Employment Law

Sexual harassment in the workplace continues to be a problem throughout the USA and the world.  Every organization who is serious about prevention needs to provide employee sexual harassment training.  Part of this training is a concise, unambiguous sexual harassment policy statement.  It needs to be direct and leave no doubt that your workplace has no tolerance for harassing behavior.  The following are some tips for writing your organization's policy.

Much of the problem with sexual harassment in the workplace lies in the fundamental difference in perceptions that men and women have of appropriate words and behavior. What men think is appropriate is many times completely opposite of what women think is appropriate. Misconceptions and misunderstandings lead to behaviors that are construed as hostile work place harassment. There are several specific behaviors that remain pervasive in the workplace.

Interviewing and hiring is a dangerous legal area for managers. Even questions asked with the best intentions can be considered illegal and open your company up for lawsuits. It is critical for managers to understand exactly what they can and cannot ask in an interview. Questions that are illegal in nature don't usually provide much valuable information anyway and in general are a waste of time from a hiring perspective. Make sure that you give yourself adequate preparation, so that you don't accidentally ask an illegal question.

Sexual Harassment. Everyone seems to know what it is and yet the stories in the media of its occurrence seem to be unending. The latest high profile alleged perpetrator is Herman Cain, but Mr. Cain is in a long line of men and women who have had their careers jeopardized by sexual harassment charges. So why does it still occur if most people are educated on it. There are many reasons, but the most prevalent are a sense of invincibility due to power, the belief that by the perpetrator that he or she is different than others and simple ignorance. The effect of all three of these reasons can be mitigated by organization-wide sexual harassment training.

Sexual harassment videos are one of the most effective tools available to a trainer when educating employees on this sensitive topic. The visual aspect of video training makes the training more memorable and therefore the learning sticks. Sexual harassment training can be uncomfortable for both trainers and participants. Videos do the "heavy lifting" so to speak and make the training less difficult and uncomfortable. In addition, sexual harassment videos are thoroughly researched and developed. They save the trainer time and effort. Here are the most popular/best-selling programs of 2011.

In the workplace we all have labels - manager, supervisor, line-worker, assistant, electrician, engineer. We accept these labels without much thought because they help define our roles in our work life, however there are other labels that unfortunately crop up in the workplace. These other labels are dangerous and in some case bring sexual harassment. Every organization's sexual harassment training should encompass this topic.
 

Using an ethics training video can be an effective way to teach your employees proper ethical behavior in the workplace. Ethics is more than about compliance. (although this is the ultimate goal) It needs to start with core values and standards of behavior expected by an organizations. The ethics videos available on the market attack this important aspect of employee training from both perspectives.

It's become all too common in the instance of sexual harassment complaints. The victim is blamed. Why does this behavior occur and what can organizations do about it? It comes down to both power and preconceived notions by coworkers and it can be thwarted by a well-defined sexual harassment training policy. Here are some of the most common reasons a victim can be blamed.
Harassment is first and foremost about power and in many cases harassment occurs when a powerful member of an organization harasses a less powerful member. Powerful members of an organization have generally been in the organization longer than a less powerful individual. Co-workers have known them longer and have developed a stronger relationship with them. It is natural that they would have back the employee they know better.
 

Retaliation as a result of a sexual harassment complaint is all too common in the workplace. Often times the victim of harassment faces much more stress and damage in the aftermath of a complaint than they got from the original harassment. Many studies have shown that as many as 50% of harassment victims were more traumatized by the aftermath than they were by the actual harassment. It is imperative that all companies have Sexual Harassment training in the area of retaliation as part of their harassment training classes.

There are a number of behaviors that could lead to illegal workplace harassment. When continuous and unwanted behaviors are insensitive or offensive and focus around a difference or perceived difference, they can reach the level of illegal workplace harassment. Workplace harassment training should focus on the various types of behaviors that are considered offensive. It does not hurt to specifically spell out a number of these behaviors to make sure there is complete employee understanding in your harassment training.