True Harassment Prevention Is a Culture of Civility

All too often, delivering anti-harassment training is about meeting state law requirements around such training or about checking off training as a defense against Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 claims. But the focus should be on interpersonal relationships and civility—the very topics needed to prevent harassment. 

One example of this is timing. Employers often deliver harassment prevention training to new employees within their first week of hire—to check the box that it was completed. This sends the message that this topic is on a list of things to do. Consider instead offering that training in conjunction with messaging about the company culture, values, and appropriate behavior. That will help the training become crucial to maintaining a culture of civility.

An employer’s approach changes if it thinks of harassment as an interpersonal and company culture problem first, and as a compliance issue second. What it means, and how to address it effectively, changes entirely. Training becomes focused on creating an environment where bad behavior, whether unlawful or not, isn’t tolerated. Investigations go beyond uncovering whether something unlawful happened—they include perceptions of the workforce and a look at the root cause of the poor behavior. 

Employers often ignore the people and organizational culture components of harassment in their laser-focused attempts to avoid legal troubles. Below are some tips to help reframe anti-harassment efforts to include a focus on civility. 

First, understand problematic behaviors occur on a spectrum.

Harassment is not an isolated behavior that exists in a container just because the law defines it that way. In reality, harassment evolves over time and exists on a spectrum; this means that various types of bad behaviors can occur before the harassment reaches unlawful status.

For example, if someone was disrespectful and no one did or said anything, the individual who engaged in the behavior subconsciously recognized they had permission to be disrespectful—and over time, that behavior became normalized. The more normalized the behavior is, the more desensitized people are to it, and the more they push the boundaries. That lawful but problematic behavior then evolves into unlawful harassment.

Therefore, harassment prevention training content should discuss lawful but disruptive behaviors such as incivility, microaggressions, unresolved conflict, and gossip. A workforce that understands what to do when it observes gossiping, microaggressions, inappropriate sarcasm, and even workplace bullying, is a workforce that can prevent harassment.

Workplace bullying should also be addressed because, whether the state or federal government defines it this way or not, 40 years of academic research finds that targets of bullying feel like it is a condition of continued employment, and it is severe and pervasive enough that reasonable people would consider it intimidating, hostile, or abusive. In other words, the reality is that the only difference between bullying and harassment is whether or not the behavior is aimed at a protected characteristic.

Every member of the organization is responsible for creating and maintaining a respectful environment, so every member must be given the tools with which to do so. 

Second, give managers tools to proactively build a positive team environment.

Do managers know that they’re responsible for creating and maintaining a respectful team environment? Do they know how?

Managers need the tools to step in and coach an employee engaged in incivility. With the right education, they can prevent harassment by helping a team member understand the impact of their behavior and find new ways to engage with their team.

They can also facilitate ongoing conversations about respect and inclusivity. For example, managers can lead a conversation with their team about the word “civility.” What does it mean? What does it look like when a person is behaving in a way that is civil? What does it look like when a person is not being civil? By breaking down a subjective word such as “civility,” and defining real behaviors related to that word, the team will find common ground as they learn that they all want to be treated fairly and similarly. They can then agree on acceptable versus unacceptable behaviors and hold each other accountable.

Third, review known risk factors for harassment and bullying (and make a plan to address them). 

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offers a list of several risk factors and suggestions for mitigation. To truly prevent harassment, an organization must seek to minimize those risk factors to the best of its ability. Employers should ask themselves: What are we doing or not doing that hinders—or facilitates—incivility, bullying, and harassment?

For example, stressful environments that perpetuate burnout facilitate toxic behavior. The more burned out a person is, the less energy they have to care about others’ feelings, much less exert energy toward being civil. While an organization may never remove stress entirely (Wouldn’t that be nice!), employers can find ways to reduce stress by offering time off or by giving employees mental health days in addition to their regular paid time off.

Concepts such as harassment, workplace bullying, inclusion and diversity, and employee engagement shouldn’t be treated as siloed actions or initiatives. When employers create a culture of inclusion and civility, they reduce the chances of harassment and workplace bullying occurring.

Toxic behavior, whether unlawful or not, should be addressed early on with civility. Offer the workforce the tools to treat others with respect and to hold each other accountable. That is true harassment prevention. 

Catherine Mattice, SHRM-SCP, is CEO of Civility Partners in San Diego.