Canadian HR Reporter

December 2018 CAN

Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.

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CANADIAN HR REPORTER DECEMBER 2018 10 NEWS The Canadian Employee Relocation Council – Professional Education Program centennialcollege.ca/part-time Start dates for 2019 JAN 15 MAY 4 SEP 10 DISCOVER A CAREER IN WORKFORCE MOBILITY Eligible for Professional Development Hours contact us to learn more • www.terryberry.com Canada's Provider of Rewards & Recognition Programmes Terryberry helps organisations honour their people for the attitudes, behaviours & contributions that make a difference. service awards • social recognition • wellness rewards safety awards • award points • and more that anybody would want with the #MeToo movement… people need to be open and transparent and ensure that whoever it is that they're dealing with, that they're comfortable coming to that event, or going to the business trip." In some industries, women were expected to "play ball" and let the politically incorrect sexual misconduct slide, said Chaudhri. "at's what kept you going up the ladder, so to speak, because you were willing to turn a blind eye and not make a fuss," she said. "Now, however, we are seeing a change in the way those female executives that are now in those positions of power are being viewed, because if they got to their position by turning a blind eye and enabling in some ways, this sexual impropriety, the liabil- ity associated with that inaction is going to be the next phase of the #MeToo movement, where indi- vidual members of management are going to be sued personally... for their lack of action and exercis- ing their fiduciary duty." Dealing with complaints It's disturbing to see that 76 per cent of respondents to the SHRM survey did not report sexual ha- rassment — assuming actual ha- rassment did occur, said Taylor. "If you see something and you don't say something, there's no ability for us to do something about it." A lot of people decide to just suck it up and deal with it, but that means the perpetrators may go on to victimize others, he said. "e research tells us when you have an environment like that, you have decreased employee morale, employee engagement, employee productivity — all of those things have a negative impact for em- ployers who are investing a lot of money in employees, so it's just not good business. So… if you want to be very down the line with this, say, 'Forget the legality, forget the morality — it's a productivity, it's a business issue. If I'm spend- ing this much on employees and I'm losing them in morale, en- gagement and productivity, this is bad for business.'" e most effective ways to in- fluence workplace culture to stop sexual harassment and foster a safe environment, according to the survey, are: enhancing HR's ability to investigative allegations without retaliation (cited by 45 per cent); conducting indepen- dent reviews of all workplace misconduct investigations (44 per cent); and increasing diversity in leadership roles (39 per cent). But from an HR perspective, an investigation alone is not enough, said Chaudhri. "You have to cut out the rot, and many HR professionals and members of management are very loath to do that and go be- yond the investigation phase and make those hard firing decisions," she said. "More often than not, a verbal warning, written warning, suspension is not what's needed — an absolute exit may very well be what's needed." And while gender parity at the leadership level should always be the goal, HR has to function as a separate arm in a way, said Chaudhri. "More often than not, employ- ees have little faith in HR depart- ments because they feel as though HR is there to serve the master, not the masses, and to protect the reputation of the organization," she said. "Because of that, organizations have to do more to have their HR operate in a more independent way to foster the trust of employ- ees… it really is your employees that are the eyes and ears of the organization." The reporting mechanism is critical, said Weschler. And there needs to be explicit lan- guage about the different forms of harassment — psychological, discriminatory, sexual — and it needs to be clearly set out so em- ployees understand. "e last thing you want is for employees to feel they need to go outside, need to feel comfortable to stay inside with their issues so that the company can deal with it as opposed to dealing with it on social media or the public eye, or frankly, them filing complaints with the employment board in the province." However, many employees want to remain anonymous, which is a challenge, said Chaudhri. "Many employees are very fearful of signing their name to the bottom of a statement, and frankly it makes it that much more difficult for an employer to investigate, because not being able to tie a name to allegations, you also of course have to consider the impact on the alleged abuser, and them being able to properly respond to allegations," she said. "It's like herding cats, wrangling down witness statements, things like that, where people are con- cerned about potential involve- ment and their name being at- tached to salacious and sensitive allegations." While anonymity might make sense if you're trying to weed out guilty leaders, said Chaudhri, "practically, functionally, it's a re- ally difficult promise for an em- ployer to make because they have an obligation to investigate." But the prolific use of social media and apps such as Facebook and WhatsApp has been a help. Before, it was largely a he said/she said scenario, but now there may be sexually inappropriate memes or solicitations, she said. "We are seeing employees and management fraternizing socially outside of the workplace — in all forums, like social media, etcet- era — and that's really changing the lens from an evidentiary per- spective, anyway, what a #MeToo allegation could look like. It's not simply coming down to one per- son's word against the other." More and more, employers are really taking proactive steps, in taking a look at their policies and making sure those aren't forgot- ten, said Weschler. "e last thing that employ- ers want at this point is to be the subject of a headline, and I think they're realizing there's no more of letting things go and being qui- et about it, they need to be loud," she said. "Employers are realizing they're better off educating employees and giving them the tools they need to deal with these situations, rather than trying to shy away from it, because anybody who's trying to shy away from it ends up being in the public eye and that's much worse for them than trying to deal with it internally." Overall, the #MeToo move- ment has been amazing in deal- ing with an issue that has been a challenge since the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clarence omas in 1991, and the scandal involving intern Monica Lewinsky and former president Bill Clinton in 1998, said Taylor. "We've been here before and the ultimate question is: Will this have legs and stick? And I'm en- couraged — here we are a year later, and it really has, it didn't go away like it did the last time," he said. "We're at this inflection point and it went the right way this time, which should lead to lasting cul- ture change." HR has to operate 'in a more independent way' #METOO < pg. 3 A Google employee holds a sign during a "women's walkout" at the Googleplex offices in Mountain View, Calif., on Nov. 1. The protest was over the company's treatment of several managers who had allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct. Credit: Stephen Lam (Reuters)

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