Sexual harassment is a form of dysfunctional behavior within the workplace — and a chronic phenomenon with a long history. Research indicates that more than 70% of women have experienced it on the job, but many incidents of it go unreported. The legal definition of sexual harassment is rarely understood, and men and women differ in their understanding of what constitutes it.
Even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is frustrated. The EEOC has recognized sexual harassment as discrimination for more than four decades. Seven out of 10 companies have training to deter it. Yet in 2016 the EEOC concluded workplace harassment remains a continual problem and asked, “Why does so much harassment persist and take place in so many of our workplaces? And, most important of all, what can be done to prevent it? After 30 years — is there something we’ve been missing?”
Evidence shows that sexual harassment is preventable. However, the EEOC’S recommended training guidelines need to change. New approaches must be explored. And they’re exactly what we’ve been working on.
For insights, we turned to the three-stage life-history prevention surveillance model that public officials have long used to stave off health epidemics. We believe a similar data-based approach can effectively prevent harassment in the workplace. The model we’ve developed to help companies draws extensively from the public health one.
One key to our model is a focus on high-risk employees. We estimate that 1% to 3% of individuals within an organization have the potential to become deviant, dysfunctional or dangerous. And while it’s difficult to screen out sexual harassers in the hiring process, it is possible to identify and address them within a work population before they pose a threat.
The worst cases of sexual harassment rarely happen out of the blue. A chain of events or conditions almost always precedes them. Our model addresses the three stages that generally occur as high-risk employees become sexual harassers:
STAGE 1: At this stage organizations have risk factors for or conditions that are conducive to sexual harassment, such as a work environment with a very high male-to-female ratio or where positions of power and supervision are predominantly held by men.
STAGE 2: Here we see low-intensity sexual harassment, such as conversations and language with sexual overtones. Dialogues usually aren’t seductive in nature, but under the surface they’re hostile, aimed at putting women down and keeping them “in their place.” Off-color stories and what some may consider “jokes” are also warning signs of an environment that may pave the way for higher intensity sexual harassment.
Read also: Dealing with workplace sexual harassment
STAGE 3: At this stage fullblown sexual assault happens. These incidents may well become federal legal cases. If employee behavior is allowed to reach this stage, it’s massively costly. U.S. organizations, in particular, have more at stake than their global counterparts, because they, not just the individuals involved, can be held responsible for workplace sexual harassment claims. Many people pay the price: Sexual harassment adversely affects not only the target but also the aggressor, bystanders, customers, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders.
WHAT TO DO TO PREVENT SEXUAL HARASSMENT
Our model offers a set of interventions for each of the three stages:
— PRIMARY PREVENTION begins with a clear statement of policy banning all forms of sexual harassment, explicitly linked to mechanisms that will enforce compliance. Your human resources department should systematically screen the organization for early warning signs, such as violations of the code of conduct or prior incidents in people’s work histories. Primary prevention also includes comprehensive training and education at all levels of the hierarchy, but especially at the first line of supervision. As the EEOC states, middle managers and first-line supervisors, when trained correctly, can be an organization’s most valuable resource in stopping sexual harassment. So companies should teach them how to create a culture of respect in which power is used with restraint. And all managers and supervisors should observe their reports’ interactions with colleagues and flag anything that might require corrective action.
— SECONDARY PREVENTION targets lower-intensity forms of sexual harassment, squelching it before any serious harm has been done. Secondary prevention focuses on identifying and eliminating incivility and bullying. These behaviors often lead to higher absenteeism, tardiness, accidents and safety violations, so companies should monitor their data on these, as well as supervisor’s reports about peers and employees, for signs that people are not being treated respectfully.
In an ideal world, all people associated with an organization — employees, supervisors, contractors and even customers and bystanders — would be comfortable reporting any unacceptable behavior they see in it. The organization’s responsibility is to provide an environment that makes them feel that way. An important step is setting up at least three safe channels for reporting harassment: one in the HR function, one in the legal function and one in an employee-wellness function. Trained professionals will need to be brought in to help diagnose, assess and triage cases of harassment.
Providing direct feedback to offending individuals is critical. They should be reprimanded for deviating from the organization’s code of conduct but also be given the opportunity to apologize for their behavior and alter it. Individual training in interpersonal communication, both on how to respect others and how to clearly communicate personal boundaries, often can redress low-intensity incidents. The EEOC also suggests that bystander-intervention training can help prevent sexual harassment, and our review of the research supports that idea. Organization-wide civility training may also be an opportunity for combating sexual harassment, according to the EEOC.
— TERTIARY INTERCESSION is needed when primary and secondary prevention fail, and an incident of high-intensity sexual harassment occurs. Companies should be prepared for the worst and act immediately to minimize any suffering or damage incurred, while also treating all involved fairly. We recommend a four-step approach:
1. CONTAINMENT: Restrain the dangerous individual engaged in harassment behavior.
2. CAREGIVING: Provide help to the targets of harassment and the people who’ve been exposed to it, such as witnesses or close colleagues of the target.
3. FORGIVENESS: This does not mean absolving the offender or forgetting what happened. It means forgiving people for allowing harassment to happen. Kim Cameron at the University of Michigan has written incisively about why forgiveness is essential to recovery after harm and damage have occurred at work.
4. RESILIENCE: The organization must bounce back from the tragedy of the incident.
Sexual aggressors destroy lives, leaving long legacies of suffering. Yet sexual harassment in the workplace is an occupational health problem that does not occur in isolation. Rather, it’s generally a result of cumulative events and thus predictable and preventable. With proper surveillance and prevention mechanisms, workplace sexual harassment may be eliminated altogether.
