Florida residents may have heard about a blog post by an Uber employee who claimed that she experienced sexual harassment at her job. Some have commented that this may have been avoided if the company had a stronger HR department. Uber’s CEO reportedly believes that the role of a human resources department is to recruit and hire employees. However, that department may also be used to facilitate employment development and management training.
For any company, employee and manager development is just as important as revenue growth. In a place such as Silicon Valley, a company may have a hard time getting its reputation as a quality employer back once it is tarnished. In an effort to show that it takes the issue seriously, Uber has hired Eric Holder to investigate claims of sexual discrimination. The company’s CEO has also met with more than 100 female engineers.
Creating a culture of inclusion may be an effective way to reduce the risk of subjecting employees to sexual harassment. Businesses are urged to do more than just pay lip service to diversity and actually embrace it. One way to do this is to encourage and promote efforts by employees to celebrate the backgrounds and contributions made by everyone within the company.
Those who believe that they have been discriminated against because of their gender may wish to seek sexual harassment legal assistance. An attorney may be able to review a case to determine the best way to proceed. This may mean entering into negotiations with an employer to resolve a claim or taking a case to court. If successful, a worker may be entitled to financial compensation as well as reinstatement to their job if he or she was terminated after making a sexual harassment claim.