I don't know about you, but I'm nervous. I'm nervous for my clients, fellow HR colleagues, the good men I know and the allegations from frightened women yet to be revealed.

What am I nervous about? I'm nervous about the avalanche of sexual harassment allegations, the impact on our company cultures and human resource industry as a whole and the subsequent impact on the lives of those involved -- both men and women.

Related to the human resource community, there have been vague inuendoes to flat out accusations. In fact, some commentaries suggest we've been complicit in cover-ups. I do ask (as I did in the opening to my LinkedIn Learning course Managing Employee Problems), "Where has HR been in all this?"

And you know, I've not seen much discussion, outrage or honest dialogue from our community. Why? We need it. Perhaps we need our own purging too!

It makes me wonder how many in our community are really competent in handling this and therefore, little discussion or action is being taken.

So, what I'm most nervous about, going forward, is how this all will be handled -- or not! Or will it be treated with an attitude of, "This too shall pass." Rather than leveraging the opportunity to thoroughly examine and address it within each organization.

Quotation

Every leadership team should have had by now a candid discussion about sexual harassment as it relates to their company culture.

If you, as a business owner or HR professional have not had a serious conversation with your leadership -- that is concerning!

Why? All the news centered around this topic has created a lot of confusion -- at least for me (and I'm a management/HR professional) and I want and need answers. And I bet many of your employees do too, particularly your managers. Most truly don't know what to say or do!

The allegations and the how the media has handled them has opened a Pandora's box of confusion surrounding word usage, such as "inappropriate sexual behavior, "sexual harassment" or "hostile work environment", as well as how allegations have been handled -- a lot of folks got fired and lawsuits started bubbling up.

So, is inappropriate behavior and harassment the same thing? Check out the chart on LinkedIn Post. See how it ranges from jokes to violence? Should they have the same employment consequences? Should they be recorded in someone's employment information? Should someone be fired at even a hint of impropriety without an investigation? What would that look like?
Source: Survey of women in journalism from 2016

Quotation

See what I mean. If you are an HR professional or business owner and cannot adequately answer these questions and/or have a process in place to do so -- you're in trouble! If not now, surely later.

Here's what I absolutely do know. In the work I do with human behavior, customized perception is embedded in any human action and interaction (it's called selective perception). Therefore, two people can have the exact same experience and interpret it completely different ways. Their interpretation becomes their truth and their reality, though it could be quite different from someone else's.

This human truth can set the stage for significant, unintended confusion surrounding sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual misconduct and everything in between...such as workplace romances, asking someone on a date...and the news has reflected such.... unless everyone in a community has clear definitions and understandings of what all these mean.Can you confidently say that about your work, church or social groups and/or communities? ... (and yes I did say church).Here are two great and simple examples regarding confusion: first example - Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker. There seemed to have been a misunderstanding or mischaracterization regarding the "type" of relationship he had with a colleague, which resulted in his firing. Lizza put it this way, “I am dismayed that The New Yorker has decided to characterize a respectful relationship with a woman I dated as somehow inappropriate,” he said via email. “The New Yorker was unable to cite any company policy that was violated.” Source link

A second example...hugging. Something as simple as workplace hugging, as NBC News has recently addressed after the Matt Lauer firing, has been assigned new rules. Link

You know...I hug clients -- both male and female. What's appropriate? See my point? Are there now dramatic shifts in what's considered appropriate social touching?

This makes me want to ask...how many HR departments revamp their employee handbooks? How many companies have conducted townhalls specifically to address these issues? If not... you're missing out and leaving your company legally exposed.

Quotation

It's important to ask, "What can be the consequences of unaddressed confusion surrounding this issue?"

I believe confusion can present a substantial opportunity for unintended behavior ranging from simple misunderstandings to continual hesitation to report.

When all of this first broke, I knew there would be a plethora of colleagues coming out in droves to address this subject, so I decided not to stick my toe in the water because it is not my area of expertise. Yet, I saw very little dialogue from us. And so, decided to add my voice and those of experts to what little professional dialogue there's been.

My desire to enter the conversation stems from the work I do surrounding Emotional Intelligence. Anything related to inappropriate sexual conduct is related to a lack of emotional intelligence -- the ability to know what's appropriate to say to whom and how to behave with whom.
Sexual harassment issues are emotional intelligence issues -- among others.

So my ultimate goal in entering this public dialogue is to partner with experts to provide a resource and platform for meaningful discussion that can lead to substantive actions in an effort to protect everyone in our corporate communities.

I am so proud and happy to announce that Kate Bischoff - HR Attorney & Sexual Harassment Expert and Suzi Benoit - Workplace Bullying & Harassment Expert will be partners in this endeavor. It will be a tremendous combination of Kate's legal expertise and Suzi's clinical background in human behavior and human resources that will create a valuable, dynamic team!

We'll be doing a live webcast roundtable in the next few weeks - so if you want to be notified: email joann@thehumansphere.com so you don't miss it. Or, we're all on Twitter and you can follow the hashtag for our initiative #sexhartrio

We'll be sharing our thoughts, taking your questions and inviting you to participate in the discussion. If you've not taken action up until now-- use our initiative for you and your leadership team to do so.
Follow us: JoAnn Corley @joanncorley| Suzi Benoit @HRSociology  | Kate Bischoff @k8bischHRLaw