The long-awaited Sue Gray report revealed some general lessons for employers and contained comments and recommendations in respect of how a business is run.

Some of the big themes that emerged are:

• The importance of positive leadership and leaders understanding and following the rules that they set; leading by example in terms of the policies and procedures that they put in place
• Lessons around speaking up and making clear to staff what reporting lines are and whistleblowing
• Issues around alcohol consumption and what that should and shouldn’t look like in the workplace and managing that
• The importance of ensuring accountability and solid infrastructure through growth and maintaining culture in a rapidly growing organisation

Practical steps that employers can take include:

• Leaders must live by the values they set – quite often, particularly in professional services firms, policies and procedures might not apply to all partners. In other organisations, policies might not apply to management, so it is important to ensure that everybody has a framework in which to work
• There should be the basic set of values for the whole of the organisation – this is vital for an effective organisation to create the right culture and policies should be reinforced with training and enforcement for a joined-up approach
• Develop a speak up culture where people feel comfortable raising issues and know how and where to do it – have a formal whistleblowing champion or some obvious reporting line – encourage people to call out misconduct where they see it and have zero tolerance to any retaliation
• Put in place policies which manage alcohol consumption such as putting limits on bar tabs and ensure that people in management and at the top of the organisation remember that if it is a work event, even if it is in a bar, everyone should behave accordingly