Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is unwanted and unwelcome words, conduct, or behaviour of a sexual nature that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, embarrassing, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the recipient. It is a misuse of personal or institutional power and often based on a person’s gender although it is rarely about sexual desire.
Whether or not the harasser intended to be offensive is irrelevant. The limit of acceptable behaviour as described by this policy is up to the recipient to decide. A single incident or persistent behaviour can amount to harassment.
Sexual harassment can range from behaviour that stems from obvious to anyone or subtler behaviour less obvious to either the person responsible for the behaviour or to the recipient. Often the impact is not felt or witnessed immediately. The impact may go beyond the recipient to people who see or hear what happens or who try to offer support.
Sexual harassment can include but is not limited to: catcalling, following, making unnecessary and unwanted physical contact, sexual jokes and comments, giving unwelcome personal gifts, wolf-whistling, leering, derogatory comments, unwelcome comments about a person’s body or clothing, unwelcome questions about a person’s sex life and/ or sexuality, engaging in unwelcome sexual propositions, invitations and flirtation, making somebody feel uncomfortable through displaying or sharing sexual material. Sexual harassment does not necessarily occur face to face and can be in the form of emails, visual images (such as sexually explicit pictures on walls in a shared environment), social media, telephone, text messages and image based sexual abuse, such as revenge porn and upskirting.
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is a criminal offence. A person commits sexual assault if they intentionally touch another person, the touching is sexual and the person does not consent. It involves all unwanted physical contact of a sexual nature and ranges from pinching, embracing, groping and kissing, to rape and sexual assault which involves penetration without consent. Consent is agreeing by choice and having the freedom and capacity to make that choice. A person is free to make a choice if nothing bad would happen to them if they said no. Capacity is about whether someone is physically and/ or mentally able to make a choice and to understand the consequences of that choice.
If you think you have been the target of sexual harassment or assault it may be hard to know what to do or how to feel. What happened was not your fault. What you do next is your choice.
What should I do if I have experienced sexual misconduct, harassment or assault?
These behaviours are not tolerated at IDS. They go against our Respect at IDS Policy.
Think
- Are you in immediate danger? If you are in immediate danger or seriously injured, you can contact the emergency services on 999 (If you are working internationally, many countries use the global emergency number 112).
- Find a safe space. If an incident has just happened try and find somewhere you feel safe.
Report
- Report + Support. Staff, visitors, partners and third party contractors can report an incident using this Report + Support platform. You can choose to do this anonymously or give your contact details for a direct response and support. If you're a staff member at IDS you can choose to talk to an HR Advisor or Respect Responder. They will be able to talk through the options and support available to you, in confidence. Both our HR Advisors and Respect Responders have been trained in trauma-informed approaches and responding to reports of gender-based violence.
- IDS's Resolution Process. If you are a staff member and would like support to address and resolve your concerns, you can request resolution. Our HR Advisors can talk you through how IDS's Resolution process works. Please note, you will be supported throughout any process.
- IDS's Complaints Procedure. If you are a student, partner, or third party contractor you can also report issues directly using IDS's Complaints Procedure.
Get Support
- Find out what support is available if you have experienced sexual harassment or assault.
- Talk. Talk to your manager or cluster leader, a trusted colleague or a friend.
Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Find out more on the support available for mental health and wellbeing
- Take care of yourself. It’s important that you take care of yourself. If you’ve heard something distressing or if something is troubling you, IDS's Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offers confidential help. You can also speak to one of IDS's trained Mental Health First Aiders confidentially.
- Other external support links can be found in our support for your wellbeing section.