3 Ways To Prevent Sexual Harassment At Work
As a business owner, you are responsible for providing your employees with a safe workplace. Here are three strategies you can implement to help prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
#1 Have A Comprehensive Employee Anti-Harassment Policy
The first thing you need to do is work with a law firm to create a comprehensive and detailed anti-sexual harassment policy. This document should provide an extensive definition of what constitutes as both discrimination and harassment in the workplace, as well as examples of what those two things are. Additionally, this document should also detail how an employee can report harassment and what the disciplinary process and consequences are for such behavior.
Once you have a detailed policy written up, you need to have all your employee sign-off on the policy. You can protect yourself further by having the document posted in a location that can be easily seen in your office, and by reviewing the information contained in the document on a quarterly basis with all employees. You should also make sure that all new employees read and sign off on the policy as well.
#2 Send All Supervisors & Managers to Anti-Harassment Workshops
Next, you need to really make sure that all your supervisors and managers understand your anti-harassment policies and take steps to create a workplace that is free of sexual harassment. You don't want any of your supervisors or managers to engage in inappropriate or sexually harassing behavior at work, nor do you want to have any of them dismiss reports of sexual harassment.
You open yourself up to lawsuits if an employee who has supervisory capacity commits harassment or ignores complaints of harassment, which is why it is vital that all supervising employees be well trained on how to create an anti-harassment environment. This will help protect your employees and yourself from any lawsuits due to the behavior of superiors within your business.
#3 Take Action On Every Sexual Harassment Complaint
Finally, you need to make sure that you follow through on your anti-harassment policy. Make sure that any complaint that is placed is dealt with and investigated immediately. Additionally, you need to make sure that a detailed paper trail is created for each sexual harassment complaint so that you can show if your business is ever sued that you took appropriate and immediate action.
Talk with your law firm about the best way to create a paper trail and document your investigation of every complaint that your business receives.
It is vital that you protect your employees from sexual harassment, and it is also vital that you protect your business from potential sexual harassment lawsuits. The best way to do so is by creating and enforcing an anti-sexual harassment policy that all employees have to sign off on and back it up with training for your managers. Visit http://www.lynnjackson.com for more information.
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