Do you know what to do if harassment happens in your restaurant? More importantly, do your employees know what to do? As a baseline for your harassment training, you should know how harassment laws apply to your restaurant, how sexual harassment exists in restaurants, and how to recognize different types of harassment. Your harassment reporting policies are also important to preventing harassment. Here’s how:
Stops harassment in its tracks. Not all harassment is obvious. Sometimes, innocent and even well-meaning behavior can escalate to harassment. In these cases, a simple conversation can often put an end to the behavior before it creates a hostile environment. Without harassment reporting policies in place, though, this is much less likely to happen.
Promotes co-worker involvement. When all employees are trained on how to report harassment, it encourages witnesses to speak up. Even when the direct target of harassment doesn’t want to report it, the behavior can create a hostile work environment for all. Harassment affects your entire team, and you need to make sure your harassment reporting policies are known and followed by everyone.
Decreases stress around harassment reporting. Some harassment victims or witnesses are afraid to come forward because they fear the unknown. If they’re not sure how the report will be handled, they may fear retaliation. Your harassment prevention training must make it clear that no one who makes a report of harassment in good faith will face repercussions from the company.
Increases confidence in the company. When you have a clear harassment reporting procedure that includes taking every claim of harassment seriously, employees will feel more comfortable bringing concerns of harassment to management. As a restaurant manager, it’s your job to investigate, without bias, every report of harassment made to you. If you ever feel challenged by this task, consult with your supervisor or the human resources department.
Preventing harassment isn’t one thing you do – it’s a combination of many things you do to create a productive work environment for all. Harassment prevention is dependent on people and processes working together.
Train Your Staff on Harassment Reporting
The best way to prevent harassment is to give employees and managers the information they need to recognize harassing behavior and follow harassment reporting policies when needed. Knowledge is power. Our online harassment training course(s) can help managers and employees see the big picture of harassment by answering important questions that are often misunderstood. Click here for more information.
