Despite the numerous advances made in Italy over the years in the study of sexual harassment in the workplace (SHW), research has focused exclusively on victims, perpetrators, and their relationships, and not on the consequences that the experience of sexual harassment can produce in witnesses. The present study aims to address this gap by examining how the indirect experience of SHW, in conjunction with variables such as gender, age, self-efficacy, and coping strategies, affects the mental health status of witnesses of SHW. A sample of 724 employees completed a questionnaire that included a modified version of the Sexual Experience Questionnaire (SEQ), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and the Emotional Self-Efficacy Scale (RESE). Of the group, 321 participants reported witnessing sexual harassment in the workplace (28.2% of women and 16.2% of men). Results show that witnesses were younger than participants who described themselves as non-witnesses. Results also show that women and men who were witnesses were more likely to suffer the emotional and psychological consequences of the experience than non-witnesses. In addition, female witnesses expressed more positive emotions than men, which enabled them to manage their anxiety and emotional states when triggered in response to sexual harassment in the workplace. Finally, a significant association was found between perceptions of mental health and age, gender, experience with SHW, and self-efficacy strategies. The findings underscore the importance of sexual harassment intervention in the workplace, women and men who witness sexual harassment suffer vicarious experiences, psychological impact, exhaustion, disengagement, and negative feelings. Read more

Harassment of any kind has no place in the workplace. If you're an employer subject to federal anti-discrimination laws, you have a legal obligation to provide a work environment that is free from intimidation, insult, or ridicule based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. You must also be concerned with preventing harassment because you can sometimes be sued in state courts, depending on your state's anti-discrimination laws. Therefore, take steps to prevent and deal with sexual and other types of harassment in your workplace because as an employer, you may be held liable for your own acts of harassment that affect employees in the workplace, as well as the acts of your managers, employees, and even harassment by customers, suppliers, and others who regularly do business with you. Read more

To prevent sexual harassment, employers must treat sexual harassment as a workplace health and safety issue. This involves identifying and addressing the risks specific to a workplace. Respect@Work adopts the Safe Work Australia framework for risk management and applies it specifically to sexual harassment. The framework consists of four steps: identifying the hazards, assessing the associated risks, implementing control measures to eliminate or minimise risks, and regularly reviewing control measures to ensure they remain effective. Read more

‘Sexual Harassment’ as a concept was only identified in the 70’s and the term was coined in a session in Cornell University. Even though in practice it was universal, yet it was ignored, denied, trivialised and sometimes even indirectly encouraged, and of course, women were blamed for it. The definition of what constitutes sexual harassment has changed with time and the author who wrote it. From addressing only ‘sexual’ incidents traditionally, today it encompasses a much wider meaning. In the first part of this series, we have established that the Indian corporate sector is in dire of effective Sexual Harassment at Workplace policies; let us now understand the issue in a nuanced manner. In the Supreme Court directive of 1997, Sexual Harassment has been defined clearly and extensively. The guidelines say that sexual harassment includes such unwelcome sexually determined behaviours such as: Read more

Extremely talented individuals may leave your company, but not by choice. When an organization doesn’t provide for working parents, it neglects the needs of 40% of the working population. Supporting working parents means providing your employees with the time off and the flexibility to stay in their roles while supporting their growing families. It’s a win for parents, who can balance their job with their children. It’s a win for children, whose parents are more present with them. And it’s a win for employers, who retain some of their best employees (many parents have excellent situational judgment skills!) and minimize the cost of having to rehire every time a stellar staff member becomes a parent. So how can you support working parents, and what are the far-reaching benefits of doing so? This article discusses the many challenges working parents face and why supporting them is important. It also describes the eight strategies your organization can adopt to help parents in the workplace. Read more

Find out what support you might be able to get to help with your living costs. You can get benefits and other financial support if you’re eligible. This tool does not include all the ways you can get help with living costs. It will be updated with more types of support. Read more

Given the baby boom in 2021, parental leave policies and benefits that support employees as parents have become a top priority. Most employers must comply with federal and state minimum requirements, but any measures beyond that — like paid parental leave and family-friendly benefits, for example — are typically offered at the employer’s discretion. However, investing in employees’ abilities to care for their families can offer significant benefits for the employee, their co-workers, and the business as a whole. This investment can take a range of forms, from very small measures like updating policy language to larger ones like implementing on-site childcare. The right approach will balance the needs of the company with what working parents need to succeed. Read more

Our work lives and home lives used to have a high degree of separation, but the rise in remote work has quickly dissolved those barriers. While working from home may have benefits like reducing commute times, there are some drawbacks too. As the pandemic sent office workers home, working parents and primary caretakers found themselves juggling simultaneous roles on the home front while also balancing their performance at work. Some employers may not be aware of these challenges, which means now is the time for parents and caretakers to demand more, different, and better benefits from their employers. Here are a few benefits that can support employee well-being and help restore work/life balance. Read more

New YorkCNN — Being a working parent seeking affordable, accessible and high-quality child care in the United States can be as tricky — but much less fun — than solving the Rubik’s cube. The good news: More employers have started to offer child care benefits. The bad news: They are still in the minority. The average cost of daycare per week is $293 for one toddler and $556 for two, according to Care.com. But the actual cost of care to a family varies widely based on zip code, a child’s age, and whether a parent is seeking home-based care or center care. All in, however, data from the US Department of Labor show the annual cost for care of just one child — whether infant, toddler, pre-school or school-age — can easily eat up 15% to 20% of the median family income in many counties across the country. That is well above the 7% of family income that the US Department of Health and Human Services set as a federal benchmark for affordability. Read more

Flexible employment is an excellent option for candidates seeking a healthy work-life balance. It can also help employers by increasing employee retention and reducing costs. If you're looking for flexibility in the workplace, you may benefit from learning about the different benefits available to you.In this article, we answer the question "What is workplace flexibility?" as well as list examples and share how this structure benefits both employees and employers. Read more

In the early days of the pandemic, companies adopted new work practices out of necessity. Now, the value of flexible work has increased substantially among employees. “People are not going to return to work the way they have in the past,” says Kristin Kelley, chief marketing officer at CareerBuilder. “Flexibility is the new norm and expectation from employees—we’re going to see this trend continue in the months ahead.” To support the trend, research from CareerBuilder revealed that jobs allowing employees to work remotely received seven times more applications than in-person roles the previous month. And according to a study conducted by ManpowerGroup Solutions, nearly 40% of global candidates report that workplace flexibility is among the top three factors they consider. Flexible work helps attract top talent, but it also makes employees more productive. In the Gartner 2021 Digital Worker Experience Survey, 43% of respondents said that flexible working hours helped them achieve more productivity, and 30% of those surveyed said that less or no time commuting allowed them to be more productive. Here are some reasons why flexible work boosts employee productivity. Read more

Flexibility is no longer a buzzword for job descriptions. Instead, employees expect flexibility to be woven into companies’ work cultures. This means businesses should permit their teams to choose working arrangements that fit their needs and boost their productivity. Allowing flexibility doesn’t mean tossing out your company’s policies and work expectations. You can easily create flexible work arrangements that give employees autonomy and empower them to deliver optimal results. We’ll explore the benefits of promoting flexibility at work and how to create a balanced, flexible work culture for your team. A Future Forum Pulse survey found that 56 percent of desk workers have no say over the flexibility in their schedules. Often, only C-suite executives and senior employees are granted flexibility. Whereas three-quarters of senior executives have few to no schedule constraints, just 41 percent of nonexecutive employees enjoy this level of control over their schedules. The survey found that 93 percent of desk workers want a say in when they work, while 81 percent of employees want control over where they work. Given the survey’s respondent base — 10,243 full-time employees — it’s safe to say that similar views likely prevail among your workforce. Read more