One of the most important aspects of creating a viable, growing business is to build an environment in which employees can feel safe and protected. This is also important for the owner of the company, as anti-harassment policies can protect employers from frivolous lawsuits. However, not all policies and employee handbooks are created equal.
Developing a good anti-harassment policy may be harder than you think, given the need to remain compliant with local and federal labor laws. The good news is that Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) like Einstein HR can help.
The Work Done By PEOs
Professional employer organizations offer HR solutions to businesses, often providing a better range of benefits to companies’ employees for a lower cost overall. Working with a PEO can free you up as the business owner to focus on the main aspects of your company rather than on administrative upkeep. PEOs can also save you money, as outsourcing your HR needs is often much less expensive than hiring a complete in-house HR team.
At Einstein HR, our PEO services cover a wide range of aspects, including:
- Establishing employee handbooks and policies.
- Handling payroll administration.
- Managing employee benefits packages.
- Dealing with workers’ compensation claims.
Since PEOs serve many companies, the pool of employees managed by the PEO is much larger than just your business. This allows PEOs like Einstein HR to provide companies with higher-tier benefits packages at lower-tier prices.
Creating an Anti-Harassment Policy
Einstein HR can help you draft, implement, and enforce your company’s policies and procedure manuals. This includes policies to ensure that your business is free of harassment of all kinds: sexual harassment, religious harassment, political harassment, racial harassment, and more.
The process of writing a good anti-harassment policy has many steps, and this helps ensure quality and policy strength. Each step is vital to building the kind of working environment that will help your company thrive and grow.
Developing the Content
Through discussion with you, Einstein HR will work to draft a policy that truly meets the needs of your company and its diverse employee pool. We have decades of experience anticipating and understanding the needs of businesses.
Writing the Policy
After settling on the appropriate content, the next step is to actually write the policy down. This can be complicated and usually involves penning very specific wording to ensure that the policy has weight and is effective.
Reviewing the Policy
It is important to take time to review the policy before it is implemented to ensure that no mistakes were made and no legal loopholes exist. This includes having you, the owner, review the policy to make sure that it is a policy with which you are comfortable.
Approving and Implementing the Policy
Once the policy has been reviewed and is finalized, all that is left is to disseminate the information to employees and begin the implementation process. This can involve employee training seminars and distribution of new employee manuals, both of which are areas in which Einstein HR excels.
Elements of a Good Anti-Harassment Policy
While the needs of each company are unique to that business and its local environment, all good anti-harassment policies contain certain elements. Knowing these important mainstays can help in drafting a policy that is easy for employees to understand and easy for you to implement.
Expansive Reach
Your anti-harassment policy should include various kinds of harassment, and not merely one form (such as sexual harassment). Describing all of the different forms of prohibited behavior can make the policy clearer to employees and ensure that all employees feel safe and accepted.
Examples of Unacceptable Behavior
It is best to include examples of the kinds of behavior that your business will consider unacceptable under its anti-harassment policy. Employees may default to thinking about legal regulations, but your policy can prohibit behavior that is technically not illegal. Providing examples can bring clarity to the issues.
Lack of Legal Jargon
Your policy should contain as little legal jargon as possible. Unless you own a law firm, your employees are not lawyers. Having technical legal definitions rather than real-world examples will only confuse and obfuscate the policy. When a policy uses simpler language, it is often easier to understand and easier to enforce effectively.
Contact Einstein HR to Protect Your Working Environment From Harassment
Einstein HR is a PEO company that you can trust. Founded by industry veterans, we have decades of experience helping businesses provide employee services and crafting policies to protect both employees and business owners. While working with a PEO is a strategy often used by large companies, small-to-mid-sized businesses can benefit immensely from the lower costs and higher quality of services.
If you need help drafting and implementing your company’s anti-harassment policy or dealing with any other human resources issues, consider outsourcing your HR needs to Einstein HR. We offer a FREE no-obligation quote on our services. Simply fill out the form on our contact page and one of our representatives will be in touch with you within 48 hours.