By 
The #metoo movement has a lot of employers on edge when sexual harassment is brought up in the workplace.
Small business owners are even more worried because their business’s reputation, which may have been decades in the making, is on the line. Unlike major corporations, small businesses depend on their community reputation—just one mishandling of a sexual harassment case could mean the demise of their company.
That’s why how employers handle a sexual harassment complaint is so important. Sexual harassment complaints can occur not only between employees at a company, but they can also occur between employees and independent contractors or customers.
What is sexual harassment? According to the EEOC, sexual harassment is “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.” The victims and the harassers can be a man or a woman and they can also be the same sex.
Fully addressing the victim’s complaints and taking prompt and appropriate disciplinary actions when necessary is what employers need to accomplish before they can return to focusing on running their business.
Every complaint must be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. Every small business needs to have clear policies in place that outline the steps that employers, managers, supervisors, or Human Resources must take when they receive a complaint. If litigation were to arise as a result of a sexual harassment complaint, a business without a company policy on sexual harassment will be at a disadvantage. Lawsuits can not only be time-consuming and expensive, but stressful, too.
What should a company policy address to minimize the possibility of mishandling sexual harassment complaints?
1. It should define harassment, sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and retaliation.
2. A strong company policy will have zero tolerance for not only sexual harassment, but any form of harassment, discrimination, or violence.
3. It should describe employees’ rights to file complaints and it should provide methods for employees to file a confidential complaint with a manager, supervisor or employer who they trust.
4. It should prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who file complaints.
5. It should outline the steps for how an investigation will be conducted and who will be conducting the investigation.
6. If the investigation finds that sexual harassment has occurred and violated the policy, the policy should outline appropriate disciplinary actions.
If, after the investigation, it is unclear if the harasser violated the policy, an employer may want to consider further steps to handle the problem. One such step may be to separate the employees so that they do not interact anymore.
Having the policy is a good first step. Policies should be updated and distributed to employees annually. Many companies require employees to take online training courses annually to ensure that they’ve read and familiarized themselves with the policies.
Taking every complaint seriously and having a reputation for open communication can help employer’s catch and solve issues early on. Ignoring complaints or retaliating against employees who file complaints may open an employer’s company up to costly liability lawsuits.
For more information, send us a message.
Comments