The #metoo movement that started a few years ago led to the outbreak of a much-needed fire. It turned into a bonfire with the power to burn one of the most persistent problems affecting workplaces – sexual harassment. With every passing day, more and more companies recognize the severity of the issue. As a result, they’re bolstering old procedures by filling the gaps and creating new ones. In doing so, they aren’t just protecting their people but their organization and its reputation too. If you wish hope to End workplace sexual harassment, you should do the following.
- Understanding it: Every person working within an organization should be able to contemplate something that amounts to sexual harassment.
- Touching someone or initiating physical contact, such as patting or scratching the back of a coworker or grabbing someone around the waist.
- Making lewd jokes or gestures, using offensive words or commenting on someone’s clothing, and throwing undesirable comments.
- Repeated requesting someone to go on a date, even after the other person says no. Incessant flirting is also a form of sexual harassment.
- Playing music with sexual suggestions.
- Sending emails or pictures containing sexually explicit materials.
- Policies: An organization should consider publishing policies on sexual harassment and familiarize every employee with those policies. These policies must include procedures concerning reporting sexual harassment or blowing the whistle on the culprit. If you’re unaware of such policies in your workplace, you must discuss the matter with your superiors about putting one in place.
- Proper training: If you’re the owner or manager of the company, you should make regular and ongoing training mandatory for supervisors and employees. You should also provide refresher training annually or on an as-needed basis.
- Reporting procedures: Everyone working at your organization should never hesitate to report events that made them uncomfortable. The problem with workplace sexual harassment is that most people avoid reporting such instances simply because they fear the weird behavior they’ll face from their coworkers as a result.
- Increase awareness: If you hope to End workplace sexual harassment, then you need to increase awareness among employees. It’s a preventive measure, and you already know prevention is better than cure. Those who become aware of inappropriate behaviors will stop doing it. Also, those who unknowingly became a victim will be able to report the event.
- Appraisals and meetings regarding welfare: Such meetings and appraisals offer more than just an opportunity to review the performance standards of employees and their achievements. It’ll give your staff members the voice they need to report instances where their colleagues became the reason behind their discomfort.
- Acting immediately: You should encourage everyone to report every event where their fellow staff members made them uncomfortable. Once such a report reaches you, you should take appropriate action immediately. In reality, it’s the best course of action for something as heinous and disgusting as workplace sexual harassment. You should enforce procedures in place to ensure the employees raise their concerns promptly and efficiently.
- No tolerance: It’s safe to say that it’s best for you to adhere to a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment. The stature of the culprit in the organization shouldn’t mean anything. If you find someone guilty, you’ll have to make sure they face the consequences of their action immediately. Also, if the plaintiff deems it necessary, they should file a report with the cops.
- Dedicated grievance receivers: Do you have a grievance officer in your organization? If you don’t, you should delegate someone to handle the responsibility at the earliest. This person will be the go-to individual for every event of sexual harassment that happens within the organization. Usually, folks take such matters to the HR personnel, but for larger companies, it makes sense to have a dedicated employee in place.
- Immediate reporting: Finally, if you have a reason to believe someone misbehaved with another employee in your workplace, you should raise concerns immediately. The same goes for all your employees. You have to create a confidential environment to ensure nobody thinks twice before reporting sexual harassment to the dedicated grievance officer or their superiors.
Endnote
If every organization adheres to these guidelines, it won’t take long for the entire world to End workplace sexual harassment once and for all.