By Hayley Penner
Workplace cultures and environments consistently cause major companies to attract or lose employees. As sexual harassment and environments of sexism continue to permeate the corporate culture, the workplace becomes a major concern for working women. In 2020, the United Nations reported that less than half of working-age women worldwide are in the workplace.[i] Women continue to be in the minority—leaving room for sexual harassment to occur.
Sexual harassment affects nearly every company, both in and out of the physical workplace. A 2018 national study performed by the groups Stop Street Harassment, Growth from Knowledge, Raliance, and the UC San Diego Center on Gender Equity and Health reports that approximately 81% of women have been sexually harassed in some way, as depicted in Figure 1.[ii] These numbers are alarming, and management of companies must take this fact into account to avoid sexual harassment and its impacts.
What do businesses need to know about preventing further sexual harassment? Nearly every company has a form of sexual harassment training in practice, but these are not producing as many positive results as businesses would like. To properly prevent sexual harassment and create positive workplaces for women, management must acknowledge the negative effects of harassment, learn from the example of the #MeToo movement, and implement more effective practices in the workplace.
Negative Effects of Harassment
Businesses are losing millions in payouts to victims, in lost productivity, and in investment in unnecessary employee turnover due to ineffective policies within companies that allow sexual harassment to transpire. Women are less likely to be motivated at work or remain at their jobs long-term if they have been harassed in the workplace.
The Harvard Business Review cites a 2017 study done by Work in Progress to report that approximately 80% of women who have been harassed leave their jobs within two years.[iii] Why does this hurt business? Well, according to Jea Yu of Automatic Data Processing (ADP) and a study done by the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost of hiring a new employee hovers around $4,129. [iv] This fact is grim regarding the bottom line, as unnecessary investments of capital hurt rather than help. Consistent job turnover can greatly drain a company’s resources and lessen the positive image of the business.
Additionally, when a culture of harassment exists within a company, it may become more difficult to recruit new employees and gain clients or customers. Not only women, but potential employees in general are less likely to work for a firm if potential sexual harassment is perceived. A 2016 report from Chai R. Feldblum and Victoria A. Lipnic found that “58% [of employees] who experienced unfairness said that their experience would ‘to some degree’ cause them to discourage potential employees,” and that perceived sexual harassment in the workplace has a negative effect on attitudes toward the brand and brand image.[v]
The success of a business is based on both employee and consumer satisfactions. Losing money in either of these categories holds the power to hurt the firm immensely. Therefore, improving the status of sexual harassment in the workplace will not only help victims, but multiple aspects of businesses worldwide.
Learning from the #MeToo Movement
The #MeToo movement of 2017 sent shockwaves running through the business world. As more victims of sexual harassment came forward, many of the accused harassers were removed from their corporate positions. The #MeToo movement has changed how sexual harassment is spoken about and viewed, and employers who responded positively to this aspect were rewarded in the public eye.
Those who spoke out during the #MeToo movement enabled the societal norms surrounding harassment to change. Reporting and discussing sexual harassment has since become normalized, especially within the business world. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reports that “the self-reported incidence of rape or sexual assault more than doubled from 1.4 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older in 2017, to 2.7 in 2018,” as depicted in Figure 2.[vi] This jump displays that businesses must acknowledge the increase in reporting and encourage effective reporting in the workplace.
Firms can use the #MeToo movement to their advantage in changing sexual harassment policies. According to Joy Leopold, Jason R. Lambert, Ifeyimika O. Ogunyomi, and Myrtle P. Bell, organizations’ responses to the movement “should signal to other employees that certain behaviors are unacceptable.”[vii] The changes brought about by #MeToo provide a great opportunity for employers to recognize potential adjustments that may need to be made within the company in terms of the reporting and attitude surrounding sexual harassment.
Furthermore, the #MeToo movement has encouraged some states to change certain laws, which may affect how some companies do business. For example, many laws have been changed regarding nondisclosure agreements in the workplace and statutes of limitation, two tools that are often used to limit sexual harassment being exposed.[viii]
Regarding statutes of limitation, legislatures have provided many victims a longer amount of time to file a suit against their abusers. Due to this increase, the act(s) of harassment could possibly be held over the business for a long time. Employees who are accused of harassment can get caught up in a lawsuit years later, affecting the business long after the original incident(s) occurred. By recognizing these changes made in the way business must be conducted, employers can use them to their advantage in improving the company and the workplace culture for women.
Implementing New Practices in the Workplace
To create real change, companies must enact new policies to discourage harassment. Creating proper systems for reporting harassment and, in turn, encouraging reporting is often suggested. Christina M. Reger and Robyn Forman Pollack recommend that “companies should have two or more unrelated ways that employees can complain about harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.”[ix] By having multiple methods of reporting harassment, victims can be protected and possess more say in the reporting process.
Due to the fear of retaliation and other consequences, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states that approximately 70% of sexual harassment goes unreported (Figure 3). Sexual harassment in the workplace occurs more often than most corporate officers or average employees suspect. To create safer reporting for employees, the method(s) of reporting should be to an external watchdog agency that is independent from the company and will keep victims anonymous.[x] Encouraging the use of reporting methods that keep victims safe can help to properly address the behavior of harassers and create a more positive work environment for the victims.
Businesses will also benefit from promoting gender equality in the workplace. Kathrina Robotham and Lilia Cortina assert that “sexual harassment rates are higher in contexts where men outnumber women and job duties are traditionally performed by men.”[xi] Masculine culture in specific industries may discourage women from joining, causing businesses within the industry to lose the knowledge and experiences of the women that could have been a part of the company. Promoting gender equality aids the knowledge, experience, atmosphere, and image of a business, while helping to retain more employees and produce great benefits for the firm.
Similarly, companies with more women in management positions typically have lower sexual harassment rates.[xii] When women are unequal in the workplace, or are simply perceived as being unequal, an easy route opens for sexual harassment to occur. Promoting gender equality in every aspect may help women to feel more comfortable and cause harassment to decrease.
Rather than companies continuing with the routine, sexual harassment training, Robotham and Cortina encourage businesses to promote respect as a solution to harassment. The absence of harassment is not the presence of respect, and teaching employees to properly respect coworkers may help decrease harassment and create a better work environment. Focusing on each person’s value can help employees see coworkers as human beings deserving of respect.
Conclusion
Harassment in the workplace not only affects victims but produces drastic negative effects for businesses. To improve a company’s image and atmosphere, attacking the problem of sexual harassment is imperative. Managers can learn from the #MeToo movement of 2017 by changing the way sexual harassment is talked about and reported; thus, helping to make the corporate workplace a more positive environment.
The routine harassment training of days past does not provide enough progress in today’s world where women are still the minority in corporate workplaces. Implementing new and effective solutions can help businesses worldwide take steps in the right direction. The importance of preventing sexual harassment is in proper practices that help aid both businesses and victims—effecting positive impact inside and outside of the workplace.
[i] “The World’s Women 2020: Trends and Statistics,” United Nations, October 20, 2020, www.un.org/en/desa/world%E2%80%99s-women-2020.
[ii] Holly Kearns, “The Facts Behind the #MeToo Movement: A National Study on Sexual Harassment and Assault,” Stop Street Harassment, February 2018, stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Full-Report-2018-National-Study-on-Sexual-Harassment-and-Assault.pdf.
[iii] Nilofer Merchant, “The Insidious Economic Impact of Sexual Harassment,” Harvard Business Review, November 29, 2017, 2–4, hbr.org/2017/11/the-insidious-economic-impact-of-sexual-harassment.
[iv] Jea Yu, “Calculating the True Cost to Hire Employees,” ADP, www.adp.com/spark/articles/2019/07/calculating-the-true-cost-to-hire-employees.aspx.
[v] Chai R. Feldblum and Victoria A. Lipnic, “Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace,” U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, June 2016, www.eeoc.gov/select-task-force-study-harassment-workplace#_Toc453686304.
[vi] Jennifer Benner, “New Data: Sexual Assault Rates Doubled,” National Sexual Violence Resource Center, October 20, 2019, www.nsvrc.org/blogs/new-data-sexual-assault-rates-doubled.
[vii] Joy Leopold, Jason R. Lambert, Ifeyimika O. Ogunyomi, and Myrtle P. Bell, “The Hashtag Heard Round the World: How #MeToo Did What Laws Did Not,” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 40, no. 4 (2021): 461–76.
[viii] Rebecca Beitsch, “#MeToo Has Changed Our Culture. Now It’s Changing Our Laws,” Pew Stateline, July 31, 2018, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/07/31/metoo-has-changed-our-culture-now-its-changing-our-laws.
[ix] Christina M. Reger and Robyn Forman Pollack, “Workplace Sexual Harassment: Me Too or Not Us?: Where Does Your Company Come Down on Preventing and Addressing Sexual Harassment?” HRNews, November 13, 2017.
[x] Jennifer Berdahl and Barnini Bhattacharyya, “Four Ways Forward in Studying Sex-Based Harassment,” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 40, no. 4 (2021): 477–92.
[xi] Kathrina Robotham and Lilia Cortina, “Promoting Respect as a Solution to Workplace Harassment,” Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal 40, no. 4 (2021): 410–29.
[xii] Claire Cain Miller, “Sexual Harassment Training Doesn’t Work. But Some Things Do,” New York Times, December 13, 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/upshot/sexual-harassment-workplace-prevention-effective.html.
