Strategies for Dealing with Sexual Harassment
There can be a real risk for employers having to deal with a sexual harassment case if their employees are not properly trained. This risk can be mitigated by having strategies for sexual harassment training for supervisors and the managers in your team.
But what constitutes sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment can be any action of a sexual nature that makes a person feel humiliated, offended or imtimidated. If it is reasonable to expect a person to feel offended in the situation, then it is unlawful and an offence.
Examples of Sexual harassment can be ay of the following:
- Ogle or stare
- unwelcomed kisses or hugs
- Showing sexually explicit posters or pictures in the workplace
- Making suggestive jokes
- Brushing up against people
- sexually explicit SMS messages
- Asking for dates or making sexual advances including the use of social networking sites
Are employers legaly responsible for their employees actions?
In short, yes they can be. It falls under the term vicarious liability. Unless an employer can prove they have taken all the steps to prevent the harassment, then they are liable.
Following are some guidlines that you can follow:
- If sexual harassment has taken place, make sure you take action to remedy the situation
- Have a sexual harassment policy in place that is communiated to all employees and carefully monitored.
Employess that have a clearly outlined Policy and Procedure for preventing harassment have a more positive attitude to relationships and have increased motivation and performance.
Knowing that you need a well defined policy and that it has to be communicated is only the start. You need to make sure your staff has the proper training that complies with your local legislation. Start with senior management and then look at training managers and floor supervisors. You can find more information about workplace training at here.
