Sexual harassment is never something you want happening around your work environment. Employees need to be respected and treated like professionals at all times. Your company can do better at preventing this type of behavior by using these strategies.
Handle All Complaints Carefully
Any time your company gets a compliant from an employee about sexual harassment, you always want to take it seriously. If you don't and the incident turns out to be true, then your company is going to come under legal fire. Then you may get sued and have your operations seriously affected.
Whoever the complaint comes from and whatever the details are, take these sexual harassment claims seriously and make sure you follow up by properly reporting them. Then they'll be documented and the right steps can happen moving forward. Your company won't look like it's trying to silence anyone or that it doesn't take sexual harassment seriously.
Speak With Employment Lawyer Routinely
So that your company is always looking out for employees as far as sexual harassment and the ramifications it has on others, you want to stay in touch with an employment lawyer. This professional probably has seen so many cases of different severities. Talking to them and learning more about the effects of sexual harassment can be a valuable teaching resource for everyone.
You'll learn how to keep it from happening and the employment lawyer can regularly study your sexual harassment practices to make sure they're the right standard. If they aren't, they can give you clear corrections that you can implement straight away for a better and safer work environment.
Train HR Employees Thoroughly
The department that will be dealing with sexual harassment complaints and training will be HR. It is key that they receive plenty of training themselves to handle this potentially sensitive subject material. Then they'll be better at addressing sexual harassment and ensuring everyone in your office knows that it's not accepted at any level.
You can enroll HR staff in sexual harassment training specifically so that they get up to speed on its multiple layers. That's key because these professionals are an important line of defense in keeping sexual harassment out of your company's building.
From day one, your company needs to take a strong stance on sexual harassment. That will involve consulting with employment lawyers to come up with effective practices so that sexual harassment legal scenarios aren't the norm.
