How To Prevent Harassment In The Workplace

Organizations must be aware of how to prevent harassment in the workplace in order to get a diverse and healthy work environment. Discrimination prevention regulations handle workplace harassment in statutes that forbid discriminative employment patterns.

Through practical and comprehensive harassment prevention training methods, organizations can eliminate and control workplace harassment. Modern workplaces that invest in such training to prevent prejudice show their consideration for presenting a secure organizational environment for their workforce. 

The principal objective of harassment prevention training is to provide employees with a better understanding of their colleagues and help them comprehend why it is crucial to appreciate everyone regardless of gender. The anti-harassment training explains the numerous repercussions of harassing conduct and techniques to stem this unlawful behavior.

Harmful Impacts of Workplace Harassment 

Even when it is one “bad apple,” it will hold a long-lasting effect. Workplace harassment claims spoil your business’s image and lower your capability to employ and retain employees, impacting your overall bottom line. In addition, this organizational harassment can lead to raised possibilities of absenteeism and employee turnover.

Further, not taking a firm stand on organizational harassment and not being aggressive in training workers about harassment can end in expensive claims, in addition to an unprofessional and hostile workplace. Some of the repercussions of harassment in a workplace are as follows:

• Reduced productivity
• Awkward legal claims
• An additional cost of recruiting and training new people
• Poor public image
• Lack of employee loyalty
• Negative publicity

Ways to Prevent Workplace Harassment 

According to research, the most suitable way to prevent workplace harassment is by instructing bystanders to detect and intervene to stop harassment acts. In addition, organizations can take the following measures to prevent workplace harassment.

• Create Comprehensive Policies

Build a policy that explains various forms of harassment and use scenarios to describe what ensues when undesirable behavior becomes harassment. In addition, many companies buy videos that display workplace harassment. Nevertheless, you can create a policy statement that communicates the same message included in a training video. Also, if you want to use a harassment prevention training film, request sample videos relevant to your company or industry.

• Seek Legal Consultation 

It is better to call your company's counsel for experienced legal guidance on your written policy to prevent harassment at your workplace. Ask your attorney to examine the harassment prevention policy you drafted and ensure the policy ostensibly describes harassment by state, national, and local employment regulations.

In addition, you can further contact your district or regional office of the U.S. EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) for technical advice on developing anti-harassment policy reports. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) further enforced laws under the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting harassment employment practices.

• Design In-depth Harassment Prevention Training

Another most prudent way to limit harassment is to speak to your human resources (HR) unit training experts about creating a training session that addresses and prevents workplace harassment. The harassment prevention training should be suitable for all employee levels, ranging from salary to hourly and frontline workers to administrative leadership.

In addition, the Society for Human Resources Management stresses that harassment prevention training should consider individual employee groups. Furthermore, written or take-away policy reports influence how much information gets retained. Also, when you conduct harassment prevention training, it is better to include your company policy for investigating, reporting, and resolving harassment complaints. 

The usual procedure is for the employee to discuss the matter with the supervisor and the upper administration. If the person remains uneasy reporting the issue to the team leader or administrator, the employee should visit the organization's employee relations expert or other human resources professional.

Announce plans for compulsory attendance at these harassment prevention training sessions. If you have workers who operate in various shifts or beyond standard company hours, you must arrange training sessions that accommodate your employees' schedules. If workers who fall into this class attend harassment prevention training during non-work hours, inform them that it is compulsory, paid training.

You should notify employees that failing to attend mandatory harassment prevention training will have numerous disciplinary actions, including termination. So we can say that harassment prevention training is unquestionably one of the most crucial solutions to curbing harassment in the workplace.

• Provide a Complaint Process

Act instantly to examine complaints of workplace harassment. These issues are within the purview of your worker relations expert. Numerous litigated harassment suits include allegations that the organization stopped the harassment investigation without solving the matter.

Therefore, it is prudent to inform all harassment prevention training attendees that the company will take necessary actions and demand full cooperation from the worker, the alleged perpetrator, and any witnesses to the workplace harassment.

• Revise Your Employee Handbook

Edit your employee handbook to incorporate your organization's standing on workplace harassment. In addition, best practices in the human resources professional society recommend you must rework your policy reports periodically. 

Confirm the policy is always compatible with employment regulations and relevant legislative modifications. If your harassment prevention policy statement was not a component of your employee handbook earlier, create new manuals and distribute them to your employees.

• Provide Aid for Employees

Make your human resources unit available to reply to any queries employees hold about the harassment prevention training or occurrences of harassment. Revise and reissue the policy report every year, and deliver training every year.

Get a signed declaration form from every employee indicating they comprehend the organizational policy against workplace harassment and file signed declarations in work files kept in the human resources division.

Advantages of Harassment Prevention Training in Your Workplace 

Executing harassment prevention training at your workplace helps you inform employees how to handle abusive situations in a workplace. Here are some advantages of conducting regular harassment prevention training.

• Builds a Safer Work Environment

Harassment in the workplace can be a significant source of anxiety, resulting in low employee happiness and productivity. In addition, when there is an issue, all workers, not just the targets, can feel awkward and uncomfortable. Harassment prevention training describes unacceptable workplace behavior, eliminating misconceptions or possible gray areas.

It can move a long way toward reducing feelings of stress and distress. Individuals can feel more comfortable at the workplace if they remain in an environment where every person is equal, engaged, and dedicated to a collective purpose. Workers and managers who care about their organization should always enhance it, whether through improved security, productivity, or culture.

• Reinforces Workplace Culture 

An organization's culture holds the most prominent effect on whether it requires measures to stem harassment or lets it persist. As it sustains business values, objectives, and policies, effective harassment prevention training can support the workplace. A unified, secure, and productive environment can get accomplished through training that makes employees act respectfully and ethically. 

The Bottom Line 

Employees attending harassment prevention training regularly get empowered to disclose issues or potential concerns to safeguard themselves from harassment acts. Individuals must understand what comprises harassment to recognize it and avoid becoming a victim of workplace harassment.

In addition, a positive and harassment-free workplace eradicates organizational toxicity and helps improve employee engagement and productivity. Thus, every company must ensure its workplace does not promote harassment and prejudice towards any person.