Ensuring a Bullying-Free Workplace

It is imperative that the investment in the Blueprint and its resulting suppression of workplace bullying not be lost with time or change in leadership. The best way to ensure continuity is ongoing support for the Expert Peers Team coupled with an integration of the values and expectations in the policy and procedures with other existing systems.

Incorporation with other relevant policies -- violence, discrimination, respect. Procedural incorporation may mean standardizing them all. But often bullying requires specific procedures that were created by the Policy Writing Group.

Integration with Performance Evaluation criteria for Managers and Staff. If bullying has become taboo according to the new policy, then hold everyone accountable for it. Make it an appraisal criterion. On the bullying-specific behavioral cluster, managers are to be evaluated by those they manage, not by those who supervise them.

All management and leadership training must also include modules about the unacceptability of bullying by anyone at any time.

Hiring practices need to change, too. Screening out hyperaggressive individuals is important, but difficult to accomplish. Different criteria need to be developed and applied as new people enter the organization. Anti-bully screening is applicable at all levels.

Impact of the new policy and procedures should be measured and monitored on an ongoing basis. See our Assessment Services. It is the only way to gauge success, change for the better with a reduced prevalence of bullying. Of course, if it worsens, that's important to know also.