Tweet

Sexual Harassment Awareness Increases, But Risks Still Abound

Written by: Ari Rosenstein

Article Overview: Following the highly publicized lawsuit brought last year against Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks, sexual harassment has once again reared its ugly head. Despite strides to reduce harassment in the workplace, employers must still do more to educate themselves and their staff. Professional HR consulting and outsourcing firms such as CPEhr provide such a solution.

Sexual Harassment Awareness Increases, But Risks Still Abound

The highly publicized sexual harassment lawsuit brought against Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks has once again drawn attention to this complex legal, and emotional, issue. The $11.6 million punitive award granted to Anucha Browne Sanders, a former marketing executive for the Knicks, sends a powerful message to all employers that sexual harassment will not be tolerated.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Sexual Harassment is defined as, “Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitute sexual harassment when this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.”

The gates holding back this oft-hidden and under-publicized problem were shattered sixteen years ago following the historic testimony of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings in 1991. The televised hearings brought sexual harassment into the public eye to such a degree that many feminist groups considered Anita Hill to be the mother of gender discrimination awareness. In a recent article, Hill reflects how the population’s attitude has changed since that time, in light of the response she received following the Sanders/Knicks verdict:

* “In the days after the hearing, I received thousands of supportive letters, the overwhelming majority of which were from women who identified personally with my testimony. Many men who wrote characterized sexual harassment as the fantastic, vengeful invention of disgruntled employees or spurned lovers.
* “Four women and three men made up the federal jury that concluded that the harassment Browne Sanders suffered warranted $11.6 million in punitive damages. On the day of the verdict and in response to Clarence Thomas's renewed challenges to my 1991 testimony, I received hundreds of supportive e-mails and calls from around the country. To my surprise, about 50 percent of those responses came from men who through their own observations or the stories told them by their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters understand the problem and its harm.” (The Boston Globe, October 15, 2007)


Despite Strides, Harassment Lawsuits Continue to Rise

Despite great strides to combat sexual harassment over the past decade, the problem continues to plague the workplace, as the recent case illustrates. Over two and a half years ago, commencing January 1, 2005, a California Assembly Bill (AB 1825), was signed into law requiring all California employers with 50 or more employees to provide two hours of sexual harassment training for supervisors, managers and lead employees every 24 months. Employers also have a responsibility under California law to provide workplace harassment prevention training to non-supervisory employees as well. However, that very same year, the EEOC received close to 13,000 charges of sexual harassment, with the average costs recovered in monetary benefits increasing dramatically. In 2006, total monetary compensation paid out in sexual harassment related cases exceeded $48.8 million, which was 31% higher than the $37.1 million paid out in 2004.

While common wisdom, and the law, would dictate employers would begin training their staff on proper behavior in the workplace, the reality doesn’t match up. According to a recent study by TrainRight Solutions, 41 percent of U.S. employers still don’t provide preventive training for sexual harassment, with cost the leading factor for ignoring education in this area.

“I believe that figure is probably close, but still a little low,” says Linda Robinson, Training Manager for CPEhr, a Califonia-based HR Consulting Firm. “In the past, I have run across many excuses for an employer to hesitate or turn down an opportunity to provide training. Some include lack of budget; a belief that this will not or does not occur in their work environment; and the fear that a new awareness among employees will encourage rather than prevent lawsuits.”

Sexual Harassment Training Solutions

The Supreme Court deems training “essential” and the EEOC guidelines state that it is the responsibility of all employers to train all employees. Respect in the workplace, when properly demonstrated, can not only boost employee moral and productivity, but can greatly reduce the potential liabilities of an employer. Legal experts agree that the more pro-active an organization, the more likely they will reduce their employment liabilities.

Robinson’s company CPEhr, like many other HR consulting and outsourcing firms, provides answers and assures employers that taking preventive measures is the right approach. Helping companies establish appropriate policies and deal with complex sexual harassment issues is key to minimizing employer risk.

“CPEhr is dedicated to assisting employers in providing and maintaining a safe environment,” said Robinson. “This is accomplished through several means, including review and updating of policies, handbooks and other materials, free training, and other supervisory developmental training programs.”

The most popular of all CPEhr’s Management Training Courses is the topic of Unlawful Harassment. All clients are provided training as per the law requires, and many more request additional trainings to further educate their staff. A comprehensive Sexual Harassment training course should cover the following topics:

* The laws that prohibit unlawful harassment in the workplace
* Specific forms of harassment
* How to prevent harassment and hostile environments
* Identify retaliation and why it is illegal
* The rights and responsibilities of all staff members
* Consequences of harassment suits
* What to do in the even of a harassment charge
* How to conduct an investigation


The Future

It is unlikely that harassment in the workplace will disappear any time soon. While “Sensitivity Training” is becoming a common buzzword in the marketplace, employers are well-advised to implement a formal harassment prevention training program in their business. Recognizing the lack of internal resources in small companies, many HR firms are available to provide the proper training to satisfy the law, and educate the workforce. The growth of HR Consulting and Outsourcing has skyrocketed in the past years. While many factors have contributed to this trend, one leading consideration is the increased awareness surrounding harassment and other employment risks.

While at first glace it may appear that implementing sexual harassment guidelines may be costly, employers should recognize the higher expenses related to fines or penalties for an ill-educated workforce. And aside from protecting the business for lawsuits, training the staff on preventing unlawful harassment is just the right thing to do.

Related Articles
  Understanding the Importance of Supervisory Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
  Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
  Sexual Harassment victim wins $100,000 in damages
  SEXUAL HARASSMENT – THE CAREER KILLER
  The Benefits, and Obligations, of Unlawful Harassment Training

Article Tags: hr administration, human resources, sexual harassment



Related Forum Posts
Willing to Fail Your Way to Success - Entrepreneurs in my opinion, must be willing to fail. (This is that risk-taking factor quoted in the other post). If you aren't willing to fail then you don't take risks and if you don't take risks you do I like to call (I am qouting an awesome book called Play to Win!) 'Playing Not to Lose' instead of 'Playing to Win'. When you Play to Win you must risks. Risks are how you build a business and innovate.
Starting a New Business - Congratulations on the first step of deciding to create your own business. First, you have to ascertain if you are going to be selling your products or services to people or to businesses. People purchase products and services for three basic reasons: •To satisfy basic needs •To solve problems •To make themselves feel good. You have to determine which of these three categories your product or service is the solution to. Businesses, unlike individuals, buy products and services for three reasons as well: •To increase revenues •To maintain the status quo •To decrease expenses. Knowing the reasons why people/businesses buy, you should have a picture emerging of who you think your "Target Market" (or ideal customer) is. Once you have zeroed in on your solution, you are ready to create your Marketing Strategy. If you look at any company that has grown rapidly over the past few years, (i.e. WestJet and Starbucks), it should demonstrate to you the importance of Marketing. In simple terms these companies have: •Clearly defined what makes them different; •Who their ideal customer is; •How to reach them; •Why customers should buy from them; •And most importantly why customers should come back again. It is strong Marketing Awareness that singles out the best companies. I can not stress enough how important it is to create a "living" Marketing Plan before you even start. I hope this helps a little in the creation of your plan. All the very best of luck. Remember: "A Goal without a Plan is just a Wish" Miles of Smiles, Marketing Maven
Run a major competition - You beat me to the punch LoveInventions! I was just on my way to post this! The idea is simple: run a competition for a major prize to get people posting. In this case Darren put up a $729 Nikon DSLR up for grabs as the top prize. The winner was selected randomly and each post you wrote gave you another chance to win. [quote:1nc4sv0r]The Goal - the aim of the exercise was simple. To sign up new members to my forum and increase page views. My hope was to have a bumper month but also get new members signed up to have an ongoing impact on overall activity going forward.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: Traffic - Over the full month traffic was increased 66.7%.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: New Members - Recruiting new members to the forum was another goal of the competition. We’d had an influx in January of 1803 new sign ups as a result of a previous smaller competition but since had been around the 1200 per month. April however saw a boost in numbers by an extra 2823 members.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r]Results: Activity - Another bonus related to increased traffic is the increases in user activity on the forum. Here’s the increase in new ‘threads’ to the forum (up from the 1500’s to just over 4000 for the month). And here is the increase in new posts (up from 1400 per month to over 43000 for the month).[/quote:1nc4sv0r] [quote:1nc4sv0r] The Downside So far it’s sounding fairly rosy isn’t it. Increases in traffic, members, activity and even earning are all good. However there was two downsides. 1. Moderation Workload - I have an amazing team of moderators to DPS but the month of April was the hardest that they’ve ever worked. I totally underestimated the extra load upon them in setting up this competition. It has made me reconsider how I run future competitions. 2. Impact upon Quality of Reader Interaction - over all the increased activity of the site brought in some wonderful new members who are interacting on the site with genuine interaction. However a small number of new members were just there for the competition - even though I made it clear that spammy entries wouldn’t win. This impacted moderators workloads but also the overall morale on the site a little. I think we managed to contain it but again - next time I run a competition it’ll not be based upon post numbers but rather some sort of quality level of interaction.[/quote:1nc4sv0r] What do you guys think? Is it worth testing out? Considering we already give out over $1,000 in month prizes, what would be the ultimate prize that we award at the end of the competition?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Log On

Google Panda and Your Search Engine Rankings

B2B PR – Planning for Success

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.