Trends in corporate culture over the past few years have shifted from focusing on how employees can contribute to the organization toward a holistic focus on the employee’s experience within the company. Part of this has been driven by increased competitiveness in the labor market, and part by the demands of today’s growing millennial workforce. As this trend continues to build, so has awareness of workplace harassment. For businesses to attract and maintain a quality staff, they must protect their employee-centric culture from the risks posed by harassing behavior.
How to Protect Your Company from Workplace Harassment
Creating a positive and nurturing corporate culture takes an ongoing concerted effort reinforced by strong leadership and supportive policy. Harassing behavior in the workplace is a destructive force that can bring down in an instant what may have taken you years to build. Here are five steps you take right now to protect your business:
Face the facts. Don’t be fooled into thinking that harassing behavior won’t happen in your business. Harassment can – and does – happen in every industry. This doesn’t just occur between men and women. It can take many different forms and be based on race, religion, sexual orientation or identity, age, or disability. Any type of behavior that creates a hostile work environment can damage your corporate culture.
Take a look in the mirror. Check your own behavior, and always set a positive example of respect and equality. Be aware of behaviors that may be offensive to others.
Train, train, and retrain. Knowledge is power. Your staff must understand what harassment in the workplace looks like in order to recognize it, report it, and ultimately prevent it. Every member of your staff, including all managers, must be trained and certified. Start with online harassment training to ensure everyone has a consistent base of knowledge, and conduct regular follow-ups that blend a variety of training methods.
Be proactive. If you wait until you get a complaint of harassment to do something about it, your company culture will likely already be damaged. Taking a proactive approach not only minimizes fallout from workplace harassment incidents, it sends a clear message that you’re serious about prevention.
Set the right intention about preventing harassment in the workplace. If your only goal in implementing harassment training is to avoid liability, you’re going about it all wrong. Creating a hostile-free work environment must be about protecting your company culture – and your employee – first and foremost.
Harassment Prevention Online Training
Workplace harassment training can help managers and employees see the big picture of harassment by answering important questions that are often misunderstood. Click here for more information.
