What Constitutes Harassment?

Aside from not engaging in this unacceptable behavior, it is critical for employees to understand what constitutes sexual harassment. According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment.

Specifically, this applies when submission to or rejection of this conduct:

• Explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment;
• Unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance; or
• Creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.

Averting Sexual Harassment

One of the best ways to avert a sexual harassment suit is to know what's involved. Be aware, for example, of the circumstances that characterize sexual harassment. You should know that sexual harassment is gender blind. That is, either the victim or the harasser could be male or female, nor does the victim necessarily have to be of the opposite sex. Anyone can be a harasser — a supervisor, an agent of the employer, a supervisor at another location, a colleague, or even a no employee who has contact with your employees.

In addition, even those who are not directly affected can be "victimized" by the harassment; a victim could simply be an individual who is affected in some way by the offensive behavior, which, in order to be classified as sexual harassment, must be unwelcome.

Ideally, the harasser must be told from the start that his or her conduct is unacceptable, unwelcome, and must stop immediately. Of course, many victims are intimidated by their harasser and worry (rightly so in some situations) that by expressing their disapproval the behavior will continue or perhaps worsen. Sometimes harassers threaten their victims, claiming, for instance, that their jobs could be in jeopardy if they report the harassment. This is one reason why employees must have easy access to an employer complaint mechanism or grievance system.

Take Any Complaint Seriously

The best way to eliminate the problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Any harassment policy must state clearly that sexual harassment will not be tolerated and if it does occur, those responsible will face serious consequences. If sexual harassment is occurring in the workplace, it is imperative that the employer act quickly and appropriately by investigating the complaint.

Depending on the nature of the complaint and whether or not it is a repeat offense, employers must be prepared to initiate disciplinary action or termination of employment for the offender. All complaints should be taken seriously. Employees who want to initiate a complaint should know what steps are necessary to initiate the process. Including those steps in the policy will help employees who need to launch a complaint but are unsure of where to begin.

In addition, your human resources department should consider yearly training workshops to educate employees on sexual harassment in the workplace. This kind of structured venue may make it easier for employees to raise issues they may otherwise keep to themselves.

Implementing a sexual harassment policy sends two critical messages: first, that the company acknowledges the fact that inappropriate behavior does in fact occur, and second, that this behavior will not be tolerated.