How to prevent sexual harassment from arising in your place of work.
As an employer, you have a responsibility to ensure that the workplace is free of sexual harassment. This is your legal obligation, but it also makes practical business sense. If you allow sexual harassment into your workplace, you may lose valuable employees, productivity, respect, and face lawsuits. Eliminating this form of harassment in the workplace is long overdue. Take a look at how your business can lower the risk of it occurring in your work environment.
Be law compliant. Have a written policy that clearly forbids sexual harassment, stating that there is a zero-tolerance policy in place. Review your policy with legal counsel or human resources to ensure it is in keeping with the law. Train all employees, full and part-time, on ways in which they can respond to events they experience or witness.
Take proactive steps. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that although trainings appear to help in educating what sexual harassment in the workplace is, there was no clear evidence that suggested the training changed attitudes or behaviors toward the topic. As a result, it’s important for organizations to be actively engaged to identify sexual harassment and encourage others to speak up.
Take all complaints seriously. If someone complains about sexual harassment, whether it is minor, major, recent, or old, you should act immediately to investigate the complaint. If the complaint turns out to be valid, your response should be swift and effective.
For more information, join Hoffman Brown Company’s free webinar for clients – Non-Harassment Training for Managers and Supervisors. Join us on November 13, 2018, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for training on how to notice and reduce harassment in the workplace.
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