By Missy Leflar, HR Director/ City of Fayetteville

The easiest way to avoid harassment accusations in the workplace is to treat everybody with respect. Since simple respect doesn’t always occur at work, there are laws to protect workers and penalties for those who do not comply.

Under federal laws, a court may find an employee or an employer liable for harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin/ethnic group, age (40+) or disability.

A court may likewise find an employer liable for retaliating against an employee for complaining of harassment or other forms of illegal discrimination.

Actionable harassment can occur in a variety of circumstances. For example, the harasser can be a supervisor, an agent, co-worker, or non-employee. It can be someone else’s employee with whom your employee comes into contact, such as a delivery person or someone dealt with when running a work-related errand.

Policies around harassment in the workplace should be in place no matter the size of your company. Here are the key elements to engage in your protocol.

• While employers want to avoid frivolous or false harassment claims, they should encourage employees to report genuine workplace harassment at the first sign, before it escalates. Employees should never be sent the message to not rock the boat, or be expected to tolerate harassment to keep their jobs.

• Train all employees as to whom they should report harassment. Provide more than one name, so the employee has options. Also include at least one person not in the supervisory chain in case the chain of command is the problem.

• Employees should be shown respect for their courage in reporting harassment, and the matter should be treated with confidentiality. Sometimes employees are so afraid of retaliation they will try to extract a promise that the matter “won’t go any further.” Encourage managers to be honest about the process and what actions will take place. Reassure the employee of the organization’s genuine concern.

• Reporting  (and discussion) should include only those who need to know about the matter. Witnesses should be interviewed, but expected to keep the matter confidential. All investigation files should be kept under lock and key.

• Harassed employees are typically already embarrassed and upset. It’s important to avoid gossip, which only makes things worse.

• Handle the matter properly and swiftly so it doesn’t become a long-standing unresolved issue, which can foster workforce morale problems. When your organization responds appropriately to a harassment complaint, any subsequent legal action concerning the matter will likely be defensible.

There are many benefits to an organization when it properly handles harassment complaints. Employees will be more likely to perceive that management cares, and may foster a culture of trust between management and non-management personnel.

Missy Leflar is the Human Resources Director for the City of Fayetteville and a member of NOARK.  Email your comments on this column to info@noark.org or mleflar@ci.fayetteville.ar.us.