How to Prevent Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment can involve any unwanted physical contact. It can also include exposing body parts, requesting sexual favors, showing graphic images, and making inappropriate comments and jokes. Managers need to create a harassment free workplace for employees by providing clear guidelines, adequate training, and unflinching enforcement. School administrators must provide the same for students and staff.

Write an anti-harassment policy. As an employer, you are liable for any sex discrimination that happens in the workplace. Under Title VII, this includes sexual harassment as well as sexist and transphobic behavior.  The best way to protect your employees from sexual harassment, and yourself from liability, is to prevent it.

·         Get together with human resources, union leaders, and write a firm policy banning sexual harassment. Make it clear that management holds itself responsible for preventing sexual harassment within the company.

·         Define sexual harassment broadly. Prohibit illegal sexual discrimination; unwelcome advances; requests for sexual favors; and any verbal, visual, or physical conduct of a sexual nature in the workplace.

·         Ban the requirement of submission to any sexual conduct as a term or condition of employment, or used as a basis for any employment decisions.

·         Ban all behavior that has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual's work performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

·         Include examples of sexual harassment, but state that the list of examples is not intended to be all-inclusive.

·         Review Title VII and state law to make sure that you are including all applicable behaviors.

Lay out clear protocol for responding to harassment. Within your anti-harassment policy, make the steps for reporting sexual harassment clear. Your policy must encourage victims of sexual harassment to report the behavior. Authorize and identify several appropriate to receive harassment complaints.

·         Your employees should have several options of individuals to report sexual harassment to, as this will help prevent them from, for example, having to report to their harasser or a close friend of their harasser.

Train your employees to prevent and report sexual harassment. Give everyone a copy of the policy. The sexual harassment prevention policy should be in the employee handbook, should be emailed to every employee, and should be reviewed during annual anti-discrimination trainings.

·         Give frequent trainings. Train supervisors and all levels of management to spot, prevent, and punish sexual harassment and sex discrimination. Train employees in the correct steps to report sexual harassment.

·         Follow state requirements, which are variable.

Include examples your employees might not recognize. Employees need to understand that any form of sexual attention or behavior, as well as any form of sexist or transphobic behavior, is considered sex discrimination and could get them fired. Let them know, for instance, that men are liable if they harass men, not just women, that women are liable if they harass men or women, and that even compliments can feel like harassment if they are given the wrong way.

·         Explain that any workplace pressure that employees comply with gender norms is sex harassment under Title VII

·         Therefore, it is forbidden to tell a woman she does not act feminine enough, a man that he does not act masculine enough, or a transgender individual that his or her appearance or chosen pronoun is unacceptable.

·         Explain that as an employer, you are even sometimes liable if a vendor or client sexually harasses your employees.

·         Tell them that when in doubt, they should talk to HR or to you.

Monitor your workplace. Check for signs of harassment at all levels of your company. Eliminate any discriminatory jokes, signs, or cartoons that you see. Confront employees who are engaging in inappropriate behavior. If you think a co-worker is being harassed, encourage the victim to talk about it and to take immediate action to stop it.

·         If you witness an incident of sexual harassment or find yourself within an offensive environment, take steps to resolve the harassment or co-file with the victim.

Enforce the policy without exceptions. When a complaint arises, or when you witness harassment, immediately investigate and deal with the situation. Discipline company members who harass other employees. Protect and support employees experiencing harassment.

·         You should have a no-tolerance policy on repeat offenders, or for cases of egregious harassment or assault.

·         Make it clear that no level of management is exempt from complying with the policy.