Now that you understand that harassment and discrimination are prohibited, here's what can you do to prevent improper behavior at work. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has said that preventative measures are among the most effective ways to fight workplace discrimination and harassment. Saying that, however, is easier than attaining it. Here are a few tips on the best way best to make a "friendly" workplace, where harassment and discrimination cease to exist.
* Establish an anti-discrimination and an anti-harassment policy which complies with state and federal laws. Provide the coverage to your employees, and be ready to abide by and enforce the policy.
* Invest some time and expense into diversity training and awareness. Various kinds of discrimination and harassment spring from ignorance. Educated employees, that are taught to respect different cultures, races, and genders might be less inclined to engage in harassing or discriminatory behavior.
* Inform supervisors and other managerial staff that they're under strict orders to immediately report to you any complaints of discrimination or sexual harassment they get or any acts of discrimination or harassment of which they know.
* Designate a managerial or personnel work to be responsible for getting discrimination and sexual harassment complaints. Inform your employees and managers that any complaints or queries should be directed to this person.
Records should include the names of people with whom you talked to and the gist of the conversations about the situation. If you request, or if anyone supplies, a written statement regarding the matter retain a copy of the statement. All information concerning the investigation ought to be kept in a central file.
* Keep levels of confidentiality and respond to harassment and discrimination claims in a discreet way. The alleged victim deserves to be spared further embarrassment and injury, and the accused parties (especially if they dispute the criticism ) deserve some privacy also. Restrict the dissemination of information regarding the complaint to people that are on a need-to-know basis.
* Do not dissuade or threaten employees who choose to seek the aid of a national or state human rights or worker rights commission or agency. They have a legal right to seek the counsel and help of the authorities, and if you attempt to keep them from seeking that help, or punish them if they do, you can face serious legal implications.
* Take into account the appropriateness of creating interim decisions, though your investigation is moving, to prevent further harassment. By way of example, you can't fire the accused harasser, or remove all his or her job duties while the investigation has been conducted. However, you might have the ability to move her or him to a different region of the workplace or alter their work hours so the victim and harasser don't have further, possibly harmful, vulnerability to one another.
* If you realize that harassment or discrimination has occurred, make the punishment for the accused fit the offense. By way of example, it could be appropriate to immediately terminate an employee who sexually assaulted another worker. However, it might not be suitable to fire a worker who brought one pornographic image into the office which was seen or given to a man who was offended by it. If you over-penalize a worker or under-penalize them, the rest of your workforce may get mixed messages about your commitment to appropriately and fairly manage matters of harassment and discrimination.
Note The punishment must aim the wrongdoer, not the victim. You may encounter legal issues if you try to reassign the victim, rather than the wrongdoer, even if the victim won't suffer a reduction in pay or benefits because of the reassignment.
* Take action to avoid future episodes of harassment and discrimination. Hold annual meetings with managers to remind them of their duties to report incidents of harassment or discrimination which they observe or are told about. Consider conducting an annual anonymous questionnaire for workers that asks whether they've undergone any discriminatory or harassing behavior in the last year. This questionnaire will let you have a better idea about what is occurring day-to-day with your business and will also show, if it be required in the long run, that you're aware of the possibility of improper workplace behavior and that you're taking measures to inform yourself about it and look for ways to stop it.
To put it differently, a guy can sexually harass another guy, and a woman can sexually harass another girl. Realize, too the sexual orientation of another individual probably makes little difference in arguing that harassment didn't occur. A heterosexual man can harass a heterosexual guy, or a heterosexual man can harass a gay man. The same is true for women, also.
* Above all, treat your colleagues with the respect that all people deserve, irrespective of their race, color, national origin, religion, gender or sexual orientation. Nobody can ask you to befriend that person, but your employer and the authorities can ask that you refrain from embarrassing, embarrassing, and making fun of the individual because he or they're different from you.
For more info please contact a wrongful termination lawyer.