The cure for sexual harassment

I have the cure for sexual harassment. The modern enterprise needs a healthy culture, powered by predictive analytics and technology.

Let me tell you the problem from my perspective. By the way, I’m a tech CEO. And a woman.

I was in law school when I watched Anita Hill testify in the Clarence Thomas hearings. I watched in dismay as she, the victim, was doubted and dismissed. I myself had already experienced sexual comments while interning at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. I became an employment lawyer and specialized in harassment cases. Early on, I represented victims of sexual harassment. Later, I represented companies and male managers accused of sexual harassment.

While practicing law, I experienced two additional episodes of inappropriate sexual behavior, one from a boss and the other from a client. They were awkward and hard to navigate but not legally actionable, so I just dealt with it. Then I started a law firm where I was hired by Google and other tech companies to advise on workplace issues, including harassment prevention. I led classroom workshops on sexual harassment and how to prevent it. And still, sexual harassment occurred. Most cases were handled with a monetary settlement and a non-disclosure agreement, and viewed as a cost of doing business.

It became clear to me that this traditional approach to managing harassment would never solve the problem. I learned that the standard method of managing employee issues is not quick or proactive enough to stop problems from escalating.

As a victim, victim’s advocate, company protector and advisor, I fully understand this problem. So, I founded a company: an online platform providing education, expert guidance and data analytics. We educate employees, help change behaviors, and give guidance to deal with inappropriate behavior. We help executives and managers monitor the workplace and manage issues in real time. We’ve learned a lot.

Here’s what needs to happen in short order to cure sexual harassment:

1. Build a healthy workplace culture

For many employers, harassment prevention training is a check-the-box compliance chore. Actions reflect the real intentions. Companies don’t fool anyone when they require training and then forgive bad behavior. People won’t report an issue when they believe their concerns will be dismissed and they’ll be treated differently afterwards. A lack of trust of leadership erodes employee engagement and leaves the organization exposed.

The savviest companies are working top-down to build a healthy workplace culture. They recognize that a healthy workplace culture attracts and retains the best talent and leads to increased productivity and profitability. When they focus on harassment prevention, they look for partners who educate their employees, drive behavior change, and create a more respectful workplace environment. This is the true power of quality harassment prevention training.

For boards and company executives concerned that public sexual harassment disclosures will damage enterprise value, I suggest the following:

• Have your executive team, preferably your CEO, sponsor a sexual harassment prevention initiative.
• Train everyone. Don’t just train managers. Give all employees equal access to information so they can recognize and stop sexual harassment.
• Bring in a strategic partner with a high quality, interactive content that both educates and drives behavior change to reduce inappropriate behavior and misconduct.

Harassment is no longer just a compliance issue. Companies need a modern harassment prevention platform that educates employees, drives behavior change, and creates a more respectful workplace.

2. DIY information and guidance

Research shows that standard sexual harassment training doesn’t work. You can’t push information to a learner once a year and expect it to be absorbed and applied for the long term.

Modern education platforms need to embrace Do-It-Yourself learning. In our daily lives, when we have a question or need advice, we search the web. We find credible information from an expert source or watch a YouTube fix-it video.

Employees need exactly this sort of resource when they experience inappropriate behavior. They won’t go to Human Resources for guidance on minor infractions because they don’t want to be a complainer. They feel they can’t go to HR when they have a serious problem like harassment because HR’s priority as defending the company first and supporting employees second. Traditional web resources are equally unappealing: no one wants to put their personal saga out on Quora and hope someone half-decent responds. Employees desperately need a third-party, trustworthy, expert resource.

We’ve seen proof firsthand. Our platform curates content, and our users can search our content 24/7, and they do. They can review real questions from peers on sexual harassment and other topics, and read an expert’s answer. If they don’t find an answer that matches their specific situation, they can ask their own. Our platform Q&A shows that people are in desperate need of guidance on what’s right and what’s wrong; Is this harassment? Can I do this? Can I give a negative performance review after a complaint? Is this retaliation?

When employees get education and expert guidance they are in a better position to resolve a problem themselves. In situations of a basic misunderstanding, the inappropriate behavior will likely stop. In situations where the facts to be deeply problematic or illegal, the employee can use expert guidance to efficiently escalate the incident to HR.

One-way, once-a-year education doesn’t work. Employees need interactive information and guidance, from a third-party neutral platform they trust, while they’re experiencing the issue.

3. Find a language and start a dialogue

We created a new language. It’s one of the simplest yet most impactful things we’ve done. We created a color-code: red is “toxic,” orange is “dysfunctional,” yellow is “demoralizing,” green is “respectful.” Employees can use these words when they hear inappropriate language or see inappropriate behavior.

Harvey Weinstein’s actions were clearly “red,” toxic and illegal. People who repeatedly commit these acts do not belong in the workplace.

I’d characterize my own experiences as “orange.” They weren’t illegal, but made it harder for me to do my job and less likely to be recognized for the good work I did. The vast majority of harassment situations are “orange” like mine. They are bad for women and their careers and bad for workplace culture. “Orange” situations are not as clear cut, because Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. We have different experiences and different perspectives and often see the same event differently.

And that’s why we need to create a dialogue. A comment or action that seems perfectly innocent to a man can feel like an attack to a woman. I’ve counseled and advised male managers for 20 years. I know there’s a large male population who’ve have been accused of misconduct over a simple misunderstanding. They’re clueless, but they’re not bad people.

A shared cultural language, like the color code we call the Workplace Color Spectrum™, solves this problem. If a male boss makes a sexual comment and a female colleague feels uncomfortable, she can say, “Hey, that comment was orange.” By labeling the behavior rather than the person, and assigning it a value on the spectrum of appropriate workplace conversation, it provides immediate feedback. And it enables a quick apology and resolution.

When the same situation isn’t handled in a transparent way, maybe the male boss continues to make similar comments. Multiple women feel denigrated. Eventually the boss is labelled a harasser — and HR teams circle the wagons for litigation, causing more adversarial, entrenched positions.

A shared language creates the necessary dialogue that clarifies areas of concern and creates behavior change to solve workplace problems long before they reach litigation. Or social media.

No one talks openly about inappropriate behavior. We need to acknowledge it and address it, using new language that creates dialogue, influences behavior change and ‘outs’ the true predators.

4. Use data analytics and hook up business intelligence

You have to measure it to manage it. Whether your goal is limiting liability or changing behavior, you need to measure knowledge gaps, trending issues and organizational risk areas. What do we mean by that?

• If all employees watched a workplace scenario where a male makes a comment on a female colleague’s outfit, wouldn’t you be interested if 76% of the women rated it “orange” and 5% of the men though it was “green”? It isn’t unthinkable — he thinks he’s making a friendly comment and it totally creeps her out. By measuring reactions, we’ve identified a knowledge gap. Now HR can send out a micro-learning lesson on why to refrain from making comments about someone’s physical appearance.
• Let’s say 20 people in a department of 100 just wrote in questions about the appropriateness of a cage dancer at a workplace event. By measuring Q&A activity, we’ve spotted a trending issue. HR can now investigate the plans for that department’s upcoming holiday party and stop any questionable entertainment.
• In an assigned manager harassment prevention training, 45% of the employees in a certain office didn’t take the harassment training until the last day, and 79% of those last-minute test takers were male — and reported up to a single executive. By measuring course activity, we’ve spotted a red flag, and HR knows to closely observe that team’s culture.

These are very simple examples, but they’re enough to make the point. We’re applying much more sophisticated data science — algorithms and predictive analytics — to measure workplace harassment. Predictive analytics can eliminate problems before they start.

Quantified information helps companies be more efficient, track towards goals and use resources wisely. Risk reports and hot-spot identification alerts are business intelligence that enable HR to more efficiently monitor and enforce. Ultimately, HR can become proactive, and focus on talent, culture and workplace respect to create a healthier organization, avoiding risk of brand and reputational harm.

Measuring and monitoring the workplace used to be hard. Now, with sophisticated data analytics, HR can manage workplace issues proactively and efficiently, at lower cost, driving increased productivity and a healthier culture.

5. Women in the C-suite and on boards

I know this has been said before by many people for many reasons. But this is so real for me. I have several male advisors helping me scale my technology company. They are allies and very supportive of women, but they don’t intrinsically understand the breadth or depth of the harassment problem. My female advisor does. I find incredible value in having diverse perspectives to truly understand key issues, their impact on the market and their impact on the company.

If a company has a male CEO and predominantly male board members, they are unable to fully understand the negative impact of sexual harassment. They do not know the extent to which comments and actions deeply demoralize and undermine their female talent. They do not hold the company accountable for managing inappropriate behavior. They did not understand, until recently, how sexual harassment can put their organization at risk.

Social media risk — the risk of harassment incidents being made public on social media — has just emerged as a major enterprise risk. It erodes shareholder value as revelations cause damage to the executives deemed responsible, the company’s reputation, and future talent recruiting.

As a society, we will continue to grapple with sexual harassment until we have true gender diversity in executive leadership and boards.

Managing today’s enterprise calls for modern leadership values, executive self-awareness, and true accountability coming from more diverse perspectives.

In summary, the cure for sexual harassment lies in these five actions that you can take today:

• Stop thinking of harassment prevention as a compliance issue and start treating it as a healthy culture enabler.
• Provide your employees with 24/7 access to a technology platform with information and guidance they can trust.
• Stop suppressing conversation about inappropriate behavior and open a healthy dialogue.
• Measure and monitor your workplace using predictive analytics and proactively create a positive workplace culture.
• Bring diverse perspectives — particularly those of women — into executive leadership.