Sexual harassment, or any form of harassment, in the workplace is not laughing matter.  Most organizations have done a great job of developing and instituting sexual harassment policies in the office and often send their employees to sexual harassment prevention training seminars.

And though the days of womanizing and chasing secretaries around the desk are more or less gone, subtle forms of unwanted harassment still occur in the workplace. A recent article on MSNBC, “Where ‘omg, u look gr8’ can land you in court”, details the subtler forms of sexual harassment which “include everything from flirtation at a company party to a complimentary text message or an unwelcome invitation to discuss the latest project over dinner or drinks.” As Jay Zweig, an employment lawyer with Bryan Cave, notes in article, “There’s been a new generation of confusion in this area.”

A few month’s ago we posted on another one of our blogs, DailyHRTips.com,an article that detailed 3 ways in which to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. They are:

• Create a zero tolerance sexual harassment policy that is fully supported by upper management and employees alike. Make sure this policy is communicated often (at least annually) throughout the organization.
  
• Provide training (ideally to all employees but certainly to supervisors) on recognizing and understanding the potential harm to themselves and the organization in sexual harassment. Additional training on the best practices of responding to or reporting allegations of sexual harassment may be needed (check if you state requires mandatory sexual harassment training).
• Encourage people who are victims of sexual harassment, both male and female, to come forward and report the incident – the only way to make it stop is to take action.

I want to focus on the two sentences in bold. These are two important elements necessary in the fight against sexual harassment and it is important for employers to provide the appropriate tools for employees to learn about and combat unwanted, inappropriate workplace behavior. Such a tool is Learning @… With Learning @… it is easy to communicate the organization’s policies with regards to harassment of any type (even subtle sexual harassment) as well as provide online training modules to all employees on how to prevent and report it if necessary.

If sexual harassment is a problem within an organization it can make many quality employees feel degraded and they may consider moving on to greener pastures. In addition, the associated legal costs, not to mention the negative publicity, could severely damage a company’s bottom line and public image. For all parties involved, using an online employee learning tool such as Learning @… is a smart investment in combating sexual harassment in the workplace.