Why is harassment detrimental to an organization

One of the principal means of combating and preventing workplace harassment is an effective prevention-based harassment training program. Supreme Court rulings have established a clear precedent that companies could reduce their risk of liability by establishing sexual harassment training and reporting policies.

The effects of sexual harassment in the workplace and associated litigation can present a clear, and present danger to your business.

By being proactive, instituting sound policy and offering comprehensive sexual harassment prevention training , you can reduce the likelihood of workplace sexual harassment even occurring. EVERFI designs global ethics and compliance courses that educate employees on important skills relating to harassment, diversity, security and culture. Best practices, the latest research, and breaking news, delivered right to your inbox.

Look out for our next newsletter, coming soon. Skip to content Contact us: Home Insights Blog. Do you know how much harassment could be costing your company? Calculate now. Download Free. Das, A. Sexual harassment at work in the United States. Di Marco, D. Be friendly, stay well: the effects of job resources on well-being in a discriminatory work environment.

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Expanding the latter finding, we also find that people see a sexual harassment claim as more indicative of a culture problem than a bad apple problem — even compared to a claim of fraud. So how should companies address that perceived culture problem? After participants either did or did not read that an employee had made a sexual harassment claim against her manager, we asked them whether they thought the company should hire more women or more men moving forward. We found that people want organizations who face a sexual harassment claim to hire more women and less men.

Moreover, the less gender equitable they perceive the company to be and the more they perceive there to be a fundamental culture problem, the more women they think that organization should hire. Beyond the question of whether or not hiring more women is an effective way to redress a sexist culture, these results show that the general public perceives it as a reasonable way of coping with the unfair treatment of women at companies.

To test this, we had participants read about different organizational responses to a harassment claim. What we found is that when an organization is responsive that is timely, informative, and considerate toward the victim rather than minimizing that is slow, dismissive, and discouraging toward the victim when it comes to a claim, this can circumvent public backlash, almost to the same level as an organization that has had no sexual harassment claim at all.

These findings answer some of the key questions that organizations confronted with sexual harassment face. Therefore, next steps would involve replicating these findings using a variety of different samples.