Sexual harassment prevention can be defined as the measures and strategies organizations take to protect their workforce against all forms of violence and harassment. This is done to create a safe work culture and promote mutual respect and a supportive environment for employees.
measures can organizations implement to mitigate sexual harassment in the workplace
Although many think employees can easily identify sexual harassment, this is not always the case. The obvious ones are easily identifiable but the subtle ones, such as comments about physical appearance, flirting, and cyberbullying, are not easily identifiable and sexual harassment prevention strategies are not easy to develop. This is why sexual harassment training should be a part of your anti-harassment strategy.
As per statistics, 32% of employees were unaware of the fact that jokes could also constitute sexual harassment. This is exactly why training is important to get your employees on the same page about what constitutes harassment.
While no organization wants to believe that sexual harassment in the workplace could be an issue for them, the sad reality is that sexual harassment has a far-reaching impact. Reports in the media seem to occur almost daily as one company or prominent individual at a time becomes the focus of coverage that can do great damage to their brands—from both a customer and employee standpoint—among other devastating impacts.
No company is immune to the need to create and maintain a workplace that is free of harassment. Unfortunately, sexual harassment at work has been an issue for decades despite a simultaneous corporate focus on providing training and implementing policies about harassment. The sad truth is that most of what companies have historically done to battle harassment just hasn’t worked. Worse, in some cases, the sexual harassment prevention training that is being provided is doing more harm than good.
