Workplace harassment is a serious concern for any HR team, and Michael Saltzstein has seen many HR departments place strict sanctions against it. Even a single major scandal could be catastrophic to a company’s image and completely goes against HR’s role in helping to protect employees. With more sexual harassment cases coming to light, coming from companies large and small, the social climate requires HR departments to take a more active role in identifying and halting such instances.
Standing Against
Harassment
HR departments
must make a public, clear stance against it. This doesn’t
just mean drawing up guidelines and restrictions in employee handbooks. It also
means taking active measures to ensure that employees understand what sexual
harassment is and why it should not tolerated in the workplace.
Michael
Saltzstein has seen that HR departments must implement programs teaching
employees to identify these situations. And beyond just identifying these
situations, employees should also understand what specific behaviors are deemed
inappropriate and unacceptable in a professional workplace setting.
Protecting
Employees
If instances of
sexual harassment occur, it’s up
to HR to protect employees and the company against the legal
risks and the potential massive damage to its reputation. It becomes
complicated, as investigations are not always easy. In protecting the company
and employees, HR must follow the correct procedures that prove that the act
happened and who was responsible.
Michael
Saltzstein has seen many HR departments implement a stringent zero-tolerance
policy for sexual harassment. And there is even less tolerance for retaliation.
HR departments also offer multiple channels for reporting instances of sexual
harassment, which includes anonymous reporting. It allows employees to feel
safer reporting these instances and providing evidence without fear of
retaliation, especially if the culprit has power over them.
There’s still a long way to eliminate sexual harassment from
workplaces. Michael Saltzstein feels, however, that HR departments are making
good progress in educating employees and giving them opportunities to speak up
without fear of losing their jobs.
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