Small and medium enterprises have many things to keep up with. These include customer demand, revenue, marketing campaigns, and even taxes. The idea of employee discrimination never pops up on their radar until it becomes a full blown issue, and by then it’s too late to do damage control.
All businesses are required by law to provide their employees with a safe working place. The good news is that you won’t have to make radical changes or devote too many resources to prevent discrimination at the workplace. A few small changes are all that you need to cultivate a strong company environment.
Here are 5 tips to prevent discrimination at the workplace.
1. Write an Employee Handbook
The employee handbook is a great tool that gives useful information to workers about benefits such as paid time off, timing in and timing out, and lays out the rules of conduct at the workplace. This draft usually contains policies on employee discrimination, harassment, bullying, and other issues.
Every employee should receive a copy of this document (physical or digital) and sign it to acknowledge receipt. This way, mischief makers won’t be able to make excuses such as, “I didn’t know”. It is a safeguarding tool that shows authorities how proactive you’ve been in trying to create a safe environment for your workers.
2. Comprehensively Define Potential Discriminatory Acts
Employee discrimination is a big issue that includes racism, religion, gender, disability, citizenship, age, and more. The handbook should define all possible discriminatory acts to create a healthy work environment free from harassment and discrimination.
3. Proper Way to File a Complaint
Many employees continue to silently suffer discrimination at the workplace simply because they don’t have a way to file a complaint with the higher ups. Perhaps the work culture discourages employees from doing so.
This is a potential lawsuit that can set off a chain of reaction as affected employees go to authorities one by one.
The company must create a proper, formal way of filing complaints that easily reach the concerned authorities. Start by defining how discrimination complaints are handled, from filing complaints, to internal investigations, through to disciplinary action.
4. Conduct Training Sessions
Some people just need a reminder every now and then about company policy on employee harassment. This calls for regular team training sessions on what constitutes as harassment or discrimination. This training gives your employees a good idea about what is acceptable behavior or language. These training sessions may include a bit of role playing and an overview of possible trigger words that could elicit a negative response.
5. Follow Through With Action
It is important for leaders and managers in the company to handle employee complaints about discrimination in a consistent manner. Once you have established a proper protocol, you have to follow through with the right action. If need be, conduct trainings to teach subordinates how to handle each issue effectively.
Just make sure you are consistent with your company policy so that everyone is treated by the same standards when it comes to discrimination.
