Summary: Too many organisations still treat reporting processes as a silver bullet for addressing workplace harassment. But if people only speak up once a concern has become serious, it’s too late. HR needs to shift from reactive compliance to proactive prevention.
Our latest research found that more than one-quarter of people have experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past year. Yet almost 60 per cent chose not to report it.
More than one-third said speaking up wasn’t worth the personal risk. Nearly two in five said they didn’t believe anything meaningful would be done if they did raise a concern.
Those figures tell us something important. The biggest barrier usually isn’t whether a reporting route exists, it’s whether people trust what will happen if they use it.
The top three reasons people stay silent
We know from our data that the top three reasons people choose not to report bad behaviour even when it’s serious are:
1. Fear of retaliation
This is the most frequently cited barrier, where employees worry about the repercussions of making a formal report.
2. Worry about career impact
Employees often fear that reporting an incident could negatively affect their current job or future career prospects, viewing it as a risk to their professional progression.
3. Lack of faith in the outcome
Many team members believe that ‘nothing will be done’ if they made a formal report, especially if they have previously seen reports mishandled or not taken seriously.
The biggest barrier usually isn’t whether a reporting route exists, it’s whether people trust what will happen if they use it
What HR can do to change that
Build confidence before anyone needs the process:
The most effective reporting pathways don’t begin with a platform; they begin with trust.
While many organisations now have formal channels in place, confidence in using them is mixed. Employees need to be really clear on how to use reporting channels, what type of concerns they can raise, what will happen next and exactly what support is available should they report something.
Many people are scared to report a concern because they have no idea what will happen if they do. So, a lot of the time, they just don’t.
Make it visible that speaking up leads to action:
People don’t need to know every single detail of every outcome but they do need to know the organisation acts.
It’s really important employees see that something changes as a result of speaking up.
If concerns are handled well and consistently, trust and confidence grow. If they’re dismissed, delayed or handled unfairly, people lose faith.
Help leaders respond well to concerns and build psychological safety:
In many organisations, the first real test of culture happens in the conversations that often don’t reach HR.
The way senior figures act and respond – not just formally to issues, but in their day-to-day behaviour – affects whether speaking up feels safe and worthwhile, or not.
HR teams and leadership must also prioritise building psychological safety by creating an environment where employees are encouraged to and feel safe speaking up without fear of judgment, ruining relationships or being viewed negatively.
What a good reporting process actually looks like
A reporting process is only effective if it helps the organisation learn and act early. In practice, a good process does four things:
1. It makes speaking up straightforward.
2. It creates space for concerns before they become crises.
3. It turns reports into insight.
4. It feeds learning back into the organisation.
Ultimately, reports shouldn’t just be dealt with one by one and then closed off. They should be regularly monitored and analysed for patterns of behaviour and trends.
Having the right system in place actually presents a huge opportunity for organisations to have meaningful intelligence and insight on their workplace culture and stop issues from getting to a stage where they’re difficult to come back from.
Many people are scared to report a concern because they have no idea what will happen if they do
Why getting this right is becoming more urgent
From October 2026, the Employment Rights Act will stipulate that employers must demonstrate that they have taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent {sexual} harassment.
With this in mind, it’s no longer enough to point to a policy or a process and assume that covers prevention.
Organisations will need to demonstrate that they’re creating the right conditions for team members to speak up in the first place. Also, that their reporting pathways are trusted, people know how to use them and that the information coming through them is being used properly.
This is the change HR needs to lead. It’s not about taking things from ‘no process’ to ‘process’, but instead, from process to prevention.
Actionable insights
- Find out why your people aren’t reporting: Are fear of retaliation, career risk and/or low faith in outcomes present in your organisation? Find out through anonymous surveys and address the issue.
- Close the feedback loop: Employees who believe nothing will happen if they report are less likely to ever do so. Communicate regularly that concerns are taken seriously.
- Brief your managers on early conversations: Train managers to handle low-level concerns well before they become formal complaints.
- Look at your reporting data as a whole: Individual reports tell you something happened. Patterns across reports tell you something systemic is wrong.
- Start documenting the proactive steps you’re taking ahead of October 2026: The incoming duty under the Employment Rights Act requires employers to show they’ve taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, not just that a policy exists.
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