Take Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Seriously!
If peace of mind and financial freedom is important to your company, then it’s vital to take sexual harassment in the workplace seriously. If your company chooses not to, you could be on the hook for millions upon millions of dollars stemming from a lawsuit.
What is Sexual Harassment in the Workplace?
Don’t worry! By just taking sexual harassment in the workplace seriously, you can cover your company’s back more than one would expect. To do so properly, you’ll need to have a deep understand of what exactly constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace.
Sexual harassment in the workplace is any type of sexual discrimination that violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Generally, this means all unwelcome sexual advances, sexual favors being requested, and most verbal or physical conduct that stems from sexual nature and occurs in the workplace.
How Your Company Can Handle It
Now that you understand a bit about sexual harassment in the workplace, it’s important to note how it can affect your company. Businesses, even small to medium sized ones, have been forced to pay millions upon tens of millions in sexual harassment lawsuits.
While many of these cases combined sexual harassment with negligence, some didn’t. And the court often holds companies responsible for the actions of the employee in question when dealing with these cases. Thus, it’s vital that every business protects themselves from such lawsuits.
Your company cannot do so fully. Employees are human, and as such, they have free will. However, you can limit any losses through education, policies and proactive measurements to ensure negligence cannot occur.
To start, you’ll want to hire a lawyer to help you draft out a proper sexual harassment policy that will ensure you fight for your employee’s rights, protect employees, and keep your back covered. Mandatory sexual harassment training for all employees has also been found to be helpful for many companies.
Next, you’ll want to have a procedure in place to handle any and every sexual harassment complaint. This procedure must be followed quickly and by the book receives any time a complaint. If not, you will leave your company vulnerable in the court of law.
By creating policies, offering mandatory sexual harassment training to all employees and quickly acting on a complaint and following procedure – you will limit your company’s vulnerabilities in the court of law if a case were to pop up.
The Best Sexual Harassment Lawyers in Kansas City
If you’re dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, whether you’re a company or an employee, and you’re in the Kansas City metro area or St. Louis metro ares – we can help you. At Hollingshead, Paulus, Eccher & Fry, we strive to be the premier sexual harassment lawyers in KC. We look forward to helping you through a troubling time or keeping you prepared.
