HR function has failed to protect the safety and well-being of its employees

In the world of HR, 2017 has been a year of reckoning. The recent months have surfaced an unprecedented rate of allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Many would argue that the HR function has failed to protect the safety and well-being of its employees. To recap, in May Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick was forced to step aside after failing to address allegations of sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and creating a toxic work environment.  Shortly after, Google fired engineer James Damore for authoring a memo perceived to perpetrate gender discrimination in the workplace.  This event sparked a heated debate on gender disparity particularly in the tech industry. In October, charges of sexual harassment lead the Weinstein Company board to fire co-founder, Harvey Weinstein, an influential film producer. In the months following, victims of sexual harassment have come forward from all walks of life.  Businesses have been forced to respond.  Powerful men, the likes of Matt Lauer from the today show and Senator Al Franken have faced public disgrace after being forced out of their roles. The courage of a few has created an opening for more victims to break their silence. A careful analysis shows signs of a deeper problem. Each of the abusers had a long history of sexual assault impacting multiple victims. Why were they not caught earlier and who was responsible for taking action? Presumably, the workplace of these perpetrators had defined policies against sexual harassment and may have required mandatory training to prevent inappropriate workplace behaviors.  So what could have gone wrong? Why is it that in many of these instances the victim’s complaints fell on deaf ears?  It would be a shame if the world went back to business as usual after all the media attention died down. What could HR have done differently? What about an organization’s culture enables such harmful behaviors.  Join our online forum and share your opinion. We are working on a summary of the research and will share some actionable, evidence-based strategies in the New Year. In the meantime, the New York Times has some practical advice for preventing sexual harassment.