The conversation around sexual harassment needs to change.
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) Task Force report, 75% of people who feel harassed or discriminated against never report it internally. So, while your conversations in HR and the C-Suite are focused on the legalities of sexual harassment, your best defense against lawsuits is to get employees to tell you about it internally so you can address it internally. That means culture is your best defense.
Consider this: A young employee goes out to lunch with her new boss. Over the course of lunch, he comments that she's easy on the eyes. She feels uncomfortable, but it was just a small comment, anyway. Over time, the comments get more frequent, and she's not sure what to do. Meanwhile, her co-worker shares that his own boss is a bully and constantly yells and calls people out for mistakes in front of others. There are also some cliques made up of long-time employees, and no one trusts the SVP because he seems like a snake.
Now, bullying is not illegal, so it's the organization's prerogative to allow it. Cliques aren't illegal either. And, the CEO doesn't think the SVP is a snake, so all good there too.
But, all of this sends the message that core values, behavior and employee safety are not important to leadership. Therefore the company has essentially invited this employee who feels sexually harassed to see an attorney.
I'm hoping you can see now why the conversation about sexual harassment must be focused on a positive work culture. With that in mind, I was recently asked to speak to a room full of CEOs at a Vistage conference regarding this topic, and here are the tips I shared:
1. Build a strong “see something, say something” culture where people feel comfortable to say they are uncomfortable. Everyone must feel confident that if they ask a person to stop, the behavior will stop, and if they report the behavior, something will be done and they will not be retaliated against.
2. Live the company’s core values. Do you, and does your workforce, live them every day? Core values really and truly can be used to dictate the behavior of your workforce. Work with your HR team to determine an action plan for bringing your core values to life and holding people accountable to them. Ensure you and your workforce live them every single day, or they're useless.
3. Actively change the culture. Ask your HR team to audit your pay rates and ensure men and women are paid the same for the same job. Ask your HR team to audit your diversity and hiring practices to ensure you are recruiting a diverse team. Take a stand against negative behavior and be vocal about the importance of respect and civility.
4. Address all bad behavior, even when it’s not illegal. If you don’t address behavior that’s not in line with company core values, then you’re telling employees that behavior not in line with core values won’t be addressed. You are inviting employees to keep illegal behaviors, such as harassment, to themselves because they can clearly see bad behavior won’t be addressed.
5. Conduct a culture assessment. Ignorance is not bliss. You need to know what’s going on so you can put a stop to it.
6. Hold managers accountable for a positive work environment by measuring them on it. Once you’ve done your survey, determine which departments have lower climate and engagement scores. Hold managers accountable to a certain score, and measure them year after year. Like a sales manager is accountable to a sales quota, managers and department heads should be accountable to a positive work environment.
7. Reinforce and reward good behavior. Sexual harassment avoidance often focuses on punishing bad behavior. While this is essential, go beyond this by rewarding individuals who exemplify the core values. Make this part of how employees are evaluated, promoted and rewarded.
8. Communicate that you will not tolerate any bad behavior, and then actually don't tolerate it. Company-wide meetings and communications are your chance to say, “This is a company where all will feel safe and valued. Anyone who does not fully embrace that mindset does not have a place here.”
9. Provide training on respectful workplace behaviors for the entire company -- and on creating a positive culture for managers. Many organizations are doing anti-harassment training led by an attorney. While it’s nice to know what not to do, it’s so much more valuable to know what to do. Teach your workforce how they should behave.
10. Designate multiple channels to receive harassment complaints. While HR and management are important parts of the team to receive and address issues, employees should also have other options to surface concerns. An outside company that provides the opportunity for employees to report concerns anonymously costs surprising little and pays big dividends in reinforcing an inclusive culture and encouraging reporting of misconduct. If employees have multiple trusted channels to report misconduct, issues can be solved before they become bigger (and more costly) problems.
11. Commit to being an example, and challenge your senior team to do the same. Pull your leadership team together and ask them to join you in creating an environment that not only prevents harassment but actively encourages respectful and equal treatment. Ask them to commit to exhibiting positive behaviors, and let them know you’ll hold them accountable to this.
Culture trumps compliance. While it's important to know the law and what not to do, it's even more important to know what to do and how to create an environment where people feel safe to speak up. They won't speak up if you're not actually living your core values.
As employment law attorney Thomas Ingrassia points out in his DisruptHR speech, many organizations have core values that list out things they want, but it's important to be sure you are willing to actually live them.
