Awareness communication campaign about workplace harassment and its specific behaviours. The storyline focuses on different victims’ points of view and uses the client’s Ethical Channel to become a wide known campaign.
CLIENT

Abertis

DEVELOPMENT AREAS

Workplace harassment (specially focussed on moral harassment)
Compliance
Values
Internal Communication

TRANSMEDIA TOOLS

Storytelling
Audiovisuals

GOALS

To raise awareness related with workplace harassment, which affects all employees regardless of whom the victim is.

To strongly communicate which are the specific behaviours considered unacceptable in this context, as well as the multiple harassment types: from a manager, among colleagues, to someone from your team.

To promote internal communication from those who witness any harassment situation, giving voice to a reality, promoting transparency and activating procedures to stop these practices.

BRIEFING

Abertis, a leading worldwide operator in infrastructure management serving mobility and communications, contacted Cookie Box to design and produce a memorable campaign to raise awareness about workplace harassment, specially focused on moral harassment.

Moral harassment can be carried-out in three different ways: verbally, non-verbally or physically.

Moral harassment can be carried-out in three different ways: verbally, non-verbally or physically; and it can involve employees with different roles or professional status: an upper or lower professional role or a colleague with similar status. The causes for harassment can be multiple as well: withholding tasks from someone without a justified explanation, designating a task to someone below his or her capability, not talking to someone, treating someone as he or she doesn’t exist, making fun, shouting at or insulting someone, criticizing his or her attitudes or political beliefs,…

THE PROPOSAL

Our proposal was to use Abertis’ internal Ethical Channel in order to speak out loud about such a sensitive topic, and to stand up next to the victims, who usually remain silent. With the internal hashtag #WhatNobodyTalksAbout, we introduced different stories representing some cases, focusing on specific behaviours not allowed in a professional context. The main goal was to help employees identify and recognise future cases and, therefore, report them.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

In line with the storytelling, we produced videos with apparently normal daily scenes, in an office context. However, there were some unnoticed details and some red lines that needed to be highlighted. So we show the same scene twice: the first time to introduce the situation, and the second to focus on hidden details, unnoticed behaviours and, above all, on listening to the victim’s thoughts. Workplace harassment is a reality, and the videos are a call to action, to collective responsibility on tackling it.

The scenes introduced in each of the 3 audiovisuals focused on a specific harassment type:

1st video – From a manager to an employee. Maria receives a message from her boss telling her to let Robert lead the presentation. Robert, of course, nails it, while Maria just stands silent, next to him. The manager congratulates Robert, and mocks Maria in front of her colleagues. Rewind. We watch again the same situation, this time focusing on each of the scorns against Maria, as well as her emotional reactions and thoughts. Finally, a new scene in the end: she decides to stop it and reports it to the Ethical Channel.

2nd video – Among same rank colleagues. Hector, a young employee works in an office where nothing is really what it looks like. His coworkers subtly discriminate him by hiding information, designating tasks below his capabilities or overloading his schedule with extra tasks. In the meetings, they behave like he’s not there, his opinion doesn’t count. Review. The same situation, but now focusing on his point of view, thoughts and understanding his frustration. At the end, he moves forward, reporting it to the Ethical Channel.

3rd video – From a team member to his manager. A new challenge for the video main character, who just started a new job, as a team manager. She starts full of joy, ideas and commitment, but she’ll face a challenge never expected. Collaboration, effort and to get to know her team will be the key points for a quick integration. With all her enthusiasm, she explains her plans to the team, who answer in an unexpected way: hiding information from previous projects and preparing parallel and different strategies. Will Ana be able to speak up and report it to the Ethical Channel?

These are the first audiovisuals from a campaign designed to raise awareness on workplace harassment and its specific behaviours, focusing on the importance of reporting it either if you’re victim or witness.