Rainmaker is proud to announce Safe Places To Work Survey 2020- powered by Femina! Over the last five decades of the magazine’s history, Femina has “been unstoppable” in inspiring women to achieve more. And so is Rainmaker, in our quest to provide women Safe Places To Work.

Why Should Organizations Participate In The Safe Places To Work Survey 2020?

[Note: Not just because it includes a section on Virtual Sexual Harassment]

The answer is straightforward. Corporate India needs a Survey that checks the ‘health’ of its workplaces. It is no secret that Sexual Harassment is prevalent globally and in our country. The stats are startling and don’t need repeated mentions. 

#MeToo, the social media revolution that started in 2018, brought out enough skeletons from well-known celebrities’ cupboards. But Sexual Harassment accusations in corporate India have been rampant since long before.

In 2001, Director of Infosys, Phaneesh Murthy was accused of Sexual Harassment by his executive secretary.

In 2012, an employee of Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi filed a Sexual Harassment case against a senior Air India official.

In 2013, a senior journalist and editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, Tarun Tejpal was accused and charged for rape of a young staff member during ‘Think Fest’, their annual conclave. 

These are just a few significant cases that came into the public eye. Similarly, several other organizations have been criticized by the media and the public. Many more incidents probably never saw the light of day.

But in 2018-2019, #MeToo brought into the spotlight the dark truth about Sexual Harassment, namely how long women had kept silent about their experiences. And this is why each subsequent outburst on social media, powered by the previous revelation, snowballed into a movement. 

#MeToo Was About ‘Being Heard’

Women no longer wanted to stay silent about their harassers. They didn’t even care that the public would troll them on how long back the incident had happened. They just wanted an outlet for their pent up emotions, no matter the consequences. Some very well knew they might not be able to gather evidence or witnesses and back their allegations. But #MeToo was not about proving the Sexual Harassment incidents. The women finally wanted to ‘be heard.’ The women needed a ‘voice’ that would boom across the nation, the world, and the social media platforms provided that.

The Genesis And The Need For The SPTW Survey

The women’s powerful movement inspired us to brainstorm about what we could contribute to this space without charging our clients. And that is why we ideated, conceptualized, and designed the Safe Places To Work Survey (SPTW).

Because ideas are the seeds of change. 

And Rainmaker Training wanted to initiate a change in the safety and security for women at the workplace. We launched SPTW in 2019, and the survey garnered responses from 5682 women, spread across 50+ organizations. 12 of these organizations were certified as the Top Safe Places To Work in India, based on the overall score. All the organizations received a customized Report with an analysis of the results and expert insights. A hostile work environment emerged as a big threat in many of the organizations surveyed.

New Section on Forms of Virtual Sexual Harassment while Working From Home (WFH)

SPTW 2020 is being launched during a raging pandemic. Employees have been WFH for the last several months. They have reported (often not reported) various incidents of virtual Sexual Harassment in all workplaces. Though Sexual Harassment using digital platforms was always within the ambit of the PoSH Act, 2013, the pandemic has brought this angle to the fore. The constraints posed by the pandemic have often prevented women from reporting incidents to the Internal Committees. But the challenge of feeling unsafe remains. So does the potential of Sexual Harassment complaints hitting the ceiling when not nipped in time.

To address this challenge, the companies need to take the first step to evaluate the extent of the issue. The SPTW 2020 Survey aims to evaluate and put this in perspective, in the form of a definite score. This score will be statistically compared with the data collected, taking in view the larger picture of corporate India. 

It’s time to know how your employees have fared during the pandemic, because a stitch in time saves nine.

Who Bears The Sexual Harassment Costs?

The economic costs of Sexual Harassment at the workplace have been well documented in a study by Deloitte (reference below). The study reports on productivity costs including absenteeism and presenteeism, increased staff turnover, and manager time, which arise from workplace Sexual Harassment. The study brings to light new evidence regarding the Sexual Harassment costs, and who bears them.

We certainly hope that due to our SPTW Survey 2019, all the participating organizations took more concrete steps towards making their workplaces safer.

Is The Expense On Prevention Of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) At Your Workplace Reducing The Number Of Cases Year After Year?

Every organization spends on Sexual Harassment compliance because the law mandates it. Still, the organization does not test the effect of these expenditures. Is the expense justified? How do you know Sexual Harassment is reducing? Do you have a mechanism in place that can evaluate this spend and its benefits? 

SPTW does that for the organizations that participate. We help you do the ‘health check’ to know whether a specific vendor’s services are just satisfying the compliance requirements or making a difference. 

For the organizations that participated in 2019, there will be an additional data-point. If the percentages and the overall score point towards significant improvement from the previous year, they can surely pat themselves on the back, knowing their money is working for them. 

This trend would also be a ‘shareable data’ on the social media pages of the organization.

A Go-To List For Women That Promises Safety At The Workplace

We realized a need for a go-to list of Safe organizations for women planning their careers. We hope that women will one day search for an organization’s name on the SPTW List before making their choice of employer. Or ask a prospective employer for their SPTW score, before joining an organization. 

How Does SPTW Compare With Other Similar Surveys?

If we were to look for other similar surveys, our search would probably end where it began. Surveys are aplenty, but none is exclusively for finding the prevalence of Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace and administered to Women only. Therefore, in other similar surveys, due to a higher percentage of men respondents, the data concerning women gets skewed and even drowned in the overall data. 

How Exactly Do The Organizations Benefit?

-by receiving a professionally prepared Customized & Comprehensive Report of the Survey Results.

-by receiving a Score on the Safety Quotient of your Workplace.

-by knowing if your women employees feel Safe, and to what degree.

-by the satisfaction that the Report is Confidential, and the Survey data is Anonymous.

-by getting a chance to be among the top Finalists, and therefore recognized in the industry.

-by building your Brand Value with your Employees and your Clients. 

-all of the above achieved by a Survey curated by expert panelists and administered by Rainmaker Training, a leading firm with credibility in the industry.

Need we say more?

Your organization will ‘hear’ your women employees about how safe they feel in Their Workplace. If there are any concerns, No one will be in the spotlight, yet your organization will have a chance to rectify them.

How Does Rainmaker Training Achieve Confidentiality and Anonymity?

-Women employees take the Survey on Survey Monkey.

-For every woman employee, a unique link is created and sent to her ID alone.

-If your organization asks for individual answers to a particular question, we cannot provide it.

-All individual data at the end of the Survey gets permanently deleted, and only the master data remains. 

What Does Rainmaker Training Need From Your Organization?

-Total head-count in your organization.

-Number of women employees.

-Email ID of each woman employee 

-A letter/email from the CHRO to all women employees (we will provide the format).

-A push from your organization’s management that supports this initiative, to increase the trust factor and in turn increase the survey completion rate.

How Much Time Will Your Organization Need To Invest?

-Once your organization confirms the participation, onboarding will take about two weeks.

-Each woman employee will get two weeks to complete the Survey. 

-The SPTW Survey 2020 takes only 3-4 minutes per employee, to complete.

-If your organization does not reach a certain completion percentage in two weeks, we don’t consider you for the Top Finalists. But you still receive the Report.

Did you know that the SPTW Survey is at No Cost to the Participating Organizations? 

Final Answer?

So, would you like to get this ‘health check’ done for your workplace and be Certified as one of the Top Safe Places To Work?  

Note: Even if you are not on the Top Safe Places To Work List, your score can give you the satisfaction of being a Safe Place To Work: the higher the score, the greater the safety.

Would you like to be a part of this mission of curating a list of nation-wide Top Safe Places To Work?

Would you like a chance to be featured in this prestigious Top Safe Places To Work List?

Join us for the 1st ever Women’s Survey on PoSH in Corporate India! The Safe Places To Work Survey 2020- powered by Femina!

Author: Sumali Nagarajan

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Reference:

The economic costs of sexual harassment in the workplace – by Deloitte