Nz-made bot battles harassment
If your company needs to draw up a sexual harassment policy, an online bot can create one in minutes.
Automio is an automated lawyer – software that can carry out tasks a human usually would.
Following the wide-ranging sexual harassment allegations that have surfaced in recent weeks – many against law firms – New Plymouth-based Automio decided to create a specific policy-developing bot.
Automio is where Olivia Wensley, a former lawyer who said sexual harassment was an industry norm and called on the New Zealand Law Society to urgently address it, works.
The bot is straightforward. It’s free. It can be used by any business with employees.
All that’s required is answering a short list of questions. All up, it takes one to two minutes.
The bot then immediately generates a four to five-page policy tailored to the responses it received. It’s based on a template that has been reviewed and approved by a specialist employment lawyer.
Chief executive Claudia King said a range of businesses had already used the tool since it was launched on Friday morning.
A yoga studio, a furniture company and a web design company were among those that had used it.
‘‘For us, just having people using it is a success ... we just want to spread the word and get as many businesses using it and creating policies as possible,’’ King said.
‘‘One of the things that we’ve noticed is that people are talking about creating safe places for victims to come forward so they feel comfortable about making complaints, which is awesome, we love that.
‘‘But it would be even better if we worked on stopping people from sexually harassing and assaulting in the first place.
‘‘We feel really strongly that we can start to make a difference by making this available to people.’’
The website notes the policy it generates ‘‘does not and is not intended to represent legal advice or the practice of law (even if the information you input is based on suggestions or tips provided by us)’’.
Anyone obtaining a policy was advised to talk to their human resources staff or an employment lawyer.
The bot will be permanently available on Automio’s website.