There has been an avalanche of sexual harassment and misconduct claims making the headlines in recent weeks. I'm sure that a lot of politicians and public figures are sitting on pins and needles hoping their name doesn't make the news. This is good news for employees, mostly but not exclusively women who have tolerated much more of this type of behavior than they ever should have. Employers of all sizes will likely have more of these claims to process and more judgement calls to make as victims feel empowered to come forward.
With regard to the Matt Lauer situation, NBC is going to be facing the same questions your organization would be facing, albeit much more publicly - what is your policy, what kinds of training did you have in place, who knew about the behavior and what happened when management found out?
Here are some tips for any organization that is concerned about their own vulnerability to situations like NBCs current predicament:
1. Review your harassment policies. You likely have boilerplate language in your handbook. Nothing wrong with that, just make sure the language is clear and especially make sure that your employees know whom they may contact in the event they are harassed in any manner, including sexually. Make sure that there are several avenues for reporting the harassment, don't limit them to chain of command. Many Davidson Group clients include our phone number as an outside third-party option for employees to contact.
2. Train your managers and supervisors. Now is a great time to offer training to your managers and supervisors on what is and isn't harassment, what to do if they suspect harassment, and what to do if one of their team members reports harassment to them.
3. Train your employees. Now is a great time to remind your employees what types of behaviors are not acceptable in the workplace, what to do if they are victims of those types of behaviors, and what might happen to them if they are the one doing the harassing.
4. Treat all accusations seriously, investigate thoroughly and apply consequences consistently. This is the hard part because harassment claims are so personal and can vary so much in nature and substance. The very clear-cut cases, like when the behavior is caught on video or when there are multiple witnesses, are not as difficult. But sometimes these situations are much grayer. In some cases it may not even be clear that something happened at all. With these we can find ourselves torn between supporting the accuser and being fair to the accused.
We can learn something from observing the political personalities that have been in the news recently. What I have observed is when a figure considered a political opponent stands accused, it's portrayed as outrageous behavior that needs to be dealt with sternly and immediately, but when someone considered a political ally stands accused, we are urged not to rush to judgement.
How does this translate to your company? When the accused is a mediocre performer whose contributions are easily replaced, it's easy to stand with the accuser. When the accused is a rain-maker who is not so easily replaced, it's tempting to impugn the accuser or to raise our burden of proof requirements.
It takes courage of leadership to do the right thing, even if it temporarily hurts the organization. NBC will probably find that it would have been better off addressing the situation with Matt Lauer after the first credible complaint versus what they are now facing. It is the organization's responsibility to treat every case with the same level of seriousness, whether the accused or accuser is a low level employee or an executive, and attempt to apply consequences for bad behavior that are consistent and appropriate.
If your organization could use some help with developing policies, delivering training, conducting an investigation, or helping with a messy situation, contact The Davidson Group and we'd be happy to help.
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