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A new app wants employees to take note when they report a misconduct of the office.
Vault, which is starting up in the United States in March, offers employees a way to document and report sexual harassment in the workplace using their smartphone. The app uses blockchain technology to provide a secure space or a "vault" that allows workers to write reports of harassment and file any evidence, says Neta Meidav, CEO of Vault. The vault is private, he says, but at any time workers can use the app to send this information directly to human resources.
"Think of this as a diary or digital diary you might have," says Meidav. "If you've suffered sexual harassment, you can create a secure record of what happened to you and lock it in. It's your private vault."
If workers decide to report harassment directly to their human resources department they have two options, they can choose to report individually or they can choose to go together, says Meidav. Using together, the platform will look for other complaints related to the same person. If there are others, the reports will be sent together with human resources. Otherwise, it will be held until another employee will report this person.
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"Technology will identify if there have been past or present complaints about this person," he says. "Your request will go to Human Resources with other people who have reported in the past."
Vault, who is currently engaged in a pilot program, is joining a growing number of technological tools that claim to help employees more effectively report sexual harassment. Services such as AllVoices, Bravely, Callisto and AI-enabled spot chatbots have attracted media attention for their reporting capabilities.
But unlike some of its competitors, Vault does not allow employees to report anonymous harassment, says Meidav. If an employee wishes to report an incident of harassment in the app, he must use his true identity, he adds.
"We are moving from anonymity to responsibility," says Meidav.
There are advantages and disadvantages in anonymous reporting, human resources professionals say. Jacquelyn Thorp, a human resources coach and CEO of sexual harassment training and consulting firm HR Train Me Today, said at the Human resources management company online in an article that can sometimes be difficult to investigate allegations of sexual harassment if the report is anonymous.
"You do not always get the information you need to investigate, and there's no one to follow," Thorp told SHRM. But there is a place for anonymous reporting, which can allow employees to report harassment if they feel they have "no place to turn," he adds.
But Vault is not just a reporting tool, says Meidav. The app also features data analysis that gives human resources a better sense of the broader culture of the company and the biggest critical points. Vault will report on human resources executives who analyze the most common problems employees face, such as bullying, discrimination or harassment. Employers may appear to be profoundly like a specific region or department, so that they can tailor their training to the topics and areas that need it most.
"In fact, what we are getting is that it will become a new point of reference for the employer who will show you how you are behaving in culture and diversity," he says.
Vault did not specify which employers were involved in the pilot program, but Meidav states that the list includes companies in the technology and media sector, universities, charities and a large four accounting companies. The price of the platform, he adds, varies according to the size of the company.
In the digital age, Meidav says, employers can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to misbehavior at work. It is in the employer's interest to prevent any harassment that may occur in the office, he says, especially when the risks are so great. If employees do not feel like listening to work, they can turn to social media or elsewhere to share their experiences, he says.
"A company that wants to consider itself different and equal can no longer afford it," he says. "This is actually a field of human resources that technology has done very little to transform, which is why we are building this tool."
