Our Approach: Advancing Survivor-Centered Approaches to Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace

The Engendering Industries' approach to advancing gender equality consists of several core components. Implemented together, these components promote gender equality in the workplace.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Infographic

Eighty-five percent of women have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Only seven percent of victims, however, report the harassment, illustrating a general distrust and a lack of confidence in grievance mechanisms and reporting processes. Sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV) reduce employee satisfaction, morale, and productivity. However, companies that use survivor-centered approaches and create safe and violence-free workplaces perform better across several business metrics.

Organizations that use a survivor-centered approach achieve higher productivity, lower turnover, stronger company brand and reputation, and increased ability to attract and retain top talent. A survivor-centered approach facilitates a process that prioritizes the best interests and needs of the person who has experienced harm and returning power to them at every stage of the grievance management mechanism and investigative process.  

Woman in hardhat walking onsite at electrical plant

Technical Support to Embed a Survivor-Centered Approach at Companies Worldwide

Preventing and responding to sexual harassment and other forms of workplace GBV has been a core component of the Engendering Industries approach since the program began in 2015. In 2019, Engendering Industries began offering partners more intensive support to develop survivor-centered grievance mechanisms, policies, and reporting processes. Through this process, the program sensitized partners to the business case for addressing workplace GBV, and the importance of prioritizing the needs of affected individuals over the needs of the organization. With a survivor-centered approach, companies can address sexual harassment and other forms of GBV more effectively, creating a safer workplace for all. The Engendering Industries approach to preventing and mitigating workplace GBV is integrated across program components, including: 

Workplace Gender-Based Violence Trainings

In 2022, Engendering Industries published its new guide, Survivor-Centered Approaches to Workplace Sexual Harassment and GBV, and developed a curriculum to train human resource professionals and broader groups of employees on how to use the survivor-centered approach to prevent and respond to sexual harassment and other forms of GBV in the workplace. The training provides companies with tools to evaluate their own policies and practices to consider how they can be more survivor-centered.

Partner Policy Review

Engendering Industries reviews the sexual harassment policies of its partners, and has supported many to revise or improve their policies to align with a survivor-centered approach.

Engendering Industries Gender Equality Course

Engendering Industries includes an abridged version of the GBV training and curriculum in the academic coursework the program offers to its partners.

Change Management Coaching

Engendering Industries’ change management coaches and GBV experts support partners to implement survivor-centered approaches to address GBV in their organizations.  Coaches reinforce the principles and best practices for implementing a survivor-centered approach, as outlined in the program’s survivor-centered approaches guide and GBV training curriculum.

Protecting and Empowering Survivors

Many of Engendering Industries’ partners who adopt the survivor-centered approach see their incident reporting rates increase initially, indicating that employees are trusting the organization’s grievance mechanism process. By prioritizing psychological support, giving the affected individuals control over the investigation process, establishing robust grievance mechanisms, and maintaining consistent disciplinary measures, the company communicates to employees that they take these issues seriously, and are committed to protecting survivors when they come forward. 

The project has provided technical review of sexual harassment and GBV policies for 41 of the program’s 47 long-term partners. Engendering Industries supported eight companies to draft and adopt new sexual harassment and GBV policies.

VIEW OUR RESULTS

Snapshot: Building Trust in the Process at EKEDC

When Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in Nigeria joined Engendering Industries in 2015, the company did not have a sexual harassment policy and there were no reports of incidents. Data show that sexual harassment is common in Nigeria, but there was a strong culture of silence on the topic within the company.

With the support of Engendering Industries, EKEDC adopted a sexual harassment policy with survivor-centered reporting mechanisms and processes to protect survivors such as prioritizing psychological support and centering the needs of survivor throughout the investigation process.

Over time, the company has seen reporting increase, a sign of employees growing trust in the reporting mechanisms available to them and that they feel increasingly comfortable coming forward. The culture of silence at the organization is slowly transforming into a culture where survivors feel empowered, safe, and protected.