Sexual harassment is, unfortunately, still an issue in the workplace. With the rise of remote work, a lot of it now happens online. A survey of 1,000 U.S. employees TalentLMS and the Purple Campaign did during 2021 revealed 29 percent of employees had experienced unwelcome behavior over video calls, text messages, email or other online platforms since the start of the pandemic.
Workplace dynamics are clearly changing, which means we need to change our perspective as well. With more organizations reopening offices and welcoming back employees, now may be a great opportunity for investing in creating a strong antiharassment culture where all employees feel safe. That will start with implementing an effective workplace antiharassment training program.
Why the Way We’ve Been Handling Sexual Harassment Training Does Not Work Anymore
Today, only 17 U.S. states legally mandate employers to provide sexual harassment training to employees. Just six states extend that mandate to the private sector. Two things tend to happen as a result.
From the HR20/20 Report …
Equity and inclusion involves the ability to view the organization’s systems, understand how those systems impact various groups of people within the organization and make changes to bring about more equitable outcomes.
First, employers in the states where sexual harassment training is mandatory approach it as a box to check to remain in compliance. Second, employers in states where it is not mandatory opt to not offer it at all. When recruiting respondents for the TalentLMS and The Purple Campaign survey, 25 percent of people had to be screened out because their employers did not provide them with any sexual harassment training.
When so many organizations do nothing to raise awareness and address the widespread and persistent issue of sexual harassment in the workplace, employees lose trust in their employer’s ability to navigate such incidents.
Survey findings published by Zety in June 2021 show that 36 percent of workers would not go to human resources to report having experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. A further 38 percent would not report witnessing sexual harassment. Zety also cited a 2019 HR Acuity survey showing that nearly half (46 percent) of employees fear retaliation for reporting problems such as sexual harassment to HR. These numbers indicate unsafe and toxic work environments where sexual harassment incidents often go unreported and unchallenged.
But what of organizations that do offer training while approaching it through a compliance lens? More often than not, the sexual harassment training is delivered on an ad hoc basis, perhaps once or twice a year while recycling old material and using outdated terms. Most employees struggle to translate what they see and hear during the training to their everyday worklife, which renders the training ineffective.
Ways to Revamp Your Organization’s Antiharassment Training Program
The global pandemic ushered in a new era of work marked by remote teams, hybrid working environments, a digital revolution and higher employee turnover rates. While battling job burnout and uncertainty, employees need more than ever to see their employer take their emotional and physical safety into serious consideration. Building a strong antiharassment culture is a part of that.
Here are some steps to make your own sexual harassment training program more effective.
Address Ambiguity
What constitutes sexual harassment at work? The answer may not always be straightforward, and behaviors may be viewed differently by different people. In particular, there can be a marked difference between what male employees and female employees consider to be sexual harassment even when asked about the same situation. Among the respondents to the TalentLMS and The Purple Campaign survey, for instance, only 47 percent of men thought comments about someone’s gender identity or expression constitute sexual harassment. This compares with 73 percent of women who did think comments about someone’s gender identity or expression constitute sexual harassment. The first step for any successful antiharassment training program, then, is to ensure potential gray areas are properly addressed so people will know when they are experiencing or witnessing inappropriate behavior.
From the HR20/20 Report …
The culture of the organization is the key factor in determining how or if its goals and objectives can be achieved. As a result, the savvy HR professional will develop a deep understanding of the existing organizational culture and how it either supports or inhibits the objectives and basic strategies to drive organizational culture change.
Defining harassment is particularly important for those who are working remotely. As there are no bystanders to provide a third-party report, it is often difficult for employers to substantiate incidents of sexual harassment that happen online. Updating sexual harassment training to addresses ambiguous situations that occur in person and online can make a big difference.
Pay Extra Attention to Online Harassment
With almost one in three employees having experienced some sort of unwelcome behavior online since the rise of remote work, training staff on how to deal with online harassment is fundamental. Platforms like Slack, Zoom and Teams are here to stay, so their use should be taken into account when building a sexual harassment training program. Most importantly, employees need to see specific examples of harassing behavior that can occur online so they will know how to deal with it.
Update Training Materials to Reflect the Current State of the World
Particularly with members of Generation Z, who were born from 1997 onward, now joining the workforce in large numbers, any training videos or reading materials that have existed for more than a decade should probably be set aside. To keep employees engaged during sexual harassment training (and during any kind of training), materials need to reflect the world around them. At a minimum, training session content and the way it is distributed should reflect the revolutionary changes in technology and online work that have occurred over the past few years. Diversity and inclusivity also need to be at the core of an antiharassment training program.
Intersectionality should be addressed in particular, as people with marginalized identities face more challenges in the workplace every day. According to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey & Company, women of color, LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities are more likely to experience microaggressions as professionals. Almost half of lesbian and bisexual women are significantly more likely to feel uncomfortable sharing their challenges with colleagues. When designing a sexual harassment training program, ensure these issues are addressed in order to create an organizational culture in which everyone feels safe to be themselves.
Be More Preventive Instead of Reactive
Just conducting training is not enough. An organization needs to have a clear and straightforward antiharassment policy that is communicated across the board.
Learning how to spot harassment, to whom it should be reported and how such incidents are handled are all critical parts of a successful training program. But employees want to know more than how to react. They want to learn how to stop harassing incidents from happening in the first place. Creating a clear policy regarding what is not acceptable is the first step toward building a strong antiharassment culture that promotes prevention instead of reaction.
How Offering Antiharassment Training to Employees Makes a Difference
Sexual harassment training has an overwhelmingly positive effect on employees. It makes them feel more valued as individuals, more productive and more likely to stay with the organization. Receiving the training also makes it easier for employees to recognize what constitutes sexual harassment and understand how harassment should be reported and to whom.
Among respondents to the TalentLMS and The Purple Campaign survey who went through antiharassment training
- 90 percent are more aware of how to report an incident of sexual harassment,
- 70 percent are more likely to stay with their organization, and
- 61 percent are more productive in their role.
It is clear from these answers that building an effective antiharassment training program is not just beneficial for employees, but also for turnover rate and organizational growth in general.
A Final Note
When it comes to combating the problem of sexual harassment at work, there is still a long way to go. But educating organizational leaders and employees is a big step forward and needs to be a part of every employer’s yearly curriculum. Among all the respondents to the TalentLMS and The Purple Campaign survey, more than 75 percent of women and 85 percent of men feel safer at work after having received training. As the world reopens and employees head back to the office, we need to aim to make these numbers even higher.
01 November 2021
Category
HR News Article