Sexual Harassment Prevention | Blacklarke
With 92% of professionals having witnessed or experienced harassment, it’s time to move beyond policy. Since October 2024, UK employers have been under a new legal duty to prevent sexual harassment at work. That includes everyone from permanent staff to freelancers, contractors, and third parties. The #NotAgain Project by Blacklarke isn’t about ticking a compliance box – it’s about shifting culture. It’s about creating safer, more confident, more respectful workplaces.
In this blog, we’ll talk about what the new legal duty really means for organisations, why standard training simply isn’t enough, what happens during a Blacklarke training session, and how one real-world example of abuse of power helps demonstrate why proactive, culture-first training is essential.
This isn’t just another training session, or compliance for employers. It’s HR support and a necessary shift in how organisations approach safety, leadership, and power.
A Legal Change That Demands Real Action
What the Law Says
Under the Worker Protection Act 2023, your duty as an employer goes beyond responding to complaints. The law now requires proactive steps to prevent harassment before it happens. If you fail to do that, the consequences are steep: unlimited compensation claims, up to 25% higher penalties in tribunal awards, and the very real risk of reputational damage in sectors built on relationships and word-of-mouth.
Let’s not pretend this is a hypothetical problem. In 2024, a major industry survey reported that 92% of professionals had experienced or witnessed workplace harassment. One in five reported serious sexual assault. The stories are there. They’ve been there. The question now is what you’re doing to stop them repeating.
Imagine This: A Familiar Story in the Workplace
Imagine this: an employee hears there’s an opening in a project and expresses interest to the team leader. The initial conversation is professional. Encouraging, even. A few days later, they bump into each other outside of work, and the team leader suggests that while others have more experience, they might be able to “pull some strings” maybe over a drink.
It’s a moment we’ve all heard whispers of. The employee politely declines. But from then on, something shifts. At work, things become less friendly. The employee asks about their chances, and the answer is vague but pointed: “My offer still stands.”
Eventually, they get the opportunity. But it comes with strings. They start seeing the team leader. Not because they want to, but because they feel like they have no choice. When they try to end it, the leader retaliates. Public critiques. Private coldness. A subtle but unmistakable campaign to push them out.
The result? A broken team. A group walking on eggshells. A loss of trust that spreads quietly but quickly. And no one knowing quite how to name it or how to fix it.
This is what workplace harassment can look like. It’s not always dramatic. It doesn’t always start with shouting or slurs. Sometimes it’s charm, escalation, pressure, silence. Sometimes it’s the grey area. But the consequences, for individuals and entire teams, are enormous.
What Could Have Changed This Outcome?
At Blacklarke, our answer is always the same: culture. Not just policy. Not just compliance. Culture.
If this company had invested in prevention, in real, in-person, interactive training, they might have seen this coming. The team might have been better equipped to name the discomfort and step in early. To understand the power dynamics at play. The leadership might have recognised their role in setting boundaries and responding to red flags.
Our in person sessions aren’t just about learning what the law says. They’re about creating a psychologically safe space where everyone – staff, managers, leadership – can talk honestly about what happens when lines are blurred and trust is broken. We discuss how to spot coercion, how to handle informal reports, and how to avoid letting issues fester in silence.
We don’t expect perfection. We expect progress. And that starts with having the tools and language to deal with difficult situations in the moment.
Rebuilding Trust: What Happens After an Incident?
Training can’t undo what’s already happened. But it can help teams rebuild.
We work with organisations not just to prevent future incidents, but to navigate the aftermath of ones that have already occurred. We support leaders to address harm without defensiveness, to bring teams back together, and to restore professionalism and dignity across a fractured workplace.
Because the goal isn’t to cancel people. It’s to create environments where people are respected, heard, and able to move forward together. That’s what our training helps build: cultures of collegiate accountability, not performative punishment.
The NotAgain Project: Harassment Prevention Training That Works
Training for employees, managers, and teams
Every training session we deliver is tailored to your people, your workplace, your challenges. We open up the floor to real conversation. We help you build confidence to name the issue, navigate the grey areas, and prevent the kind of situation that can ruin someone’s experience, career, or sense of safety.
We also support organisations long after the training ends. Need help rewriting a policy? Setting up anonymous reporting? Dealing with a complex case? We’re here.
Ready to Talk? Let’s Start with a Conversation
If your current approach to harassment prevention is a policy doc in a drawer or a webinar no one watches, it’s time to level up. The law has changed. The risk is real. But more importantly, the people in your workplace deserve better.
Take the Next Step to a Safer Organisation
Let’s raise the bar on what safe, respectful workplaces should look like. Contact us on in**@********ke.com, or click this link to complete the contact form to set up a time to talk
