Building a workplace where diverse people work respectfully together.
Harassment is probably not a new issue for you — it strikes where diverse people gather. You know it can cost the company enormously — in morale, management distraction, and lawsuits. Perhaps you’ve invested in mass training; perhaps you’ve done even more. Then you crossed your fingers. But now you think you might have a problem. There are rumblings, perhaps even formal allegations of harassment. It’s become a distraction that has now earned a place on your list of priorities. You have a diverse workforce, and you need everyone to get along.
How can you make it happen?
No doubt — if diversity-driven harassment exists, you’ve got to root it out, and stop it, immediately. The boundaries are fuzzy everywhere except in the mind of the accuser, and good management practice recognizes that boundary as the one that counts.
Obviously, you’ve got to find out what happened, who was involved, and what each party’s intention was and is. You’ve got to address any allegation, and you’ve got to untangle it to the satisfaction of all involved. As important, you’ve got to assure that you are really addressing the fundamental and systemic issues enabling harassment. Now is the time to solve the problem for good — to create a workplace environment where diverse people work effectively and respectfully together, intolerant of disrespect and harassment by others.
Where can Lazorpoint help you?
Our specialty is helping companies untangle the thorny workplace issues that exist in every organization. So the organization can return its focus to what drives its business. Chief among these thorny issues is unlawful harassment on the basis of age, race, gender, color, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation.
Our strength is our team of seasoned and successful executives who’ve walked in your shoes — who understand what it takes to solve the problem for good. Our professionals have held senior-most HR positions at companies including TRW, Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Lucent, Cleveland Cliffs, MA Hanna and a host of other, smaller but important organizations. They can help you determine what has to be done. More, they can lead you through getting it done — to the results you value.
Our approach to harassment is not "check the box" mass training. Rather, we work to solve the specific issues at hand, in the specific context of your company’s culture, policies, and environment. For example, we work to:
- Directly address and resolve any specific crisis issue(s), fully documented and positioned for ongoing attention and action as required.
- Provide intensive, directed, and interactive one-on-one and small group interventions and training designed to drive real employee understanding and informed commitment to eradicating unproductive behaviors.
- Reduce future vulnerability by taking a productive and appreciative approach to addressing the problem — more than what not to do, we’ll help your people focus on what to do to create a work environment more fully embracing of diversity. For example, a work environment where people of diverse backgrounds and orientations work productively, respectfully and well together.
Let’s have some conversation about your situation. Call Lazorpoint and let us help you untangle and eliminate the vulnerability around diversity and harassment in your business for good.
When harassment has invaded your workplace:
- Intervene immediately — both one on one, and in small groups.
- Assure the process is sensitive to the culture, policies, procedures and realities of your organization.
- Move beyond awareness. Assure that your people understand and are committed to rooting out harassment.
- Create a culture where diverse people work productively and respectfully well together.
