5 Ways to Prevent Sexual Harassment and Retaliation

Sexual harassment at work remains in the national spotlight. Organizations have a legal responsibility to protect employees from sexual harassment and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An effective prevention plan includes clear Code of Conduct guidelines, awareness training and leadership modeling best practices to make it undeniably clear that an organization has a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment and retaliation.
Sexual harassment and the threat of retaliation creates a hostile work environment and allows misconduct to continue and wrongdoers to go unpunished. If employers fail to take complaints of sexual harassment seriously, or fail to act against retaliatory behavior, it opens the door to costly lawsuits and penalties.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 38% or women and 14% of men have reported experiencing sexual harassment at work. However, in industries such as restaurant and hospitality, 9 in 10 women say they have been sexually harassed. Yet, 70% of people never complain internally due to a fear of retaliation.