We can’t eliminate stress from the workplace - it’s a natural part of having a job. While the ideal environment is to have reasonable pay for reasonable hours, we can’t just remove the fact that sometimes certain aspects of our job descriptions can be hassling. We may have to deal with less-than-favorable clients, or even deal with traffic and the commute. And while we might find solace and calm with co-workers who should be our partners-in-crime, sometimes it’s with these co-workers that we experience bad things. These can potentially ruin our perception of the workplace, which can have detrimental effects not just to our work at large, but also to our mental health.
Unfortunately, as managers, we don’t necessarily have the capacity to keep track of how our employees interact with each other. And sometimes harassment cases don’t immediately get noticed because of hesitation and other outside factors. Thankfully, we don’t necessarily have to let these harassment cases go unnoticed, and we can equip our HR team with the means to help. How, though?
- Provide your employees with the resources they need to file complaints. One of the most important things your HR can do to employees is to remind them that they have the tools they need in the case of employee misconduct. If this is lacking, then perhaps you and your HR can meet to clarify particular rules, regulations, and other essential things of consideration for a manual to protect employees from harassment.
- Your HR team can create a comprehensive employee handbook or employee manual that details the protocols when dealing with harassment cases. This book can elaborate on what should be done on certain situations, and the potential penalties for cases.
- Your HR can orient employees into protocol they should do when experiencing harassment. This means advising employees to document their experience of harassment, formally reporting the issue to their supervisor or the HR (depending on the nature of the harassment), and to do other specified protocols.
- Create the institution to protect employees from harassment. Aside from having an HR department, you might want to think of creating a position or a set of positions that might be able to help employees in times of harassment. This is especially useful in larger companies that might have a small HR team to handle large departments.
- Some companies might consider having an Equal Employment Opportunity officer or assigned personnel in charge of employee safety and ethics in separate departments. This allows you to ensure that everyone in their departments is well-accounted for, and that someone from HR is specifically in charge of ensuring their safety in the workplace.
- If you’re unsure as to what sort of positions you need, you can consider talking with local officials in order to establish offices and the right protocols you need to protect your employees from harassment. Organizations like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other labor departments exist to ensure such instances.
- If you don’t think your local labor departments can help you, you can also seek help from your legal counsel in order to get recommendations as to what you should do to better protect your employees from different forms of harassment. Have your HR team work with your company lawyers in order to adjust necessary aspects of your employee handbook and other protocols to better protect them.
- Have a comprehensive storage of information and records. Part of your responsibility as the owner of your company or as manager of your team is to ensure your company has a record of all cases that have been handled by HR and the procedures taken to ensure the resolution of these problems. This ensures everyone in the HR team has a reference they can use when solving cases, and that you have a basis for changes and adjustments to your employee manual should there be a need for it.
- Having a comprehensive data bank or information storage can ensure there’s protocol in place to formally gather and store information on harassment cases. This can be especially helpful in litigation cases, especially when employees decide to take their complaints to court.
- Having a means to properly store information on harassment cases also ensures you’ll be building proper documentation and protocol for filing and storing information on these cases. Ensuring your database for this is protected and encrypted can also show your employees your desire to protect them from harassment cases.
- Having a reference for harassment cases allows you to be able to monitor the frequency of these harassments. This allows you to be able to spot relevant trends, or even spot unlikely sources of these problems that you can stop should you find the source.
- Ensure your HR team has training in handling these cases. Human resources personnel have training in a wide variety of employment situations, and not all of them are trained to handle harassment cases. It’s important to ensure your HR team has such a training in order to ensure the safety of your employees.
- Train your managers and supervisors, as well as the entire HR team, to take complaints seriously. When these cases are investigated properly, and staff sees this as such, your employees will be more proactive when it comes to ensuring proper behavior across all departments. If necessary, invest in resources such as online chat systems or providing mobile data for the HR team to help them talk to employees, in order to help ensure their safety.
- Train your HR team as to how to protect your employees as well. Protocols need to be in place on your HR team’s end in order to ensure they know exactly how to handle harassment cases when they’re raised to your team.
Harassment in the Workplace: Completely Solvable
With the above tips in mind, it helps to remember that solving workplace harassment is something you can do - especially with the right HR team. Remember, solving harassment and protecting your employees from cases of harassment is a team effort. Not only do you have to equip your HR team with the tools to help your employees, but you need to remind supervisors, managers, and your employees of company policies. With these elements in mind, hopefully you’ll be able to have a stronger HR team to deal with problems of harassment in the workplace.
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