“Sexual harassment is degrading, inappropriate and embarrassing and has absolutely no place in the modern workplace. This article considers some practical ways of dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace from the organisational perspective.

Adopt a Clear Sexual Harassment Policy.

Any organisation will have a general policy about how employees should behave in the workplace, but a specific sexual harassment policy is becoming an increasingly popular means of communicating clearly to the workforce that inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature, towards colleagues will not be tolerated. Remember sexual harassment whether in a verbal or physical form is a violation of another persons intimate space, which should never occur in the workplace. Organisations should strive to create a safe respectful working environment for staff.

Encourage Reporting

It is the organisation’s responsibility to encourage staff to report incidents of sexual harassment by making the process accessible to all and by being approachable and dealing allegations in a sensitive and confidential manner. Some organisations worry that this inflates sexual harassment incidents, but the reality is that very few employees would report such a serious matter unduly, although it can happen. However, fostering a culture where staff are actively encouraged to report incidents will quickly encourage staff to think before they speak or act in a sexually inappropriate way.

Take Allegations Seriously

It can be a difficult and anxious experience for a member of staff to bring an allegation of sexual harassment to the attention of their employer. Often employees have to overcome a number of internal barriers to do this including concerns about how they will be perceived by staff for reporting an incident and concerns about the effect reporting sexual harassment might have on their long term career within the organisation. All these are real fears for an employee and it is exceptionally rare for an employee to report a sexual harassment incident just for the sake of it. As such the organisation’s response should always be one of taking the allegation seriously and providing support to the alleged victim to make it easier for them to discuss what has happened.

All allegations should be investigated thoroughly by staff who are trained to do so and should be reported to the police with the permission of the victim where required in more serious cases. Remember slapping or patting someone’s bottom or touching another person without the individual’s consent is considered an act of assault in the eyes of the law. As such it is important that the organisation does not try to cover up sexual harassment allegations in a vain attempt to safeguard its reputation.

Educate Staff

Organisations should seek to spend time producing and communicating information about sexual harassment and about what is deemed inappropriate behaviour. Policy documents concerning sexual harassment should be provided to all staff and followed up with presentations to communicate salient points. Get staff discussing the topic in small groups so that they can learn from each other why sexual harassment is inappropriate as peer learning is an effective learning strategy.

Organisations should use posters around the office to highlight inappropriate behaviour. These can be a very powerful tool as it allows staff to challenge inappropriate behaviour or comments easily by drawing the attention of staff to the posters. This often addresses issues quickly and easily and guilty staff are left in no doubt about the organisation’s attitude towards inappropriate behaviour, without it being seen as an individual employee just trying to cause a fuss. This approach takes the emphasis off the employee and places it firmly onto the organisation to create a safe respectful environment.

Suspend the Alleged Offender During Investigations

If an allegation of sexual abuse is bought to the attention of the organisation then always suspend the alleged offender. Whilst this may seem severe in the absence of actual proof, it is unfair to ask the victim to continue to work alongside the person who may have committed the sexual harassment. Suspending the alleged offender gives them time to reflect on what they have done, if they know they are guilty and send a clear message about the seriousness in which sexual harassment in the workplace is viewed. If they are later found to be innocent then they will have lost nothing as they can return to their post.

Never suspend or remove the victim from the workplace, unless they decide they don’t want to be there, as this sends out the message that if you report sexual harassment you will be punished. Alleged victims should never be punished for reporting an incident.

Appoint a Competent Investigator

It is never appropriate for an individual with daily involvement with either party to investigate a sexual harassment allegation. It should always be undertaken in a sensitive manner by a trained member of staff, ideally from the human resources department.

This article was written by J Dawkins who created Friends and Money in March 2007. His site is dedicated to providing reviews of paid survey, social networking, and cash back shopping communities. His aim is encourage visitors to Make Friends, Earn Money online.

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Tags: Ethical, problems, employer, harrasment, law

When it comes to alternative interpretations on a subject, it is interesting that many business ethics textbooks contain The Parable of the Sadhu, about how these Westerners wrestled with the implications of a freezing Indian mendicant Sadhu. In summary, the author had been beating himself up for years because on a trip to Nepal to climb in the Himalayan Mountains he and other climbers had come across a freezing mendicant lying exposed in the mountains. They revived him and left him in a hut, last seeing him throwing rocks at a dog. For years thereafter the author suffered from guilt, feeling that he should have helped to carry the Sadhu down to a village a two-day walk away.

What the story does not say, of course, is that the Sadhu had been exactly where he intended to be, doing what he intended to do, when suddenly these Westerners grabbed and manhandled him, and then turn his presence into some grave moral crisis for themselves. To top it off, they left him to be eaten by a dog; instead of dying peacefully on the mountain he gets to be torn to pieces and eaten. Not a very happy ending for the Sadhu.

This seems typical of interactions between Americans and the rest of the world. Nowhere did the Sadhu appear to have asked for anyone to help him. The author interprets the lesson of the Sadhu to be “In a complex corporate situation, the individual requires and deserves the support of the group.” The lesson I see, instead, is: Be careful around Westerners, they might grab you, manhandle you, and take you somewhere you have no interest in being taken, to be torn to pieces by dogs. A Syrian friend of mine sent me a picture of a bumper sticker apparently becoming common in the Middle East: “Be Nice to America–Or we’ll bring democracy to your country.”

The real question we should be asking ourselves, therefore, before getting involved in the internal affairs of other countries or the day-to-day affairs of other people, is whether what we propose to do going to help or harm the other people. If we assume the answer to that question, then we will continue to make the mistake made by the author of the Parable; that anything we do to someone else is justified because it is we who are doing it. I suggest that this presumption is itself unjustified and unjustifiable.

copyright (c) 2009 Paul Croushore

Paul Croushore, JD, LLM
Attorney at Law
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Tags: ethical, problems, employer, justice, law

If you polled a group of small business owners and asked them which two areas of their marketing they wish they could improve on to help drive more business, most would say:

- Increase my exposure within my chosen market

- Enhance my credibility within my chosen market

What if you could achieve both of these objectives without buying any advertising? You can, by getting free publicity for your business.

How the Media Works

The media is in business, just like you are. Their “product” is the information that they present on the 6 o clock news, or in the pages of their newspaper, or on their website.

Reporters create the media’s “product” by producing stories. To do this, they need experts to provide information and add credibility to their stories.

You are an “Expert”

Here’s the shocker for most people – you are an expert. Really.

The owner of an outdoors store is an expert on camping, tents, bug repellants, and campfire food, among other things.

A local toy store manager is an expert on what’s hot for the holiday season, educational toys for toddlers, the newest electronic games, and so on.

Whether you know it or not, you are probably an expert many times over in your chosen field in the eyes of the media and the public. And the media needs you to help them put their “product” together.

Getting Publicity Pays Off

Being part of a news story that involves your business is viewed by the market as an endorsement of sorts from the newspaper or TV station.

Publicity is generally viewed as more credible than advertising. In fact, an old industry rule of thumb is to consider any media appearances to be ten times more valuable than an equivalent amount of advertising.

3 Steps to Making Publicity Happen

So how do you take advantage of this significant small business marketing opportunity? It bears mentioning that you can approach a reporter with a story idea. Yes, they are busy people, but they answer the phone just like you or I. And if you’ve got a good story idea for them, you are helping them to create their product.

There are some simple guidelines to follow when trying to generate media coverage for your small business:

1 – Have a “hook” in mind –In preparing to contact a reporter with a story idea, it helps immensely to have a “hook” – that is, to show the reporter how your story idea somehow ties in with another newsworthy event that will make the story interesting and timely for a wide array of readers and viewers.

For example, have you noticed that just before the kids go back to school every year, the 6 o clock news is full of stories about school safety, back to school shopping, and so on? That’s because there’s an easy hook for those stories – the first day of school, which affects a wide range of viewers with children.

A local retailer selling school supplies has a huge opportunity to get the media’s attention in the days leading up to the start of school, since their story hooks into a newsworthy event. The same story just a few weeks later would have less of a hook – since the “back to school” frenzy would be a distant memory.

When looking for hooks for small business PR opportunities for your business, ask yourself a few simple questions:

- What’s new in your business, and why would people find this interesting?

- What’s happening in the world around you, and how does it affect your customers?

- What’s changing in your market, and who might the change have an effect on?

- How can you inform people about an aspect of your product/service that is poorly understood?

2 – Be Prepared with your Pitch – You should have a quick 30 second pitch worked out before contacting reporters – writing it down helps. Your pitch should get right into the idea, and tell the reporter how you can help them put the story together.

The easier you can make it for the reporter, the more likely you are to get coverage.

3 – Make the Call – Deliver your 30 second pitch. If the reporter doesn’t bite, ask them if they might be interested in another type of story that you could help with. If they don’t have any time for you right now, offer to email them your pitch, and move along. Some will call you back. Some won’t. Don’t be afraid to try the same reporter again with a different idea in a few weeks.

Your 15 Minutes is There for the Taking

Taking advantage of publicity opportunities could be the single most effective small business marketing tool you ever use. All that is required is some effort and the willingness to build a few good story ideas.

They say everyone gets 15 minutes of fame – maybe you should start turning your 15 minutes into credibility and increased business.

Will Dylan is a corporate marketing manager and author of Small Business, Big Marketing, one of the web’s most popular ebooks on marketing for small business owners. It is available for download at no charge from this site

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Tags: public relations, business, owner, employer, ceo