If you were to hold a conversation with 20 “enlightened” professionals I expect that you would have full agreement that sexual harassment in the workplace is inappropriate and companies should have policies in place to adamantly oppose it and prevent its occurrence. I expect that you would also have-agreement that quid-pro-quo harassment – sexual favors in exchange for either preferential treatment or to avoid detrimental action – is clearly wrong and should be punished. Where you may not have unanimity is in the more common form of sexual harassment – hostile work environment.
A hostile environment is where actions or words create an environment where employees feel that their performance is adversely affected. The behaviors that create a hostile environment typically are inappropriate jokes, cartoons, and language. Often they are targeted at an individual, but many times they are simply part of the general culture of the organization.
And it’s that idea of culture where you’ll get your active debate. What’s the balance between a typical youthful, flirty, edgy, contemporary culture and one where those same actions and conversations cross into the area of hostile? The answer is all in the eyes of the beholder. While some employees may be very comfortable with locker-room humor, others find it patently offensive. Some employees may enjoy “sophomoric” jokes and gags while other become embarrassed and disengaged.
As a manager, or an HR professional, it’s your job to protect those who feel offended, embarrassed and disengaged. Your policies, and more importantly, your actions need to reinforce a professional culture where profanity, inappropriate jokes, comments and cartoons are not permitted. There are two primary things you need to do to accomplish this, as well as protect your organization should you get a complaint.
The first is to have a well defined and communicated policy against harassment. Make sure you have defined your position and what employees should do to report harassment. The next step is to train, train, train. Every employee should attend a session every year where you cover the policy, give examples of what can create a hostile work environment, and be instructed how to report instances of sexual harassment. Yes, I said every employee, every year. You’re challenge is to find new ways to present the material so the employees will pay attention, but don’t stop delivering the message.
Is that it? No, of course not. Managers should receive more training about both the policy and what to do if someone reports sexual harassment. The State of California, a frequent bell-weather of cultural change, requires that all managers attend 2 hours of interactive sexual harassment training every two years. I’m not going to advocate that outside of California, but I also won’t say it’s a bad idea.
The lesson here is that you cannot prevent sexual harassment simply by adding a few paragraphs to your employee handbook. You need to communicate that policy and train your employees – all of them – in that policy, how to recognize sexual harassment and what to do when they see it. Then you need to make sure your management team knows how to respond. If you do these things you will greatly reduce the likelihood of having a formal claim and you’ll increase your chance of prevailing should that claim arrive.
It's All About People ... 