Human Resources Issues for Senior Management
Issue link: https://digital.hrreporter.com/i/747024
22/CANADIAN HR STRATEGY F or some, 2016 was not a particularly good year. Take, for example, Roger Ailes, former CEO of Fox News; David Peterson, former premier of On- tario; or Jeff Melanson, former president of the Banff Centre — this past year, they faced highly publicized allegations of sexual harassment. Wrong or right, these kinds of charges have a way of sticking hard and fast to the supposed perpetrator, and the organization — particularly in an era of globalization and social media. "It's harder to hide and the victims have been emboldened by success- ful cases that have gone before them," says Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management in Monrovia, Calif. "And they no longer rely strictly on a court of law, they rely on the court of public opinion just as much. And the court of public opinion is much quicker and can put an organization out of business if not managed properly." While there are best practices that can be implemented, most organizations are "dramati- cally" underprepared for crises because they don't plan for contingencies like this in advance, says Bernstein. "There's a very unpleasant combination of arrogance and denial in many C-suites, and the idea 'We can do all this other stuff very, very well and we're making a lot of money doing all this other stuff, so when a crisis hits, we'll do it just as well.' But they're not trained to deal with crisis… and it is different," he says. "Too many people still see it as an expense instead of an investment… and they just hope they get lucky." POLICY As with many HR-related issues, policy is key when it comes to the prevention of or reaction to such claims, says Laura Williams, founder and principal of Williams HR Consulting in PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK What to do when an executive faces sexual harassment allegations By Sarah Dobson Scandal in the C-suite Scandal in the C-suite Scandal