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According to a study done by The Conversation, workplace sexual harassment affected the bottom line of multiple companies where it occurred.
These are some of the ways that sexual harassment can cost a company:
Legal fees and settlement costs
Improper sexual harassment investigations can lead to employees turning to costly lawsuit to settle matters.
Sexual harassment lawsuits can cost a company millions of dollars if they lose their case or need to settle. The EEOC reports that in FY 2018 they obtained $56.6 million in benefits for employees who filed sexual harassment charges.
Additionally, if a case goes public and gets dragged on for a long time it can hurt the company’s reputation. A damaged reputation can take years or longer to repair.
Poor employee productivity, under performance, lack of workplace morale
An employee who is being sexually harassed at work will be suffering internally every time their in the hostile workplace environment. This means their productivity could tank, their performance will go down, and they will have low, if any workplace morale.
Furthermore if their sexual harassment complaints are ignored or dismissed, they may start to feel fear, intimidation, or threatened in the workplace. This loss of productivity could cost a workplace thousands of dollars yearly in lost profit.
High rate of employee turnover
Employees who do complain and are retaliated against for doing so may suffer poor work performance as a result or they may leave their jobs, causing high turnover.
Additionally, employees suffering from sexual harassment in the workplace may simply leave their jobs rather than continue to suffer. If the company does not investigate and take action to stop the harassment, then they will continue to have a high employee turnover rate. Every time an employee turns over the company will have to spend more time, money, and resources to train the new employee.
High employee absenteeism
If an employee does stay in their position despite the hostile work environment, then they are likely to use up their sick days or any other benefits that allows them to stay out of the office and away from the hostility and harassment. This reduced employee productivity will affect the company’s bottom line.
Poor reputation
Word of mouth, the media, and online reviews of the company’s hostile work environment will get around and could prevent the company from hiring top talent.
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