Harassment: Assessing Risks; Costing the Benefits

Harassment of all types costs firms in productivity, image, and morale, even excluding the cost of processing discrimination complaints. We stress the subtle and blatant ways that all forms of harassment undermine our efforts to create a productive work-environment for everyone. We review pre-emptive actions that can be taken by management to discourage all forms of harassment. In addition, we show auditors how to record possible incidents of harassment and how to use appropriate in-house policies and procedures to discourage behavior that could be regarded as harassment. Also available is our Certification program in avoiding sexual harassment delivered via the internet or on your internal network. IN BRIEF Discussions, case studies and role plays show you how to define and how to recognize potential risks, that is, the range of circumstances and behavior under which any specific behavior might be legally construed as harassment and thus expose your organization to legal action. AUDIENCE Research indicates the need to train all employees in order to prevent sexual harassment. Managers especially must be aware of potential risks to the firm and handle problems before complaints occur. For more information: Contact