Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

One of the necessary evils of being an employer and having employees is dealing with sexual harassment. I know plenty of employers who believe it would never happen in their workplace and/or there was no need to worry about such things, only to be proven wrong in very big, messy ways.

Clearly written sexual harassment policies and procedures help. The policy not only lets the employee know what is not acceptable behavior but it lets the employee know what the consequences are for participating in that unacceptable behavior. Procedures are great because they concisely (hopefully) tell employees what the steps are for addressing the offending behavior. It gives the help (and hope). However, sexual harassment policies and procedures are not enough.

In today’s world, a sexual harassment case can easily escalate into a lawsuit and employers – whether they want to or not – must prepare themselves for such a possibility. And while a sexual harassment policy and procedure will help in the due diligence arena, the courts have repeatedly stated employers need to take it a step further and implement sexual harassment training.

Sexual harassment training allows the employer to take the information they have in the policy and procedures and make sure employees and supervisors/managers understand and implement what is in writing. It provides a layer of protection for the employer, employee, and workplace that would otherwise create vulnerabilities.

So, if you do not have a written sexual harassment policy and procedures – get busy. It doesn’t matter how small of an employer you are, you still risk it all if you don’t have the proper policy and procedure in place. And if you really want to put the cherry on top, begin the process of training employees and supervisors/managers on those policies and procedures. Otherwise, your vulnerabilities still exist.