When we asked Dr Judith Grant why organisations believe their people feel safe to speak up, while almost two-thirds of employees stay silent, she didn't hesitate.

‍

Perception and reality rarely match

‍

Our Culture Shifters Annual Report found that 91% of HR leaders believe their people feel safe to speak up, while 57% of employees who experience bullying or harassment stay silent. Dr Grant sees this same pattern across many organisations, not just around misconduct, but across wellbeing and stress more broadly.

‍

"There's often a gap between perception and reality when looking at psychosocial risks within the workplace. I wonder whether that's a similar story here with the people Culture Shift have surveyed. A lot of the work might be reactionary."

‍

The annual report backs that up. Only 41% of organisations consistently aggregate and analyse their speak-up data to identify patterns, and just 1 in 5 actively measure psychological safety at all. Confidence in a process and evidence that the process works are two different things, and the report shows most organisations currently have more of the former than the latter.

‍

Silence has a cost, and so does an unanswered report

‍

Judith points to communication, or the lack of it, as the biggest driver of that gap.

‍

"There might be an absolutely brilliant process in place for managing bullying within the workplace, but if employees don't know about it, or there isn't that feedback loop, that can be a real problem. Communication is absolutely key. Even if it's just to say, we're still working on this - that can make a real difference."

‍

Our data shows why this matters. Only 58% of organisations consistently monitor what happens to employees after they report a concern, leaving 42% doing so occasionally or not at all. Response times tell a similar story: just over half of HR leaders acknowledge a report within 24 hours, while almost 1 in 10 take up to a week or longer. Judith's point is that every one of those gaps registers as anxiety for the person waiting on the other end, whether or not the organisation is actually making progress behind the scenes.

‍

The price of staying reactive

‍

Judith cites recent Deloitte research putting the cost of absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover at £52 billion annually across UK organisations. Our research adds another dimension to that cost: 87% of organisations told us they feel exposed to risk from workplace misconduct, with 1 in 5 rating themselves highly exposed, and 1 in 10 HR professionals now spend more than a day a week dealing with misconduct issues directly.

‍

"Being proactive is going to be cheaper for organisations in the long run, both from an outcomes perspective and because there's now a greater legislative drive for organisations to act."

‍

Judith's one tip for employers...

‍

"Don't just measure it, act on it."

‍

For Judith, that means building a genuine feedback loop rather than a one-off survey: training line managers so they know what to do when something is raised, making sure employees understand how to escalate, and communicating consistently even when there's nothing new to report. Our report found real room to close that gap. Only 46% of organisations currently provide managers with training on creating psychological safety, and just 38% offer regular role-specific training for handling misconduct reports at all.

‍

"It takes a lot to escalate and to report when a fellow colleague is acting in ways that they shouldn't be. You need to make sure that person feels supported through that process, and that goes for everyone involved in a misconduct case, not just the person who raised it."