The #MeToo movement has raised general awareness of sexual abuse and harassment, but many of us still may not appreciate how widespread the problem is. It could be right in your office. A national study by the UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health (in collaboration with other organizations) found 38% of women and 14% of men had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. Those figures don’t even capture the full problem. While sexual harassment is the most addressed form of workplace harassment, it can take other insidious forms, too.
That’s why HRCI recently brought Diane Stegmeier, founder and CEO of Project WHEN, to speak at a recent episode of Alchemizing HR. Stegmeier’s organization helps companies combat harassment in their workplaces to create better work environments for everyone.
Here’s how HR can take action to combat harassment in the workplace.
Sexual harassment is a major workplace problem, but it’s not the only workplace problem. Project WHEN defines workplace harassment as “unwanted conduct to include all areas of workplace harassment, including sexual and physical harassment, quid pro quo harassment, microaggression, bullying, ageism, job shaming, verbal threats, derogatory comments, discriminating or exclusionary behavior, and other forms of offensive behaviors.”
To create an anti-harassment culture, however, you have to think beyond the legal definition. There’s an underlying question: “Does the victim feel harrassed?” Something that might not legally be classified as harassment can still leave the victim feeling that way. Include the victim when assessing whether an action is classified as harassment. A harasser may claim to only be joking, for example. But if the victim feels as though they’ve been harassed, the action classifies as harassment regardless of intent. Work a broader definition of harassment into your policies so you can begin aligning the workforce on actions that are considered harassment. You don’t want a workplace that is technically free of harassment, but where many employees feel vulnerable and unhappy.
Harassment can have severe consequences, especially when left unchecked. “Along with non-compliance come financial ramifications that are quite great,” Stegmeier said. A sexual harassment claim settled out of court could cost $75,000-$125,000. If taken to court, it could cost that much in legal fees alone.
Harassment also puts your reputation at risk. A harassment scandal travels through the company and then through social media like wildfire. “Recovering from reputational damage is a long and often embarrassing process,” Stegmeier said.
Finally, harassment results in a loss of productivity. If you just do the straight math, an employee who spends 5 minutes of every hour trying to avoid a harasser loses 40 minutes of productivity in an 8 hour day. Over the course of 60 work days, this adds up to an entire 40 hour week. That doesn’t even begin to take into account the losses caused by the fact this employee is being forced to deal with anxiety and stress each day from something completely unconnected to their actual job duties.
Workplace misconduct has often been excused as not impacting “the bottom line,” but be clear it does very real damage, to both your employees and your company.
Ignoring (or even tolerating) harassment damages your workplace. Taking action to minimize harassment in the workplace, on the other hand, helps you attract and retain employees. It contributes to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. It improves employee engagement. To tap into these benefits, establish a baseline for tracking progress over time towards a harassment-free workplace. With workplace strategies changing, now is an ideal time to spread awareness of harassment in all its forms.
Keep in mind that remote work isn’t immune to harassment. Remote workers can still bully or undermine the work of others to get ahead. (Indeed, harassment may hit a remote worker especially hard, since they’re isolated from coworkers who could potentially provide support.) Work to raise awareness of how our behaviors can be interpreted. Round table discussions within your organization can help with that transparency. Being transparent about what’s happening (especially in industries such as the service industry) can do a lot to get the conversation started. Once you’ve uncovered bad behaviors you can begin to deal with them and ensure your workplace achieves something that should have been accomplished long ago: letting employees do their jobs completely free from mistreatment.
Watch the recording for recertification credit.
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