Ratio of Anti-discrimination/Harassment Contact Officers to employees

[Megsy]

Hi, although there is no legal minimum requirement for the number of anti-discrimination contact officers in companies, I was wondering what is best practice and what ratio of officer to employees other companies use.

Thanks

[Qld IR Consultant]

Base it on your HR ratio. I worked for a company that had 1 HR Consultant per 100 employees. No reason why that ratio wouldn't work with contact officers also......Depends on how bad harassment and discrimination is in your company. Are you taking any steps to educate employees on their rights? Managers on how to handle issues/complaints?...might be a few extra things to consider.......

[Kam Radzikowski]

Megsy,

I think that an organisation can deploy a small number of contact officers, and if it is found that those officers are working in this capacity more than expected, additional contact officers can be deployed later.

The more important issue is to ensure that contact officers are well-spread across the organisation for maximum effectiveness. This spread should take into account location of workplaces, gender, departments/functional areas and employee seniority in their primary roles. Variance across these attributes will help to ensure that a potential user of the service will be able to find a contact officer he or she trusts.

Kam Radzikowski