5 Ways HR Help Stop Sexual Harassment In The Workplace
The MeToo movement has shone a light on the prevalence of Sexual
harassment of women at workplace in modern life.
We are moving past stereo
types and victim-blaming and becoming not just active about punishing sexual
harassment after it happens, but proactively creating a safe working
environment that empowers
employees instead of isolates them. Here are some useful tips for
fostering a healthy, safe workplace.
1. Go Beyond Training
Training has to be seen as being helpful, not a punishment.
Recently, Starbucks closed every single location in the middle of the day to
have a class on cultural sensitivity. While it is admirable that a company will
take steps to correct a misdeed, it would have been even better had there been
an ongoing conversation about this topic, rather than an emergency shut-down of
all stores. The definition of Sexual harassment in the
workplace is
something that should have an ongoing discussion; the definition, according to
the federal government, can include can include “sexual harassment” or
unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favours, and other verbal or
physical harassment of a sexual nature.”
2. Have No Tolerance For “What
aboutism”
What aboutism is a new word to describe an age-old phenomenon:
when someone is accused of doing something wrong, he or she says “What about…”
and lists something someone else has done wrong. This can, of course, be a
person in the past or in the present, famous or personal, in politics,
business, or entertainment. Push back against it by focusing on the matter and
instance at hand.
3. Have No Tolerance For Harassment,
And Even Less For Retaliation
Actress Anna Faris once related a story on her podcast,
“Unqualified,” of how, on a movie set, a member of the crew slapped her behind
so hard everyone on the set could hear it. She felt pressured to shrug it off,
knowing that the hundreds of actors and crew on set would lose work should the
production grind to a halt to run a formal investigation. Many in the workplace
face some version of this question: Is it worth it?
4. Make It Easy To Report
Harassment
Ensure that your company has multiple methods of reporting
sexual harassment, including anonymous reporting. Be sure that whatever these
avenues are, they should be well-known to the employees. For example, include
these methods on your employee handbook, on your web site, and on your local
intranet.
5. Be Proactive
HR departments are in a
unique position when it comes to sexual harassment: it’s their job to ask how
employees are doing. In any kind of performance review, it’s also the
employee’s chance to give feedback on
the company. Although ideally an employee would feel empowered to go to HR at
any time, victims often feel pressure to downplay an incident, particularly if
it’s less of an overt gesture, and more implied–an example being playing
suggestive music that makes an employee uncomfortable. Part of HR’s
responsibility is to ask about any of these smaller incidents to see if they,
knowing a more complete picture than any one employee, notice troubling
patterns so they can step in before it gets worse.
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