Beyond Compliance: Are your sexual harassment prevention controls in place?

Risk management is not just looking at insurance rates or worker’s compensation statistics. It also includes proactive education and training, identifying expectations of behavior, and problem solving making use of policies that are understandable and effective. Even though a company has a written policy and does some type of training, it may not be enough to avoid legal liability.

The Supreme Court’s two-part test for liability consists of:

1) The employer must show that they took reasonable care to prevent and correct any sexual harassment behavior in the workplace.

2) The employer must show that the employee did not take advantage of any corrective or preventive opportunities provided by the employer. To meet the criteria, businesses need to create a culture that consistently addresses and reinforces values and also provides accessible avenues for reporting and resolution.

Here are ways that you can decrease your risk of sexual harassment in the workplace and provide evidence that your company is actively engaged in prevention and correction:

•Have an anti-sexual harassment policy and update it at least yearly. Distribute it to all employees, talk about it in staff meetings, and make it a part of employee orientation. Have employees sign that they understand the policy and have read and understand the policy. If you have employees who speak and read in other languages, make sure the translated policy is available to them.

•Conduct yearly prevention and education training that not only provides a description of behaviors and consequences, but allows participants to interact in activities, problem solve, role play and practice skills needed to express their concerns and avoid escalation.

•Provide choices to employees in how they want to report. Some companies have hotlines or a designated male and female person that is trained in being supportive and professional.

•Conduct yearly sexual harassment anonymous employee surveys with the current policy attached. What better way to gain feedback from your employees and get suggestions for improvement?

•Conduct specific educational sessions with managers and supervisors. They must understand their specific ethical and legal responsibility and be provided with the knowledge and tools to model respectful behavior, intervene quickly and prevent retaliation.

•Treat same sex reporting and male reporting the same as you would for a female employee.

•Reinforce the need to investigate and document any reports of sexual harassment or discrimination including the response to the complaint and any corrective action. Make sure that follow-up to reports is conducted to ensure that the outcome is satisfactory.

Companies and organizations that are actively engaged in a non tolerance policy of sexual harassment and discrimination not only create a foundation of limiting liability, but they model a value in their culture of respect for all employees.

Holly Seaton, Ph.D. Outside the Lines Consulting

To learn more about sexual harassment education and prevention training, establishing policy or conducting investigations, contact us at www.OTLConsulting.com or 707.933.0687 or email Holly at Holly@OTLconsulting.com

OTLConsulting.com is a wine & hospitality consulting company, based in Sonoma, CA and Seattle, WA.

Related Information of Interest:

Conversation In An Age Of Confusion
What do people talk about when they all believe different things and nobody is sure what the other person believes?

Then you add to that the usual courtesy that most people don’t want to offend other people, especially when it comes to the topics people disagree about with the most intensity, such as politics and religion, which all but the most foolhardy consider way off limits, at least, in what is referred to as polite conversation.

Actually, the silence of the times is far wider. In fact, the silken muffler of a feared indiscretion is wrapped around virtually every significant area of human thought, from philosophy to economics.

So what are we left with? Certain relatively safe topics, like poetry, unless you’re among poets whose egos are hair-trigger ready to fire back their own preferences vehemently. History might also be a good bet, since the overall tale has been pretty well agreed on, unless, once again, you’re with historians who may be simmering with their own disagreements.

The result? Conversation generally defaults to entrancing topics like the weather. Many spend entire evenings discussing such substitute content as one trifling entertainment or inconsequential entertainer after another. Things get really exciting when someone happens to mention how someone else may look tonight. Then there’s always the daring raconteur who’s arrayed with an evenings worth of sexual allusions.

Listening to such excited vapidity, one’s mind wanders to the legendary salons of France, at their epiphany, home, we read, to forthright conversation about the headiest topics of the time, generally centered around the new insights and old illusions of The Age of Reason.

At vagrant moments, you cannot help but ask yourself if the human race ever get to another time when it has enough beliefs in common to enliven its social occasions with conversations that really are interesting.

Tom Attea, creator of Newslaugh.com, has had six shows produced Off-Broadway and has written comedy for TV. Critics have called his writing ""delightfully funny" and "witty" with "good, genuine laughs."

Poetic Love versus Commercial Love
Am I the last romantic? This is a very tough question for me! I remember the times when love seemed more pure and diaphanous. A boy saw a girl, he liked her, she smiled shamefaced at him, giving him hope. Desire was fed by hope, and time was the perfect cook for a romantic love recipe. It all continued with peaceful thoughts at night, while looking at the stars and making wishes, sweet love wishes! Days were passing, the boy can’t get his thoughts back on the track, charmed by his beautiful princess. Another glimpse, a few days after, would keep the fire burning, until the boy can’t take it anymore, and moves to the next step:a romantic poem and roses, maybe even chocolate candy. Beautiful! I’m not going to exaggerate this, by inserting a balcony in this act.. But let’s admit it, those were the good old days of love and poetry.

Today, everything seems so empty and meaningless. The media is always showing us more and more violence and sex, pushing love away from our lives, replacing it only with desire. Now women are more and more interested of the bank account and limousine the boy drives, and probably would take poetry and candy as an offence or as unimportant; they would very much rather an expensive perfume or necklace. The boy, on the other hand, doesn’t have that shiver anymore in his voice, he’s a stable person that shouldn’t let loose his lack of confidence. He’s driving his luxury car, dressed up after the latest fashions, perfumed and everything, with sunglasses to give himself a superior attitude. He goes to her home, gives a horn and then takes his partner to the most expensive places to impress her. And he probably succeeds in most of the times. Very beautiful, some may say.

Well, I am very sorry, but I am one of the fellows who won’t give into this „new era love”. I stick with the poetic love that used to be once upon a time, the incurable romantic. You may contradict me if you wish, everybody’s free to have an opinion, but I remain the last mohican stuck to the idea that love and poetry come together as a blessing, and shouldn’t be torn apart.

By Alexandru Ionescu - If you feel that you have something to say in poetry, just join this love poem contest - If you join this poetry contest, you could get your poem published!

Job Interview Mistakes - Part 1
For many, the interview is the single most stressful part of the job search process. Any number of things can go wrong, and a big part of being successful is avoiding simple mistakes. The following is a list some of the most common mistakes during an Interview.

1. Failure to research the company: An interviewer will expect candidates to spend time researching and reading about their company. Do your homework before the interview; really know what the company does and who their competitors are. If you have not taken the time to review the employer website and understand what they are recruiting for, then you are reducing your chances of continuing successfully through the interview process.

2. Not clear on what youï¿½re interviewing for: Be familiar with the job description so you can draw on your experiences, talents, strengths and abilities to connect with company needs. Highlight how you're suited to that particular job.

3. Not marketing yourself correctly: Define yourself. What makes you different from others? Know your major strengths and accomplishments as they relate to the job you are applying for and the company.

4. Not asking meaningful questions: Have at least 3-4 intelligent questions to ask the recruiter. It's OK (it actually leaves a positive impression with the recruiter) to have them written down in advance and to reference them at the appropriate time. Interviews are an exchange of information, and not coming in with questions shows that you did not prepare for the whole interview.

5. Under-dressing for the interview: Professional attire and attention to detail still count. You can never be too professional. Remember that everything - your appearance, your tone of voice, your conduct -contributes to the impression (positive or negative) that you make. Be presentable - wear a pressed suit and shirt and polished shoes.

About the Author: Hans Hasselfors is the founder of SubmitYourNewArticle.com. Visit our article directory for varied articles about job search.

Online Degrees - Points to watch out for
Many reputable universities offer online degree courses. An online degree offers students many advantages, especially older students, who may have childcare commitments that need to be accommodated into a study regime. Given that students on a traditional course spend the greater part of their time partying, it is certainly possible to pack the study part of a university education into one or two years.

Employers are naturally suspicious of anything new in the way of qualifications, and there will be a certain reluctance, on the part of some, to accept an online degree as equivalent to a traditional one. This arises because of the wealth of worthless ï¿½life experienceï¿½ degrees that can be obtained for $200 or less from universities that no-one has ever heard of.

An online degree from a traditional and respected university will get you over this hurdle. You should avoid lesser known universities offering these courses, even if they are accredited institutions. Employers do not have the resources to keep track of which institutions are reputable this year, and which were reputable in the year your degree was awarded. They will play safe and only interview candidates with qualifications from universities they recognize.

School principals and governors are some of the most conservative people on the planet. If you apply for a teaching job with a qualification from some unheard of university, they will assume your hard-earned qualification is an online degree and worthless.

If you are looking into an online education degree, then you need to be particularly careful that it includes some teaching experience in a school situation. Teachers want to be working alongside other teachers who have been through a similar system of training that they went through themselves.

The general perception amongst teachers is that online degree qualifications do not include teaching practice in the classroom. They want to know that you have some teaching experience in the classroom and to see reports relating to that.

These reports are the only relevant reference you have as far as most teachers are concerned. The extent of your knowledge, as measured by your degree is much less important than is your ability to communicate that knowledge to a group of students.

Pete Gallagher, taught Chemistry for 28 years. He has now left teaching to concentrate on writing. These articles are based on an expensive photocopiable resource that he sold to schools to use in staff training. Find more of Pete's work at his EduBackup website. Another source of information on education degrees can be found at this specialist resource site.