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New Salvation Army respect policy

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The Salvation Army has just launched its new Respect Policy addressing bullying, harassment and other undesirable behaviour and how to tackle it. National Health and Safety Coordinator Libby Wilson, who helped create the policy, discusses what it’s all about.

The Salvation Army is about caring for people and is committed to providing a healthy, safe and respectful environment for staff, free from bullying and harassment and where people are treated with respect and dignity. But there is a risk of people being bullied or badly treated.

The Salvation Army’s new Respect Policy lays out the standards of behaviour we expect to be upheld in The Salvation Army, what is unacceptable, and what you can do about it if you believed you’re being bullied.

We began working on this policy in 2014, ahead of the release of WorkSafe New Zealand’s guidelines requiring employers to have systems in place to identify bullying and prevent it. More than a legal requirement, we saw this as an opportunity to create even better work places, by improving fairness, safety, dignity and respect, to help fulfil The Salvation Army’s mission.

A group of staff spent 18-months developing the policy with the help of an expert, Haydn Olsen from Workplaces Against Violence in Employment. We also used feedback from two staff surveys. We wanted feedback from our staff because we wanted to create something that would work in their work places.

Workplace bullying is defined by WorkSafe New Zealand as ‘repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety’. It includes behaviour that intimidates, humiliates or isolates people, undermines their reputation or standing, or abuses power. Common bullying behaviours include things like displays of aggression, putting someone down, gossiping or making false accusations about someone, overloading, changing expectations unreasonably, and removing supports.

The Army employs about 3000 paid staff across the territory. In our first workplace survey 180 people responded and about half of them said they had seen or experienced bullying. Mostly, this involved people being talked to in a demeaning manner, shouted at, ignored, excluded or publically criticised.

Our territorial leaders, Commissioners Robert and Janine Donaldson, have made their support of the new policy clear and regret any bullying or harassment that has taken place. They have confirmed that bullying is unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the Army.

To help people recognise and address bullying, Territorial Secretary for Personnel Captain Gerry Walker, Human Resources (HR) manager Bruce Wall and I have also been travelling the country this year doing training days.

So far, we have visited 10 sites in New Zealand and worked with 320 managers, officers, health and safety representative and administration staff, and we will be running eight more presentations this year.  

Bullying and other undesirable behaviour have a massive impact on individuals, their self-esteem and relationships. It also damages The Salvation Army and undermines the values of our organisation. If people do see or experience bullying, the new policy outlines what they can do about it. This ranges from using self-help to informal resolutions such as manager intervention and mediation and formal investigations.

Where possible, the first thing we want people to do is to attempt to resolve things at the informal level, as when things get to the level of a formal complaint it is harder to repair relationships. Start by looking at the definition of workplace bullying and think whether it describes your experience. If you think it does, check with a trusted person to see if they agree. Keep a written record of the behaviour; when it occurs and what happens. Where possible, have a conversation with the person you perceive as bullying you, or speak to your manager. Describe the behaviour, how it’s affecting you and what you’d like them to change. It may sound silly, but this informal approach does often work and is usually the best way to resolve issues.  

If you don’t feel comfortable doing this on your own, take a friend or involve your manager or someone you can trust. In October, we will also begin training Salvation Army contact people to provide information to people in situations like this. If approaching the person directly doesn’t help, or you don’t feel comfortable with doing that, you can request informal intervention or make a formal complaint and request an investigation. You can do this through your manager, their manager, or directly through the HR Department.

To help us get a clear picture of any problems and ways to resolve them, we will be collecting and reporting anonymous statistics about complaints of bullying to the Army’s executive boards.

We all have a duty to speak up and encourage a culture where people are treated appropriately and respectfully. This will help us build on the good culture we already have within The Salvation Army.  The respect policy can be found on the territorial intranet, by asking your manager or corps officer, or by emailing hradmin@nzf.salvationarmy.org.

Effects of Bullying on a Person

Workplace bullying can have serious effects on a person’s quality of life at and outside of work, including:

  • depression and low self-esteem
  • anxiety, stress, fatigue and burnout
  • feelings of helplessness
  • post-traumatic stress disorder
  • deterioration in health
  • Increased likelihood of using drug and alcohol
  • abuse as a coping mechanism
  • possible serious physical, emotional and mental health issues or suicide attempts.

The effects of bullying can be long-term. People who had experienced bullying in the past five years, but weren’t currently experiencing it, still reported worse health than people who hadn’t been bullied.

Witnessing bullying also affects people badly and can lead to a hostile work environment with more aggression and negative behaviour. People who have seen bullying at their work report greater levels of stress and anxiety than people who haven’t.

Effects of Bullying on a Workplace

Bullying also negatively impacts work and organisations. Coercion or bullying from managers can lead to:

  • lower motivation, performance and commitment from staff, and make them ill
  • staff taking more sick leave to avoid work or coming to work ill
  • increased resignations
  • poor customer service and product quality
  • the company being viewed as a bad employer, which makes it hard to recruit staff and damages its reputations with the public.

by Libby Wilson (c) ‘War Cry’ magazine, 25 July 2015, pp18-19.
You can read ‘War Cry’ at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.