The cost of bullying to organisations

In 2004, the predecessor to the Department for Business Information and Skills, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, embarked on a joint project with the Amicus (now Unite) union known as the Dignity at Work Partnership. This project led to substantial research and policy development in tackling workplace bullying and harassment. More details can be found in Chapter 4. As part of the project, the University of Bradford produced a report, The costs of workplace bullying, which attempted to estimate the cost of workplace bullying.

The report estimated that, in 2007, the total cost of bullying for UK organisations, taking absenteeism, turnover and productivity into account, was approximately £13.75 billion. This figure reflected 33.5 million days lost due to bullying-related absenteeism, almost 200,000 employees who would have left their job, and around 100 million days of lost productivity. Hidden costs include time spent investigating complaints and monitoring absenteeism. Bullying also affects workplace morale and productivity. A copy of the report can be downloaded from the Unite website.

The report highlights a number of organisational reasons why employers should be encouraged to tackle bullying:

• because worker health and safety is an integral part of being a “good business”;

• being a “good” employer;

• maintaining reputation;

• higher productivity;

• absence reduction;

• complying with the law (see Chapter 2);

• avoiding costs associated with accidents;

• containing insurance costs; and

• meeting client needs.

The report highlights the organisational costs of bullying, which can be seen at many levels, including:

• sickness absence — which the HSE says can have a “domino” effect, leading to more sickness absence by other members of staff;

• presenteeism (going to work when unfit);

• replacement costs from employee turnover, cover, replacement, sometimes overtime and knock-on administrative costs;

• reduced productivity or performance;

• knock-on effects on witnesses or observers of bullying;

• where available, employee insurance costs;

• premature retirement;

• grievances and complaints;

• litigation and compensation;

• brand image, public, customer and supplier goodwill;

• corruption, fraud, sabotage and theft;

• impact on quality of products and services through errors, wastage and impaired decision-making;

• reputational risk as employers of choice; and

• any employee assistance programme or occupational health costs.

Acas (Policy Discussion Paper 2006) suggests a tendency to underestimate the costs of bullying by leaving out, for example, the cost of training replacement or redeployed workers and lost opportunity costs, where bullied employees do not take up training opportunities, or become less willing to be flexible, for example with working hours and arrangements: “The potential loss of employee innovation and creativity can be hard to quantify, but can have a serious effect on missed company growth and profits”.

Another cost, in a unionised workplace, can be industrial action. For example, in April 2011, more than 60 teachers, members of the NUT and NASUWT, supported by members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the support staff union UNISON, took part in industrial action at Darwen Vale High School in Blackburn to protest at management failure to support staff dealing with challenging pupil behaviour.