What To Do About Sexual Harassment

What To Do About Sexual Harassment
Sam R. Lloyd, M.B.A.

Many organizations have some employees who behave in ways that can be de-scribed as sexual harassment! Few organizations seem to know what to do about the problem.

The problem can be costly – lawsuits can be very expensive and employees who are victims of harassment often quit their jobs and turnover is expensive. Sometimes, the harasser must be terminated and this costs money, too. If the termination is not handled skillfully, it can result in a lawsuit for wrongful termination – more expense! Morale is affected negatively, which lowers productivity and this costs money!

What can be done about this widespread problem?

Many organizations provide annual anti-sexual training programs but they have little impact on the behavior of the harassers. Why? Too often, the training is much too brief. One or two hours of looking at slides with information about fed-eral and state laws and the organization’s policies followed by a video demon-strating the prohibited behavior is not likely to produce behavior change!

Even longer programs tend to emphasize what not to do rather than teaching people what to do instead! A more effective approach is to provide training for all employees about how to interact with others (coworkers, managers, direct re-ports, customers) in ways that are appropriate and effective. Such training must be focused on what to do, how to do it, and must include practice to help people develop some skill. This means devoting more than just a few hours!

All supervisors and managers (some of the worst harassers are executives and managers!) should participate in the training and they need to be trained in how to deal with the problem when their employees are the ones behaving inappropriately. Supervisors and managers also need to develop coaching and counseling skills to help them confront unacceptable behavior and do it skillfully enough to result in behavior change.

Too often, supervisors and managers tell the harassment victim to be more ac-cepting of the harasser’s behavior and then do nothing about the problem! Most have received no training in how to confront problem behavior, how to handle defensive responses of employees who are confronted, how to get a real commitment for change, how to provide positive reinforcement when the employee does make an effort to improve. Because they have not been taught how to do these things, they just don’t do them!

It may not be possible to eliminate sexual harassment because human beings have lots of dysfunctional behavior and psychological issues, but we can greatly reduce the problem by attacking from both directions – training for all employees (top to bottom) in how to interact appropriately and respectfully and training for all supervisors and managers in how to manage relationships with their employees rather than looking the other way!

Sam R. Lloyd is President of SuccessSystems, Inc., a training and coaching firm based in Boulder, CO. He is the author of five books, including Accountability: Managing for Maximum Results and Leading Teams: The Skills for Success. His firm provides Respectful Relationships training and Coaching Skills for Better Performance Management for organizations of all types. Both programs are also available as public seminars occasionally. For more information visit www.trainingforsuccess.com .


About Us: SuccessSystems, Inc. designs and delivers training for all kinds of organizations and provides personal coaching. In business since 1977, we have helped hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of people improve their success.

Contact Info: Sam Lloyd or Tina Berthelot
SuccessSystems, Inc.
"Training & Coaching People To Excel"
P. O. Box 18208
Boulder, CO 80308
Email: succsyst@peakpeak.com
Website: www.trainingforsuccess.com


Additional:

Company: SuccessSystems, Inc.

Country: United States

Contact: Sam Lloyd or Tina Berthelot

Website: www.trainingforsuccess.com

Bus E-Mail: succsyst@peakpeak.com

Phone: 303-998-0248