Is Supervisory Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Necessary?
Are you wondering if it's really important to provide sexual harassment prevention training to your company's managers? A better question to ask yourself is if your organization can afford the potential cost of failing to provide this type of training. Sexual harassment in the workplace takes many forms and is not always obvious, particularly to those who are not properly trained on this type of harassment prevention.
4 Top Reasons Managers Need Harassment Prevention Training
1. Risk Management - No organization is too small or too large to face sexual harassment charges, and the occurrence of these types of allegations is certainly not decreasing. In fact, quite the opposite is true. During the 2008 Fiscal Year alone, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received nearly 14,000 workplace sexual harassment charges. During the same time, the agency resolved nearly 12,000 charges, resulting in the recovery of more than $47 million dollars for aggrieved employees. These statistics are staggering, and they don't even paint a complete picture of the problem, as awards resulting from litigation beyond EEOC aren't included in the figures.
2. Employer Liability -- Keep in mind that employers are responsible for the actions of their employees and other agents that represent them, regardless of whether or not the behaviors go against stated policy or if the employer was aware of the inappropriate behaviors. The fact that your company policy states that harassment isn't allowed is not a sufficient defense. As a business leader, you are responsible for creating a culture that is free from harassment, and that has to start with ensuring that managers truly understand - and act on - their responsibilities in this area.
3. Intent Doesn't Matter - Many business owners and company leaders mistakenly believe that they don't need to worry about sexual harassment in the workplace because they feel that their supervisors or employees would not do anything inappropriate. This is a dangerous and short-sighted way of looking at such an important aspect of a company's risk management plan, and it's an attitude that has the potential to lead to allegations of harassment that are indefensible. The simple facts are (a) you don't know what other people might do and (b) "intent" to harass does not matter. While certain types of harassment are fairly obvious and are intentional, hostile environment harassment can be very subtle and difficult to recognize - and it often occurs unintentionally.
4. Prevention is Key - Taking ongoing and proactive steps to prevent harassment from occurring is the best - truly the only - way to diminish employer liability. If you want to create a workplace that is free from sexual harassment, you have to start by putting a solid plan in place to prevent the problem from developing in the first place. Any solid harassment prevention program should include - at a minimum - a zero tolerance policy that is clearly and effectively communicated to employees and a program of ongoing sexual harassment prevention training for employees who have supervisory responsibilities.
Supervisory Harassment Prevention Training is Key
Failing to train your supervisors put your organization at needless risk, and for no good reason. It's a simple fact that no organization can afford to have people in supervisory positions who are not properly trained regarding sexual harassment prevention, or who don't understand the risk management role that they must play as members of the management team.
Everyone who manages employees must be properly trained to recognize and stop harassing workplace behaviors and to handle assertions inappropriate behavior in an appropriate manner. Managers must know the facts about what harassment is, how to recognize it, and what their responsibilities are. It's much better to provide your company's supervisors with the training they need to prevent problems from arising than to deal with allegations of harassment that have been improperly handled after the fact.
