Why Employees Don’t Speak Up - and How HR Can Change That
Silence in the workplace is rarely a sign that everything is fine. For many employees, speaking up about bullying, harassment or inappropriate behaviour still feels risky, unclear or simply not worth the personal cost.
Silence carries real consequences. Under the Worker Protection Act 2023, employers must be able to spot and address sexual harassment - and that’s only possible when people feel safe raising concerns. A stronger speak-up culture also gives organisations the insight they need to tackle bullying and other harmful behaviours early.
But despite policies and good intent, the numbers show that many employees still don’t feel able to speak up.
The reporting gap is wider than we think
Even in organisations with policies, reporting lines, and HR teams, harmful behaviour too often goes unreported:
Less than one in three women (30%) who experience sexual harassment at work report it to their employer (TUC poll via UNISON, 2023).
Only 15% of sexual-harassment cases are reported formally to employers or authorities (Government Equalities Office survey, summarised via UNISON, 2024).
Half of employees do not report sexual harassment at work, mainly due to fear of retaliation or lack of confidence in the process (Personio employee survey, summarised by Starford Legal HR, 2024).
Almost half of employees who experience workplace conflict “just let it go” rather than raise it with a manager or HR (CIPD Bullying & Harassment Report, 2024).
These figures tell a clear story: many organisations believe they have processes, but their people don’t feel able to use them. And when issues stay underground, the risks grow - unchecked behaviour escalates, patterns go unnoticed, and the organisation loses the evidence it needs to demonstrate early intervention.
What isn’t reported can’t be addressed.
Why reporting confidence matters for WPA compliance
The Worker Protection Act is built around evidence. Employers must be able to show how they prevent sexual harassment, not just state their intentions.
If employees don’t feel comfortable reporting concerns, employers lose visibility - and with it, the ability to demonstrate that they took reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
At the same time, a safe reporting environment gives HR vital insight into other harmful behaviours too, including bullying and non-sexual harassment (even though these sit outside the WPA’s legal duty).
A confident speak-up culture enables HR to:
Spot behavioural concerns early
Intervene before issues escalate
Understand the lived experience of teams
Identify managers or departments needing support
Build an evidence trail that shows sexual-harassment concerns are raised, acted on, and resolved
A low number of reports isn’t always a sign of a healthy culture. It’s often a sign of fear, uncertainty, or mistrust in the reporting routes.
For HR leaders, the goal is clear: remove barriers to speaking up, increase confidence, and create an environment where raising concerns, whether about sexual harassment or wider harmful behaviours, feels safe, simple, and without negative consequences.
Anonymous or named: why employees need both
A strong speak-up culture offers employees choice.
Anonymous reporting is essential when:
The concern involves a manager or senior colleague
The employee fears retaliation
They’re unsure whether what they experienced is “serious enough”
They want to signal an issue without entering a formal process
Named reporting is essential when:
More detail is needed to resolve the issue
The HR team must follow up directly
A conversation or escalation is required
Patterns of behaviour need to be linked to individuals or teams
When both options are available and trusted, not only does reporting increase, but the quality of insight improves.
Without safe reporting routes, employees carry concerns silently, at real personal cost.
Building trust: what employees look for
Research and practical experience show that employees report concerns when four conditions are met:
They know exactly how to report.
Reporting routes must be visible, accessible and consistent - not buried in intranets or outdated documentation.They trust the process.
Employees need assurance that concerns are logged, triaged and acted on without delay.They believe retaliation will not happen.
Fear of consequence is the single greatest barrier to reporting.They see outcomes.
When staff observe that issues are dealt with fairly, confidence grows and reports become more accurate and timely.
Without strong foundations of trust, reporting feels risky: employees fear retaliation, reputational damage, or nothing changing, so concerns stay silent.
When employees trust the process, reporting becomes a strength rather than a risk, giving organisations the visibility needed to prevent harm.
imabi Pro: Turning Trusted Speak-Up Routes into Evidence and Insight
imabi Pro closes the gap between policy and practice by giving employees simple, modern, trusted ways to report concerns ( anonymously or named) from any device.
HR teams can use imabi Pro to:
Offer a 24/7 reporting route for bullying, harassment, conflict or inappropriate behaviour
Give staff anonymous or named options, side-by-side
Automatically log all reports in a secure audit trail
Respond and record follow-up actions
Run quick pulse surveys to understand lived experience
Demonstrate a clear and consistent process for “reasonable steps”
And the imabi Pro dashboard transforms reports into actionable insigh, providing employers with clear evidence on sexual-harassment issues for Worker Protection Act compliance, and highlighting wider patterns of bullying and other behaviours that fall outside the Act but still require attention.
imabi Pro can be rolled out in under two weeks, giving teams a fast, reliable system that employees trust and HR can stand behind.
