Editor’s Note

In recent months, reports of sexual harassment and abuse by well-known men have made the headlines. The stunning increase in public visibility of high-profile cases, while shameful, has brought renewed attention to the issue of harassment in the workplace.

 In fact, the Society for Industrial and Organization Psychology (SIOP) recently listed sexual harassment as the most important workplace issue for 2018.
 
This should serve as a call to all organizations to start getting more serious about eliminating workplace harassment.
 
This edition's cover article, Sexual Harassment Policies And Training Are Just Not Measuring Up by Rich Wellins and Sherryl Dimitry, throws light upon the current status of workplace harassments and what needs to be done in order to stop them.
 
The costs of harassment are enormous. It negatively impacts a culture of diversity and respect. It hampers much needed gender equality in the workplace. More to the point, it can destroy lives.
 
It is high time companies start reconsidering their policies and trainings, especially when many employees still lack a solid understanding of sexual harassment policies and there has been increase in sexual harassment complaints!
 
To give our HR.com members a better feel for what they and their colleagues are doing around the issue of workplace harassment, we embarked on a study to collect some benchmark data.
 
Featured in this edition is a special report, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Reigniting Today's Dangerously Stalled Prevention Programs, which would take a closer look at what is getting done and also provide useful and actionable benchmarking data to practitioners.

We also bring you two articles on sexual harassment - Your A To Z Primer On Harassment And Civility by Dana Stutzman and #MeToo In The Workplace by Moritz Kothe - and hope these will help you in making your company a better and safer workplace for all.
 
In today’s ever-changing regulatory landscape, businesses of all sizes face a wide range of compliance challenges throughout North America. In recent years, there have been a variety of tax and regulatory changes in Canada alone, a trend especially affecting small and medium-sized business (SBMs). So where does this leave HR professionals and managers of SMBs?

Also featured in this edition is another exclusive research, The Compliance Factor: How Prepared Are North American SMBs to Meet Compliance Requirements Today?, that talks about the top 5 findings, and more, from a survey conducted by HR.com and Ceridian.

The fast approaching General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will ensure people have more rights regarding how their data is stored, used and shared by companies and hefty fines will be implemented for failure to provide sufficient IT security to protect personal data. Are you “confidently prepared” for the change? Julianna Gordimova’s article, All You Need To Know About General Data Protection Regulation, is the go-to guide to for all businesses to know more about GDPR.
 
This is not all! This month’s issue of HR Legal & Compliance Excellence is packed with top trending topics in the legal and compliance arena, and infused with information on new polices and laws to arm you and your employees to stay compliant and safe.
Happy reading and do not forget to mail us your feedback!