| Harassment and
Discrimination Prevention: |
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| Questions that evaluate your company's harassment/discrimination
prevention center around an analysis of your organization's
current effectiveness in meeting the "good faith"
effort to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination
in the workplace as outlined by the Supreme Court
in 1998. |
The following table shows recommendations
sorted by those that require the shortest time to
implement.
Click on a recommendation for details on
how to implement it inside your company or business
unit.
Additional Risk Factors
Specific to Your Company
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Industry:
While your response did not place you in a high
risk industry category for
harassment/discrimination complaints, company
specifics tend to be better predictors than
industry variables. Given that most companies have
been sued in the past five years, make sure your
company is proactively addressing employment
liability issues. |
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Number of
Employees: The more managers your company has,
the more likely it is that one of them will make a
mistake. Be sure your company is doing what it
needs to do to reduce unnecessary
employment-related
risk. |
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Downsizings &
Layoffs: The fact that your company is
planning a layoff and/or downsizing puts you at
much higher risk for employment-related
complaints. One-half of all age discrimination
complaints, for example, are filed in conjunction
with a downsizing or layoff. Make sure you have
all layoff and downsizing plans reviewed by a
labor law attorney, that you have established a
relationship with an E.A.P program, and that your
managers have been trained on the legal and
psychological issues involved in involuntary
terminations. |
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Mergers &
Acquisitions: Employment-related
complaints are consistently more prevalent in
unstable industries, and mergers and acquisitions
create legal liability that requires extra
preventative measures. The fact that your
organization has gone through an acquisition
and/or merger puts you in a higher risk category
for harassment and/or discrimination complaints.
Acquisitions and mergers create stress for
everyone; not only can they create fear and
rivalry, they can lead to inappropriate workplace
behavior. To ensure an efficient, successful
merger, keep these primary precepts in
mind:
- Be honest with everyone from the
beginning. They know a major change is coming.
Tell them the truth before circumstances and
time create reasons for people to become
fearful, defensive and possibly angry. The less
folks worry and maneuver to survive the changes,
the more productive they'll be and the more
likely they'll stick around.
- Within the context of change, endeavor to
establish stability. Be sensitive to people's
needs, fears and desires.
- Publicize any new opportunities for
employee growth and advancement. It's essential
that employees you intend to retain recognize
changes in the organization as personally
beneficial to them. Communicate that the rising
tide of merger will raise all ships and that
everyone will benefit.
- Make new rules clear and open from the
start. A merger and/or acquisition is an
opportunity to assess and revisit training
needs, policies and procedures, and other human
resource functions. Take advantage of it
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