Sexual Harassment in workplace: Combat Strategies

1. Introduction:

Tarun Tejpal editor of journalism magazine, Tehelka accused of attempting to rape a female colleague, a female physiotherapy intern beaten and gangraped in Delhi or even the infamous Phaneesh Murthy incident ; there have been umpteen examples of sexual harassment in workplace and it has been growing at a very high rate in the last few years. Though the government has stepped up to the task by enacting certain pieces of legislatures; the bigger question still remains, how to implement them in the organization.

Before going further let us look at the types of sexual harassment:-

Quid pro quo harassment

•  Equivalent to economic rape.
•  Can occur if a superior tries to force an employee for sexual advances in return of some benefit.

Hostile Work Environment

• It occurs when employee reasonable comfort level and ability to perform is hampered due to hostile work environment.
• In this case coworkers or even customers can cause it.

 

2. Problems faced by HR in addressing Sexual Harassment:

• The Definition: A harmless compliment like ‘I like your dress’, asking someone out for a coffee or even calling an employee inside a meeting room can be misconstrued in a very different way. The gray areas in the definition itself create confusion.

 

• Huge gaps in the law: Should a company stop internal investigation if a victim files a police complaint, what are rules for protecting women in extended workplace like office taxis and business trips, how to restore work relationship and reputation if accusation is proved false and can the law be extended to men or even the third gender- these are some of the pertinent question that the “Sexual Harassment of women at workplace” act of 2013 fails to answer.

 

• No protection for ICC members: The law mandates formation of an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to manage workplace harassment complaints. The ICC will largely constitute internal employees who may be influenced or subjected to humiliation by senior management in real life scenarios.

 

• How to maintain gender diversity: With new laws coming into effects, managers are now dreading stepping on the fine line that may result in another case of sexual harassment. As a result more and more companies are becoming skeptical when it comes to recruiting female employees. In these cases the job of an HR becomes very difficult as he/she has to maintain the gender diversity too.

 

 

3. The way Forward: what the employees can do:-

• Just Say It: Many a times the employees themselves do not come forward to tell the issue thus making the matter more complicated. Ideally they should themselves come forward at the right moment and inform. In this regard they should be straightforward, serious and make direct statements which make the harasser accountable.

 

• Setting her own boundaries: Saying ‘NO’ clearly when asked to go to places, stay out late at office or do things which makes her uncomfortable.

 

• Create a witness to the behavior: Try to inform a trusted colleague about the harassment and make sure that he or she becomes an eye or ear witness when she is being sexually harassed next time. This will help her in future when she files an official complaint.

 

4. The way Forward: what the employers can do:-

Including Sexual harassment policy in the ‘Standing Orders’ Of the Organizations:

• One of the best steps the HR can take is to adopt a well-documented and clear Sexual harassment policy and then include it as a part of the organization’s Standing order.
• The HR should include the top management in enforcing these policies and take a zero tolerance approach.

Complaints Channel:

•  The HR should provide employees different routes that she can take file complaints. Informal methods of resolving conflicts should be focused.
•  Also complaint committees should be set up to listen to grievances of female employees at all time. The main qualities of its members should be empathy and subjectivity.

Sexual Harassment Awareness Training:

• Practices should be made consistent with policies. For this purpose training of employees should be done to communicate to them which behavior is acceptable and which are not.
• Training for members of complaint committee is also essential and it should include components like gender sensitization, and procedures of taking complaints.

 

5. Steps already taken:

• Hindustan Power has set up posters on zero tolerance of sexual harassment in its corporate office.

 

• Companies like Godrej have a flow chart showing steps which will be taken in case a sexual harassment case is registered. This type of pictorial representation makes it easy for potential victims to know what exactly should be done, and for potential assaulter to know the consequences.

 

• Companies like Infosys and Mindtree has e-learning modules, poster campaigns and mailers which stress the fact of professional behavior at workplace. Wipro on other hand has put up its policies and redressal mechanism on intranet and also has an online training module to understand which behaviors constitute sexual harassment.

 

6. Conclusion:

When asked in an interview one of the employee in a multinational organization replied “I know the policy exists because of the group mail and intranet. The company conducts quizzes once in three months, but it’s not mandatory, so most of us don’t take it. Many employees don’t really go through the policy document.” This statement reflects the poor execution of these initiatives in organizations and thus their limited impact. There could be several reasons behind it. One of the reasons may be companies now are following a minimal approach fearing if an employee knows more they will raise more complaints. Also now when companies are focusing on being fun workplaces this type of rules can impact the camaraderie between employees.

But at the end of the day for proper safeguarding of women employees must follow the policies laid down and also needs to change their behavior and perspective towards woman.

 

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