionals

Trends and Remedies

Just over 14% of respondents said that, over the past year, there has been an increase in the number of incidents of bullying in their organisation. That compares with just over 16% who believe that the number of incidents has gone down. Just under 33% said it had remained the same and nearly 37% said that they did not know.

When asked about how their organisation deals with bullying, 59% said that it has specific policies and procedures in place, while just over 36% said that it was dealt with through formal grievance procedures. When asked about the effectiveness of those procedures, just over 55% said that they enabled their organisation to resolve incidents of bullying satisfactorily, while just over 23% said they did not.

When asked to identify the factors which impair their organisation's ability to deal effectively with bullying, the most commonly cited factors were management's unwillingness to acknowledge a problem and prevailing management style.

Organisations vary in the time they take to resolve bullying cases. 40% of respondents said that, on average, they take between one and three months to resolve, while just under 8% said that they take more than a year.

Organisations also vary in the actions they take against bullies. A formal warning is the most commonly cited example. The second most commonly cited example is dismissal.

The feedback suggests that the introduction of a formal policy on bullying has little impact on the number of cases that come forward. Indeed, over 81% said that it had not.

The feedback also indicates that 96% of organisations offer training on how to deal with bullying incidents. A much smaller proportion, nearly 41%, offer training on how to avoid bullying.

While nearly 46% of respondents said that workplace bullying has become a higher priority for them since last year, just over 54% said that it has not.