Knowing how to deal with sexual harassment in the workplace is crucial for an employer. Failing to comply with your legal duties exposes you to tribunal proceedings, which are time-consuming, expensive, and can cause irreparable damage to your reputation. Here, our HR and employment law experts explain how to deal with sexual harassment, including what you should do to prevent it and how to deal with sexual harassment complaints.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry and we will be delighted to help you.
How To Deal With Sexual Harassment To Prevent It From Occurring
Employers have a legal duty to implement reasonable measures to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in their workplace. An employee cannot make a tribunal claim against you for failing to comply with this duty. However, if they bring a sexual harassment claim, the amount of damages you are forced to pay may be higher if the tribunal finds that you did not take reasonable steps to prevent the harassment from happening.
The steps you should take to ensure compliance with your legal duty depend on several factors, including the sector you operate in, the nature of your business, and the extent of your resources. You should take advice from HR and employment law specialists like ours to ascertain what measures would be reasonable in the context of your organisation.
We will begin by risk assessing your business to identify areas that may pose a risk of sexual harassment. Examples of risk factors that may apply to your business include power imbalances, employees meeting with clients alone, and employees working after hours.
Once we have identified the risks inherent in your organisation, we will consider the steps you could implement to mitigate them. Your legal duty is not to take each and every possible step but simply to take those that are reasonable in the context of your business.
Examples of some of the measures we might advise you to implement include the following:
- Devising a sexual harassment policy
- Providing employees with regular training on your business’s expectations regarding their conduct
- Ensuring all employees understand how they can make a sexual harassment complaint
- Ensuring your employees understand the standards expected of them at social events
- Introducing mechanisms that allow employees to get help swiftly should they need it, such as alarms
How To Deal With Sexual Harassment Complaints
Sometimes, sexual harassment may occur in your workplace despite your best efforts to prevent it. If you receive a sexual harassment complaint, you must:
- Take it seriously
- Handle it fairly and with sensitivity
- Investigate it as swiftly as possible
If your organisation has a policy on sexual harassment, you should follow the procedure detailed in that policy. It goes without saying that you must never seek to cover up a sexual harassment complaint. You should also use non-disclosure agreements with great caution. Their use will only be appropriate in limited circumstances in the context of sexual harassment complaints.
The complainant may make their complaint formally, whereby they raise a formal grievance, or informally, where they ask that you deal with the issue without following your formal grievance procedure. If the situation is not suitable to be handled informally, for example, because it is too serious, you should request that they raise a grievance. If they do not feel comfortable doing so, you might consider following your organisation’s disciplinary procedure.
Keeping an open mind when handling a sexual harassment complaint is crucial. You must not allow your own feelings about either the acts complained of or the individual against whom the complaint is made to prejudice your investigation. Even if the behaviour does not appear offensive to you, it may have profoundly affected the complainant and may still be classed as sexual harassment in a legal sense. Accordingly, each and every sexual harassment complaint must be handled sensitively and investigated thoroughly.
When carrying out your investigation, you must gather all relevant evidence. This will include hearing both sides of the story and speaking with any witnesses. You must weigh up the evidence, even if it is only from the complainant and the individual accused, and come to a balanced decision.
The importance of understanding how to deal with sexual harassment complaints effectively cannot be overstated. If the complainant subsequently makes a tribunal claim, your handling of the matter will be scrutinised by the tribunal. Furthermore, if the employee’s claim succeeds and the tribunal believes you failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the harassment from occurring, it may award the employee an uplift on their damages.
If you need help understanding how to deal with sexual harassment or any other area of employment law or HR practice, we are here to help. With our decades of experience assisting small businesses navigate complex employment issues, we have the expertise and experience required to keep you legally compliant and tribunal-free.
Call us now on 01491 598 600 or Click Here to Make An Enquiry and we will be delighted to help you.
