Last week the EEOC held a public meeting on “Steps to Transform Workplace Culture to Prevent Harassment.” The consensus was that employers best accomplish this through a “holistic approach.”
Those are fancy words. But what precisely can you do to address harassment?
I’ve got five big takeaways from the meeting:
David Bowman, a partner at the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, testified about the importance of “routine culture assessments” and training as a best practice for employers to combat workplace harassment and discrimination.
What goes into conducting a culture assessment?
Rob Buelow, vice president, EVERFI, addressed the “public health model.” According to Mr. Buelow, this involves three levels of prevention, all of which can be applied to address workplace issues like harassment and discrimination:
Mr. Buelow stressed that “organizations should be actively shifting the balance to prioritize primary prevention (or stopping concerning behavior before individuals are harmed).”
Christine Porath, associate professor, Georgetown University, McDonough School of Business, was asked to offer “information on civility, how it’s tied to harassment, how training in civility can be used to address and prevent harassment, and how social networking analysis can be used as a tool to assess civility.”
Concluding that there is a direct correlation between an increase in workplace civility and a decrease in harassment, Professor Porath explained that civility training “tends to focus on the positive – what employees and managers should do to build a workplace where people feel respected and valued (rather than on what they should not do).”
SEIU United Service Workers West is a union that represents subcontracted security officers, airport workers and over 25,00 janitors throughout the state of California. At the public meeting, Alejandra Valles, secretary-treasurer of USWW, shared how “for the last three years, immigrant women janitors have been breaking their silence and saying Ya basta to End Rape on the Night Shift by changing the culture of the industry from the bottom up.”
This prompted a “look within” and a six-part plan:
Finally, Anne Wallestad, president & CEO, BoardSource, shared her experience with an eye towards strengthening nonprofit leadership at the highest level – the board of directors. She stressed that “the board has not only an opportunity, but a responsibility, to ensure that the organization treats employees fairly and appropriately, that it is in compliance with all relevant laws, and that issues of harassment are being addressed.”
To address workplace harassment, Ms. Wallestad suggested focusing on “two levers: organizational policies and proper CEO oversight.”
Regarding policy-setting, the board must be comfortable with the organization’s policies and practices related to:
She noted that the board should proactively ask questions like:
Finally, she recommended that boards implement an “evaluation process” that includes some or all of the following inputs:
Hopefully, some of these ideas either resonate or complement efforts that your business has taken to combat workplace harassment. If you’d like to learn more, here is a link to more from the EEOC public hearing, including witness testimony, bios, and (eventually) a video from the hearing.
This article originally appeared on The Employer Handbook blog.
