Sexual Harassment and Your Business: Time to Get Serious
Sep 12, 2023
Recently a story dominated the headlines – the continued fallout from the Spanish football president kissing one of the Spanish World Cup winners on the lips.
It developed into quite the saga – the president digging his heels in, people resigning left, right and centre, and the courts getting involved to investigate whether his actions constituted sexual assault.
It’s been a fast-moving story, and no doubt there’ll be more twists and turns in between this article publishing and you reading it, but the main takeaway from us at J Mann Associates is this:
It’s time to take this stuff seriously.
The world has changed, and is continuing to change, and while incidents like this were often brushed off or swept under the carpet two decades ago, that’s no longer the case.
And for at least two reasons – doing the right thing and keeping your business thriving into 2024 and beyond – it’s time to sit up, pay attention and ensure that you don’t become a victim of the changing landscape of employment.
We don’t have a ‘one size fits all’ answer of what you need to do in order to protect your employees and your business, but here are a few clear places to start:
Clear policies
Do your company policies make your stance on harassment plain? Do employees have access to these policies? Do you even have any policies?!
Dealing with issues
Have you got a blueprint for how you’d deal with any potential sexual harassment or assault case? Do you know what you need to do and when?
Company culture
Have you examined your company culture, and are you ensuring that questionable behaviour is not tolerated?
The above are all big questions, but they are really important ones to answer. If you’re struggling to answer them, then we need to talk, ASAP.
The importance of having the right processes and policies in place at every stage cannot be stressed enough.
When disputes arise, even when you feel you are in the right, if you haven't followed the correct process you can end up getting burned.
This is why ensuring your company has a rock solid foundation built on employment law is key.
If you haven’t the foggiest idea what the process is, or should be, you need to take action – ignorance is no excuse.
Reach out to us to start protecting your people and your business better.
Need some help with ensuring your processes are up to scratch?
We help clients all over the UK with their HR.
Give us a call on 01980 622167 or email us at [email protected] and we’ll have a free, chat about your situation.
Do you need help with your people management?
Whether you’ve got a specific HR query, you need your HR foundations in place, or you’re looking to build on those foundations and create a team that can function without you, we’d love to talk about how we can help you make it happen.
Give us a call on 01980 622167, or click below to book a call.
