(Newswire.net — March 4, 2020) — A workplace environment is supposed to be safe and secure; not just physically, but also in psychological and emotional ways that would stimulate the staff. If there is even a slight breach of these, both the staff and management could suffer damages. Office harassment can take so many forms, and although sexual harassment happens to get the most attention, there are others that are more common and are actually as serious as, and equally reprehensible as sexual harassment.
Practical examples include harassments for reasons such as religion, race, sexual orientation, gender stereotyping, and then physical and verbal or mental harassments. Thus, as efforts are intensified in making jobs and their environments safer, there is a need to introduce new, more efficient, and actionable solutions in handling workplace harassment.
Both staff and management need to understand office or workplace harassment for the simple reason that it can negatively impact their careers and businesses in unimaginable ways if not prevented or properly addressed.
Reporting a case of misconduct in the workplace could be tricky if there are no modalities in place to ensure the safety and welfare of the victim (or complainant if you want) when they make a report. Cases abound, of junior staff, being afraid to report a direct senior over a case of harassment because of a shaky or totally-absent welfare structure, knowing that it could backfire on them. This makes it the critical role of the employer to provide safe channels through which employees can seek safety from bullying colleagues, prevent harassment and/or get redress for the wrongs they suffered, and also to ensure that their employees are aware and compliant with the modalities.
Any tool or solution employed in checkmating workplace harassment should cover four basic purposes; to help employees to report correctly, to help the HR staff collect enough data and to adequately prepare for, and prevent potential harassment problems, to ensure the smoothness of the compliance process, and finally to help the HR team align with the company’s D&I.
In our age of scientific explosion, more businesses are turning to technologically-driven solutions that can provide the above-described objectives together within a package; not only is this safer and more effective, it also saves time and funds spent on gathering data concerning cases, keeping track of reported cases and leveraging the information recovered to prevent any future occurrence.
Several new software are being used by HR staff in top companies to ease the handling of workplace harassment issues. Google, for example, after its 2018 Walkout crisis, took steps to make it easier for employees to report harassment and discrimination of every kind. These steps include the opening of an internal website for employee complaints, and also the launching of an Investment Care program for staff. This is one good example of how new solutions can emerge from leveraging modern technology to handle work-related harassment and discrimination. Software solutions will not only benefit employees but will also allow management staff to have a more efficient way of handling the whole process.