Preventing Workplace Harassment: 3 Main Ways to Implement The Process

Workplace harassment refers to a situation when an employee feels bullied or humiliated by their coworkers. Although workplace bullying is a frequent instance, it rarely gets discussed at most workplaces. Harassment, be it physical or psychological, builds a toxic and unhealthy working atmosphere. 

As many employees remain doubtful about what constitutes workplace harassment, numerous bullying occurrences go unseen and unreported. However, an unpleasant work atmosphere can negatively affect any company's productivity, employee relationships, and reputation in the industry. It is why every company must maintain civility and a zero-tolerance policy to prevent workplace harassment in building a safe working environment for employees.

What is Harassment at the Workplace?

When an employee in an organization feels intimidated or humiliated by their coworkers, it is known as workplace harassment. A workplace harasser's primary purpose is to make their victims feel uncomfortable and unsafe. 

As per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), demeaning jokes, racial accusations, violent behavior or intimidation tactics, harassment, disparagement or dismissiveness, curses, offensive objects, and pictures are all examples of workplace harassment. In addition, there are numerous different types of workplace harassment, and some of the prominent ones are listed below: 

• Verbal harassment

Verbal harassment can be a perpetual struggle that endangers an employee's well-being and work capabilities. Derogatory comments, unfair criticism, and obscene expressions are all part of verbal workplace harassment. In addition, abuses, discriminatory expressions, outcast jokes, and ominous remarks are all examples.

Since it is a nonphysical nature of harassment, verbal bullying can be challenging to identify and much more challenging to prove. Moreover, as per experts, screaming, cursing, or making derogatory remarks or puns about a coworker is often considered a common dispute and not verbal harassment. Nevertheless, these abusive verbal harassments can adversely impact the victim and result in high blood sugar, anxiety, and depression. 

• Psychological harassment

Psychological harassment is comparable to verbal abuse, but it is more complex and includes onerous tactics such as withholding information, taking credits for work done by someone else, seeking irrational favors from female colleagues, pushing unreasonable deadlines on a specific employee. 

It further includes continuously demanding an employee to complete demeaning jobs outside their work field or continually refusing everything a worker states, which may point to psychological harassment. 

• Cyberbullying or online harassment 

Even when workplace harassment takes place in digital mode, it can be as severe as physical bullying. Cyberbullying is the most recent workplace harassment and happens in numerous organizations. 

In addition, making fraudulent requests online, setting up a false persona to threaten someone on the cloud platform, building a website about the victim to tarnish their reputation, and uploading warnings or offensive remarks or pictures on social media are all precedents of online harassment. 

Also, as hundreds and thousands of people use social media in modern times, the exchange of sensitive issues increased exponentially. Nowadays, anyone can now harass their coworker or employees online. However, online harassment is one of the few harassment that you can readily prove and document. 

Hence it becomes pretty helpful when proving your case to the HR department or the EEOC commission. Moreover, to make your harassment case more effective, you should save emails, messages or take snapshots to present during the investigation. 

• Physical harassment

Physical harassment at work can take place in various forms. These could vary from simplistic obnoxious indications such as touching an employee's clothes, face, hair, or skin to more severe actions such as bodily injury, threatening, and property destruction. 

Also, physical harassment can be challenging to determine due to its extensive range of degrees. If there is no bodily injury, your manager or employer might not believe you. However, if an employee in a workplace gets blocked, jostled, and hit repeatedly. Still, the sufferer never gets injury marks; it is considered harassment by a staff member or team leader. 

Top ways to Prevent Workplace Harassment 

Mentioned hereunder are some top ways to prevent harassment at the workplace.

• Simplify the grievance process 

The grievance process should likewise remain simplified and explained to every employee as soon as they join the organization. By doing this, every employee in a company will have a fair idea of the anti-harassment policies and how to report incidents of workplace harassment. 

Apart from this, the upper-level management staff members must ensure that the complaint redressal remains quick and carefully examine all the facts given by the victim. 

• Include harassment prevention training 

Harassment prevention training programs are crucial to teaching employees how to identify and respond to workplace harassment. Also, it is vital to warrant that employees take this training earnestly to gain an advantage. 

• Monitor the workplace

To ensure a workplace remains free from harassment, employers must stay watchful and monitor the workplace. Also, members from upper-level management must regularly make an effort to speak to their employees concerning any issues. In addition, top-level employers can talk to managers and supervisors to check what's going on in the workplace and keep the communication lines open. 

What are the Advantages of Harassment Prevention Training at the Workplace?

Harassment prevention training assists employees by preparing them on how to tackle such kinds of circumstances. Listed below are some of the top benefits of workplace harassment prevention techniques. 

• Builds a secure work atmosphere

Workplace harassment can be a significant cause of anxiety, resulting in reduced productivity and lower employee satisfaction. Also, when there is an issue, all employees, not just the victims, may feel awkward and uncomfortable. Hence, to boost employee productivity and keep them happy, harassment prevention training plays a crucial role. 

Also, harassment prevention training explains to employees about unacceptable behaviors. This training can likewise help everyone feel safe and show that the management cares about their security. 

• Empowers employees

Employees who attend workplace harassment training remain empowered to share harassment issues or potential problems to prevent themselves from such harassment. Also, this training helps employees understand what constitutes workplace harassment and how to steer clear of such behaviors.

Moreover, many times it happens that employees remain unaware of inappropriate behavior. Hence, employers must help employees remain informed of such issues and make them feel comfortable at work. 

• Healthy workplace

Employers can cultivate a healthy and happy work culture by training employees to approach their coworkers with respect. Also, it is crucial to make harassment prevention training a priority as it ensures that employees in a workplace never fear coming to work or working under a constant threat. 

In addition, managers or employers should remain vigilant when harassment has grown ubiquitous in the workplace. Moreover, anti-harassment training is excellent and continually endeavors to be the best form of preventing harassment. While harassment prevention training might not eliminate all harassment incidents, it can teach employees how to handle such situations. 

The Bottom Line 

To summarise, we can say workplace harassment is a severe issue prevalent in almost every organization worldwide. Physical or mental workplace harassment can readily lower the morale of employees and further reduce their productivity. It is why administrators and supervisors must warrant building a workplace free of toxic behavior and harassment. This way, organizations can decrease employee discontent while boosting productivity.