Introduction
There is a continuous discussion within Java Corp regarding various forms of harassment among the employees. Owing to this issue, the company has recruited a new human resource manager whose first task is to generate a formal policy to safeguard employees, the organization, and all other stakeholders. Achieving a harassment-free workplace is the responsibility inherent in the company’s organizational culture (Dahl & Knepper, 2021). Furthermore, the management is tasked with initiating the necessary actions against non-compliant employees and leaders.
The objective of the policy
The objective of implementing this act is to create a workspace of respect for human rights and enable workers at Java Corp to familiarize themselves with their rights and responsibilities to build a safe and healthy workplace. More importantly, creating an anti-harassment policy can foster the growth of a friendly working environment, which will eventually help the employer avoid costly ramifications (Clarke, 2020). Overall, it will protect the organization against complaints of discrimination and unprecedented suits. The primary role of a Human Resources Management team in an organization is to manage people as business resources (Stahl et al., 2020). Therefore, it is best suited to formulate an anti-harassment policy that applies to all staff, including full and part-timers, casual laborers, and contracted, permanent and temporary workers. Unwanted behaviors under this policy include harassment, sexual misconduct, discrimination, and retaliation.
Harassment
It refers to a specific type behavior with a purpose to disturb and annoy an individual at the place of work. In essence, the term refers to a hostile attack on an employee that causes them unnecessary disturbances (Eisenstaedt & Geddes, 2018). Harassment can be a verbal or physical humiliation of individuals as well as threatening and intimidating them. Under this policy, undertakings like unwanted condemnations on a worker’s appearance, native background, age, sexuality, pardoned conviction, complexion, and disability warrant harassment. If found guilty, a victim can be suspended, demoted, deducted salary, or be fired.
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment refers to actions of sexual attributes that cause unwelcomed, intimidating, hostile, and offensive working conditions. Collectively, it relates to abusive and humiliating characters related to an individual’s sex and the behavior of a sexual type that could logically be deemed to apply sexual conditions to an individual’s job and employment chances (Foster & Fullagar, 2018). Sexual harassment is rampant in most organizations, and therefore, it will have dire consequences at Java Corp. Furthermore, sexual harassment punishment will not only be applied in a timely and consistent manner but also in a confidential way to encourage victims to come forward whenever they are affected.
Discrimination
Discrimination against individuals means treating them separately or less favorably for a given reason. In compliance with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Java Corp will take necessary actions against any individual found culpable of discrimination at work (Eisenstadt & Geddes, 2018). Fundamentally, employment discrimination against persons based on their race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, disability, or age should find no space at Java Corp.
Retaliation
Retaliation refers to a situation where an employee is mistreated by his bosses for understanding his rights. Butcher (2021) states that enlightened staff might file a common accusation against an employer for infringing their rights. Consequently, the manager will initiate departmental transfers, deny workers an opportunity to attend company events, and give negative performance reviews, providing an unsafe working environment. Such acts, if proven, will attract punishments not limited to job loss at Java Corp.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality for the parties involved is assured at Java Corp. Therefore, all the included people are required to respect the privacy of each other and to limit the talk of the complaint to only those that need to hear and know about it. To protect individual data, all parties involved will be required to comply with the company privacy laws stated in their contract agreement.
Complaint Procedure and Employee Acknowledgement of Policy
When an employee feels harassed, the procedure for reporting the harassment will begin with them making either a written or a verbal complaint to the Human Resource Manager. Moreover, if the complaint is made verbally, HR will take the initiative of recording the information given by the employee. Additionally, the complainant should be ready to provide details such as what happened and when, the place, and any other person present at the scene (Robotham & Cortina, 2019). Complaints should be raised within a year unless there are valid reasons that prevented the employee from coming forward within this period. Furthermore, HR shall notify the person reported in writing, where the letter should also include the details filed against that person. He should also put all the efforts to ensure complaints are resolved within one month or otherwise advise all parties on why he failed to meet the deadline. Finally, all the employees at Java Corp will acknowledge this policy by ascending their signatures to a written form containing all the details, remaining with one copy of the signed document, and submitting another manuscript to the Human Resource Manager.
Conclusion
Conclusively, this paper articulated the anti-harassment policy at Java Corp. It was noted that all the senior executives should be trained on the act and encouraged to empower junior staff. Mainly, Supervisors and the human resources team at Java Corp should undertake anti-harassment lessons. Such training will enable them to do a thorough investigation when a team member is experiencing workplace mistreatment, govern the situation correctly and avoid future reoccurrence.
References
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