Benefits Of A Harassment-Free Workplace: 5 Key Benefits

Good business demands professional and positive associations between employees. Offending coworkers, even unintentionally, can ruin a working relationship forever. Hence employers must forever warrant that no such problems arise in their workplace. Also, note that offensive or harassing behaviors can induce high anxiety levels and reduce employee morale that might even affect their productivity. 

Even when an employee does not report the occurrences of such harassment, the outrage could proceed to build up and make problems that are challenging to resolve. Therefore, to curb all such harassment practices in the workplace, anti-harassment or harassment prevention training came into the picture. This harassment prevention training concentrates on raising consciousness about ongoing prejudice and harassment of any form in an organization to create a harassment-free workplace.

Understanding the Advantages of a Harassment-Free Workplace

Attempts to combat harassment in the workplace are not just a moral but legal responsibility for every business. Also, discrimination and injustice occurrences might harm your employees' physical and mental well-being.

Hence companies should take practical measures to create a harassment-free workplace to make employees feel comfortable at work. Mentioned hereunder are some of the top advantages of a harassment-free workplace. 

1. One of the most significant advantages of a harassment-free workplace is that employees can better concentrate on their work. Also, as there are rarely any distractions or factors that affect productivity, employees always remain in harmony with their coworkers and employers. Moreover, such workplaces also have better customer relationships.

2. In a harassment-free workplace, workers can count on their administrators more. They favor employing in-house channels for discussing their objections. Also, rather than directly registering a grievance with the officials, they would approach the supervisor first.

3. Expenses of dealing with harassment accusations are much more economical than following the statutory route, given the expenditure of the lawsuit, means engaged for managing the suit, and time spent addressing the claim. However, if you have a harassment-free workplace, you can readily overcome all these expenses.
4. A harassment-free workplace also helps employers cope with the issues of productivity loss and lower absenteeism. Also, as employees in a harassment-free workplace feel more secure at work, they are likely to remain associated with the company for an extended time. Moreover, the employee turnover rate in such companies is also low.

5. Companies appreciated for their harassment-free work environment relish a high market prominence. Also, such companies are known for holding better client and buyer comfort ratings than their contenders.

What are Harassment Prevention Training Programs and Their Significance?

Harassment prevention or anti-harassment training is a prevention plan that helps employees in a workplace to understand what harassment looks like and how to deal with such situations. Also, the principal goal of conducting harassment prevention training is to change employee opinions towards individuals who work with them.

In addition, conventional harassment prevention training assists in making employees feel secure at work. Moreover, it can help them realize the significance of a harassment-free workplace.

Unless workers understand that harassment can ruin the unanimity of the entire workplace, they may not improve their behavior. 

It then results in decreased productivity and a lack of profitability for companies. Additionally, such events can end in workers neglecting their tasks, increased absenteeism, and worker turnover. Hence to curb all these, adequate anti-harassment training is a must to make employees aware of acceptable workplace behavior. Given below are some steps to create a harassment-free workplace.

• Ensure that the harassment prevention training is engaging

Companies must warrant that the harassment prevention training remains engaging and supervised by a trained mentor without giving place for monotony. Note that your harassment prevention training will not accomplish its full abilities if your team are passive spectators and do not participate actively. 

Also, to make your harassment prevention training more engaging, ensure it occurs in real-time with all employees and supervisors present. 

• Illustrate the outcomes of harassment 

Highlight the risk features that make workplace harassment more likely to be intolerable. These constitute a uniform workforce and workers who rely on rewards from customers and may be reluctant to speak up. In addition, these harassment prevention training should stress how well these risk factors might enhance the possibility of harassment so that administrators can intrude before problems occur.

• Describe with examples

Administrators might describe harassing behavior too broadly if companies do not involve the less prominent examples. On the other hand, administrators may overlook addressing what they cannot envision a person committing even if alleged behaviors are prohibited. Therefore, it is crucial to furnish examples of both severe and indirect harassment. 

Tips to Sustain a Harassment-Free Workplace

Apart from following the above steps, you must keep in mind the following points to leverage the benefits of a harassment-free workplace. 

• Ask your organization's chairman to draft a memorandum to all personnel reaffirming the company's dedication to just and equitable treatment of workers, candidates, suppliers, vendors, and clients. This draft letter should get endorsed by the highest level of administration. Next, post copies of the memorandum everywhere in your workplace common spaces such as employee hallways and break areas.

• Engage administrators and executives in open and honest conversations about the organization's status as an equal opportunity company. Make it apparent to your workers that your business is firmly bound to warrant they have a secure working atmosphere, free from harassment and prejudicial practice.

• Develop a learning curriculum for executives and employees on labor and trade laws that prevent workplace prejudice and harassment. Also, try to use a variety of training techniques, such as role-play and experiential training mechanisms. Communicate a piece of explicit information that the company holds zero-tolerance for workplace harassment of any sort, based on any ground. 

• Always ensure to discuss harassment based on various forms of prejudice, including culture, color, social origin, faith, and disability. Do not merely restrict your anti-harassment training to sexual harassment.

• Include training on harassment and inequitable approach in your recruit orientation curriculum. Also, ensure that you mandate consistent and open-ended harassment prevention training for employees and administrators. Furnish refresher harassment prevention training on a yearly or as-required premise.

• Train executives on their obligation to abstain from prejudicial conduct and harassment. Emphasize the significance of administrators' parts in keeping a harassment-free workplace and how modeling appropriate action can limit harassment from happening. Also, try to provide administrators with some precedents of corporations held accountable for administrators' inapt answers to harassing conduct in the workplace.

• Create a printed workplace strategy against prejudice and harassment. Incorporate information on communicating events to a superintendent, administrator, or human resources team member. Assign human resources professionals to handle grievances concerning workplace prejudice and inappropriate conduct.

• Review your employee manual to incorporate your printed policy, describing how the business approaches accusations about harassment with examination and analysis. Define administration of deliberate harassment as per the company's representative discipline policy. Next, share copies of these manuals and get endorsed acceptance from all workers meaning they received and understood the policy. Also, it is better to place a replica of the endorsed acceptance in every employee's record.

The Bottom Line

Harassment and prejudicial issues are prevalent in every organization across the globe. However, employers must ensure that these issues never become severe and take steps to limit and eliminate them to create a harassment-free workplace based upon mutual trust and understanding.