Respect at Work, in plain English for small NFPs

If you’ve heard “Respect at Work” and “psychosocial hazards” and felt your stomach drop, you’re not alone. Many volunteer boards hear those phrases and assume they need a 40-page framework, a consultancy retainer and a risk matrix they’ll never use.

You don’t. You do need to take people’s mental and emotional safety as seriously as you take the slippery steps out the back of the hall.

What this is about

Australian workplaces, including many NFPs with paid staff, have clearer duties around preventing sexual harassment and managing psychosocial risks. Those are things like bullying, aggression, role overload, poor support and unfair work design. The detail depends on your size, whether you have employees and which laws apply. This isn’t legal advice, and we aren’t your lawyers.

You already know the human version

People shouldn’t be harassed, belittled or worn out by impossible workloads. Volunteers shouldn’t be left alone with abusive clients and no backup. Committee members shouldn’t send heated messages at midnight. Staff shouldn’t be expected to “just cope because the mission is noble”. If your culture tolerates that, no policy will fix it.

Four practical steps

Say the expectation out loud. Write a short respectful behaviour statement for the board, staff, volunteers and members. A page is plenty.
Give people a clear way to raise concerns. Who do they tell? What happens next? How are they protected from payback? If the only answer is “talk to the President” and the President is the problem, you don’t have a process.
Look at how the work is designed. Psychosocial risk isn’t only about difficult people. It’s also one Coordinator doing three jobs with no breaks, and a board that keeps saying yes to new programs. Overload, unclear roles and chronic under-resourcing are all hazards.
Train the people who lead. Committee chairs and managers need enough skill to spot issues early and respond without gossip or panic. A short briefing is better than a certificate.

Size your response to your organisation

A charity with 40 staff needs more structure than a tennis club with a casual groundskeeper. That doesn’t mean the tennis club does nothing. Keep records of incidents, take complaints seriously, know when to get outside help, and don’t brush off “banter” that makes someone dread turning up.

If you have employees, check your award, your Fair Work obligations and the work health and safety duties in your state or territory. If you’re volunteer-only, you still owe a duty of care to the people around you.

This is a board matter

When a Respect at Work issue lands, it’s often too late to improvise. The board’s job is to have a workable approach in place before the hard day. That includes budget for proper support if an investigation is needed, and the willingness to step aside if you’re conflicted. Ignoring a problem because “we’re all friends here” is how friends end up as respondents, witnesses and former members.

Keep the paperwork honest

You probably need a policy. Keep it readable, pair it with induction, and review it when the law or your operations change. You don’t need seventeen overlapping documents that contradict each other.

What “good enough” looks like for a small team

If you employ even one person, you should be able to answer yes to these:

Have we told people what behaviour we expect?
Do they know how to raise a concern safely?
Do we keep basic records when something happens?
Do we know when to get outside help instead of sorting it out in-house?
Have we looked at workload and role clarity in the last year?

If you can say yes to all five, you’re ahead of many organisations still debating whether “HR stuff” applies to charities. It does.

Next step

At your next meeting, go through the five questions above and minute the answers. If you want a starting set written for small workplaces, look at the Workplace Policy Pack or our other publications. Or book a free 30-minute call and we’ll work out what’s relevant for your size.

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