I am Joëlle Payom, founder of Rez-Care and of the Rezalliance association. Before dedicating myself to harassment prevention, I spent 15 years as a procurement manager: leading projects, building processes and working with senior management. As a consultant, trainer, investigator and external person of trust, I have trained more than 1,500 people. I am also a lecturer at the University of Geneva and a columnist for Le Temps.

I do not work alone: I created the Rezalliance ecosystem, which brings together professionals with complementary skills (lawyers, work psychologists, coaches, HR specialists and other persons of trust). This multidisciplinary approach allows us to offer robust, lasting solutions tailored to each situation.

It is a visual tool that lets you place a behaviour at a glance, from the most trivial to the most serious, so you know when it is time to act. Inspired by the “violentomètre” (violence meter) and adapted to the workplace, it is at the heart of our harassment prevention and conflict management workshops.

It is free with any training course or workshop, and can also be ordered separately: baroscope@rezalliance.com. Find out more →

Prevention works mainly upstream: training, workshops, and setting up internal tools and processes to stop harassment or discrimination situations from arising. Crisis management comes in when a situation has already occurred or been reported: internal investigation, restoring dialogue, and support for HR teams and senior management towards a constructive resolution. The two are complementary and often combined in our assignments.

Whether the request comes from a company or an individual, each engagement starts with an assessment of the situation and specific needs, followed by a tailored action plan: training, audit, restoring dialogue or HR follow-up depending on the context. Contact us directly to assess your situation.

Yes, our network of experts works in Switzerland and France. This dual presence also lets us take each country's legal specificities into account: Swiss and French law do not define the same criteria for discrimination, which directly affects our recommendations.

Yes. If you are experiencing or witnessing a difficult situation at work, we offer confidential listening, guidance and advice. We can also put you in touch with the experts in our ecosystem: lawyers, work psychologists, coaches. Discover our individual support →

It can be, provided the person is outside the hierarchy, trained and perceived as neutral. In a small organisation this is rarely the case: an external person offers stronger guarantees of independence.

There is no automatic penalty, which often lulls employers into a false sense of security. But in the event of a dispute, case law is clear:

• The scheme exists and is known : in ruling 8C_148/2023, an employee who complained of mobbing without ever contacting the trust group, which he knew existed, saw his allegation weakened.
• The scheme exists but is poorly communicated : in ruling 4A_283/2022 of 15 March 2023, the employer had several tools in place, including an assistance programme, but staff were unaware of them. It was ordered to pay compensation for sexual harassment and for unfair dismissal.
• The employer fails to act : in ruling 4A_215/2022, the employer was held liable for remaining passive in the face of long-term mobbing.

Appointing a person of trust is therefore not enough: every employee must also know that the person exists and how to contact them.

References: Federal Supreme Court rulings 2C_462/2011 of 9 May 2012, 8C_148/2023, 4A_283/2022 of 15 March 2023 and 4A_215/2022, available at www.bger.ch.

No. An EAP is useful for general well-being, including private difficulties (family, finances, health). The person of trust, by contrast, deals exclusively with the professional sphere: conflicts, harassment, mobbing, discrimination. They hold a formal mandate from the employer, remain independent of the hierarchy, know Swiss employment law and act as an early-warning system for management. The two schemes are complementary, but not interchangeable. In ruling 4A_283/2022, the employer did in fact have an assistance programme, which did not protect it.

The person of trust is bound by the strictest confidentiality regarding the situations entrusted to them:

• what is shared during consultations remains secret;
• people who contact the person of trust are also encouraged to respect confidentiality and not to spread information about the situation;
• in the case of a collective issue, people's anonymity remains guaranteed.

The person of trust does, however, report trends and early warning signs to management, in anonymised and aggregated form, so that it can act on the causes.

Confidentiality can only be lifted in two cases:

• with the consent of the person concerned, after agreeing with them on what information may be shared;
• if the person or others are in danger: the person of trust then informs the person concerned.

The data is hosted in Switzerland and subject to the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). Only the person of trust and authorised Rez-Care staff have access to it: neither the employer nor the line management can view reports.

Not on a situation they have supported themselves. Good practice requires that the person of trust does not investigate a case in which they have already been involved: they have heard one of the parties in full confidentiality, and can therefore no longer guarantee the neutrality required of an investigator. Conducting investigations is part of our expertise: when an investigation is needed, we assign it to an investigator from our team who has not been involved in the situation, using a proven method, without the company having to change provider.

According to Le Temps, fewer than 2% of employees in Switzerland contact their person of trust. The most common reasons:

• the scheme is little known, or poorly presented internally;
• the person of trust is seen as lacking specialist knowledge of harassment;
• people doubt the neutrality of an internal person of trust;
• people fear being isolated or poorly supported.

Hence the importance of making the scheme known, training teams and choosing an external person of trust, specialised and genuinely independent.

The external person of trust is independent of the company: they listen, guide and support in full confidentiality. The harassment officer is an employee trained in-house who spots early warning signs, hears initial concerns and directs people to the right contacts. They replace neither the person of trust nor the HR department: they are a complementary, local point of contact.

Our harassment officer training comprises 7 modules, with supervision every quarter. Read our article on the harassment officer →

On the market, the most common model is an annual flat fee, whether the company had zero or fifty consultations during the year. We offer a fairer model: an annual subscription, plus invoicing of the consultations actually held, in person or by video call. Additional services (investigation, training, conflict management) are invoiced as needed. For employees, access to the person of trust is always free: this is essential if they are to use it. Contact us for a quote tailored to the size of your organisation.

Rezalliance works with institutional partners, experts and companies committed to inclusion. If you would like to become a partner or speaker, or simply find out more about its work, visit rezalliance.com to discover its initiatives and get in touch.

The day is held on 24 May each year, but the event organised to mark it may take place on a slightly different date depending on the day of the week or scheduling constraints. The full programme, registrations and recordings of previous editions are available on www.24may.org

We are always looking for experts, institutions, partners and sponsors who would like to join the Day and support the events organised each year to mark it, whether as a speaker, media partner, sponsor or institutional supporter. Visit 24may.org to discover past editions and contact us about the next one.