Raise It! VEOHRC Conversation starter toolkit
VEOHRC’s Raise it! initiative is designed to better educate workers about sexual harassment and discrimination and seeks to prevent and better respond to these issues in workplaces.
The Raise It! program involves a number of conversation starter toolkits to assist employers and their workers to have safe conversations about workplace sexual harassment, flexible working arrangements and parental leave. The toolkits are designed to help workers initiate conversations about these issues in a safe and informed way.
The toolkits provide employers and workers with information about workplace rights, entitlements and duties, including via access to chatbots. In relation to some workplace gender equality measures, such as flexible work arrangements, the toolkits allow employers to plan, and workers to practice, difficult conversations with each other.
Independent evaluation of the Raise It! program found that more than 85% of participants surveyed agreed or strongly agreed that the program had increased their awareness of the types of behaviour that can constitute sexual harassment, the impacts of sexual harassment on individuals and the workplace, the supports available for victims and how to make complaints. 97% of survey respondents found the sexual harassment support and response toolkits relevant to their situation and 65% said the program had an influence on staff talking about sexual harassment.