Sexual harassment risk assessment checklist

• Decide who is responsible for the assessment and who will approve it
• Gather your current harassment policy and how concerns can be reported
• List your teams, roles and work locations
• Note any changes since your last assessment, such as new services, sites or ways of working
• Check current official guidance from the EHRC and Acas

• Contact with customers, clients, patients, visitors or the public, and how often
• Visits to customer premises or homes
• Lone working, evening or night work, or isolated locations
• Business travel and overnight stays
• Work social events, conferences and client entertainment, including where alcohol is available
• Junior staff, apprentices, young workers, or people on temporary or agency contracts
• Messaging groups, social media and contact outside working hours
• Situations where someone has power over another person's work, pay or progression

• Which teams deal with third parties, and in what situations
• Whether employees know they can end an interaction or leave if they feel uncomfortable
• Whether customers, clients and visitors know what behaviour you expect
• What you'll do if a third party behaves inappropriately, including when you'd stop working with them
• Whether your reporting route covers concerns about third parties

• A harassment policy that covers sexual harassment and third parties
• More than one way to raise a concern, not only through a line manager
• Training or briefings for employees and for managers
• Behaviour expectations for work events and travel
• Lone working arrangements, such as check-ins and a named contact
• A clear process for handling concerns, and records of what was done

Where you're not sure whether a control is in place, treat it as something to check rather than assuming it is.

• The activity or situation
• The risk, and who could be affected
• The controls already in place
• A likelihood and impact score, giving the initial risk level
• Any further action, with an owner and a date
• The residual risk once the actions are complete
• No names or details of individual complaints

• The assessment is reviewed and approved by someone with authority to act on it
• Actions are allocated and tracked until they're done
• Employees are told what has been put in place and how to report a concern
• A date is set for the next review
• You review sooner if working arrangements change, a significant concern is raised or guidance changes
• You keep a record of what was reviewed, what changed and who approved it

PolicyPilot works through these areas with straightforward questions, then builds a suggested risk assessment with controls, actions and a review date for you to check and approve. Your organisation remains responsible for the final content.