Are your sexual harassment policies and procedures merely window dressing? 

One executive told us recently his company would not have them if not required by law. In his view his company did not need them. “No one has filed a complaint and the company had to pay a lot of money for an HR person. Waste of money!” If you agree with him, you have only underscored the importance of the need for training, not only for yourself as an executive but for all employees—from the very top down. 

Sexual harassment can have a devastating impact on the bottom line profitability of your company. The mental and physical impact of sexual harassment on your employees can result in reduced productivity and an increase in health issues (including for depression, anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder), an increase in absences, sick leave, health insurance costs, and ultimately turn over of employees. The increase in turn over will risk fostering a hostile work environment and create reputation issues in the open market which might affect recruiting of new employees and executives, customer relations, future business, financing and investor potential. One single lawsuit or scandal could drain your company’s resources! We read that CBS’s stock dropped 6% during the Les Moonies scandal - an alleged $1.4 Billion in value! Fox News supposedly spent more than $101 Million in 9 months on sexual harassment matters, including relating to Roger Isles and Bill O’Reilly. When sponsors started dropping the Bill O’Reilly Show, he was released by the the network. 

Educating employees and company leaders regularly and effectively will likely promote a more healthy workplace of dignity and respect and ultimately improve the bottom line. For such bad behavior to change, there must be consequences and they should be wildly known. Committing to transparency will help #changetheculture to a more healthy and prosperous environment, free from #abuse. #TimesUp.

Let’s #playnice at work and stop and #workplacesexualharassment. For more information on our book “Play Nice - Playground Rules for Respect in the Workplace,” please join us at www.thesandboxseries.com