Dealing With Harassment in the Workplace: HR Version

By Daniela Ibarra

Harassment HR Responsibilities

As an experienced HR professional, you may be very familiar with an employer’s responsibilities regarding sexual harassment. However, you have legal responsibilities as well.

First of all, you are responsible for enforcing a sexual harassment policy in your organization. This policy should be preferably in writing, and should be circulated to all employees. Doing this will help you and your employer communicate the rules and limitations concerning sexual harassment in the workplace.

Second, you want to make sure that your employer is doing everything it needs to ensure a harassment-free work environment. This can be accomplished by providing sexual harassment training to employees, managers and supervisors.

Last but not least, build an environment of trust in the workplace. Employees should feel confident enough to raise any concerns to their supervisors regarding sexual harassment and trust that they will be addressed properly. This should be a top priority for your employer.

Doing these three things will keep your organization stay compliant with EEOC regulations regarding hostile work environments. But wait, this is not the only type of sexual harassment!

Reporting harassment complaints

In some cases, the supervisor may be the offender. This may be a classic “quid pro quo” case, in which the employer is responsible for harassment by a supervisor that culminated in a tangible employment action.

Note, this is an important point. Employees are encouraged but not required to report a harassing behavior to their immediate superiors. Similarly, they are encouraged but not required to try and resolve the matter directly with the harasser.

Regardless, supervisors should be instructed to keep records of and report all complaints of harassment to the appropriate officials. But we will explore more about a supervisor’s responsibilities in the next post.

Sexual harassment may be prevalent in the workplace. But it doesn’t have to be prevalent in your workplace!

Enjoy a 1-minute preview of “Bullying & Other Disruptive Behavior: for Managers & Supervisors” below:

Daniela Ibarra researches and writes on a variety of business topics, including workplace dynamics, HR strategies, and training trends and technology.