How Workplace Harassment Interrupts DEI Efforts

Workplace harassment, also known as workplace bullying, is defined by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as unwelcome conduct based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, older age, disability, or genetic information.

With workplace harassment, one or more people intentionally inflict pain or harm on another person, and it often impacts the targeted person's health, career, emotions, and home life. Workplace harassment is an abuse of power and can include sexual harassment, psychological harassment, bullying, and retaliation.

DEI efforts in the workplace

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in the workplace are not compliance initiatives. Successful DEI implementation in the workplace fosters innovation and openness, and when properly managed, can lead to higher retention rates among staff and an overall friendlier culture within the organization. Understanding the three core components is essential to recognizing why DEI efforts are not compliance initiatives. 

Diversity is the presence of differences such as race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, disability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective. Diversity is not tokenism.

Equity promotes justice, impartiality, and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems. 

Inclusion is when people feel and are welcomed despite their differences.

DEI training demonstrates how employees experience the same workplace differently depending on their differences or identities. The more you increase inclusion, the less you experience harassment and bias claims. Additionally, DEI positively impacts the workplace. DEI drives employee productivity and performance, fosters creativity and innovation, grows a company's talent pool, reduces employee turnover, increases profits, and expands a company's customer base. Unfortunately, only about 58% of agencies have reported having DEI policies.

Workplace harassment interrupts DEI

In truth, ignorance is one of the primary reasons most DEI initiatives fail. DEI efforts can also suffer from a lack of input from those previously excluded (i.e., creating policies about people with disabilities without seeking input from someone who has a disability).

Many are aware of DEI efforts in their workplace but expect new employees to join and assimilate to the pre-existing workplace culture. This often persists to the extent that many hiring managers also seek recruits trained to fit into the existing workplace. 

Assuming that recruits and existing employees will conform to the existing culture is missing the point, and it also represents other underlining issues within the organization.

Organizations that fail to change have deep-rooted issues that prevent the latter two components of DEI (equity and inclusion) from thriving, for example: 

• Weak job descriptions and ambiguous chain of command
• Poor accountability 
• Established cultures ("this is the way it's always been" mindset)
• Competitive environments
• Fear of retaliation from the old guard 
• Lack of policies and procedures 
• Inability to resolve conflict

Regrettably, these issues are prevalent in organizations where workplace harassment is tolerated. This lack of accountability fosters cultures that permit more of the same and ultimately interrupt DEI efforts overall. 

Cultures that turn a blind eye to workplace harassment are essentially asking DEI managers to do the impossible: overcome ignorance and intolerance without the support of their leadership − often in hostile environments.

Instead, organizations should seek to modify workplace culture (vs. expecting conformance to an existing culture) − doing so is critical to DEI efforts.

How to prevent workplace harassment

Organizations looking to prevent workplace harassment should look for model policies that discourage bad behavior and encourage DEI efforts. Properly training employees and designating a member of the organization to ensure those policies are upheld without fear of retaliation is key to successful implementation. 

Here are a few steps to improve the chances of a successful DEI initiative and prevent workplace harassment: 

1. Inform all employees that harassment is strictly prohibited and develop policies that reflect the organization's commitment. 
2. Designate a staff member or department responsible for upholding those policies and create procedures for employees to communicate concerns, discuss harassment, or file grievances if those policies are not followed. 
3. Guarantee employees will not be punished or retaliated against for asking questions or sharing their concerns. 
4. Respond to questions or concerns appropriately and investigate harassment complaints quickly and efficiently, and
5. Ensure that managers and higher-ups understand that it is their responsibility to stop, address, and prevent harassment.

Taking these first steps will help foster an environment where accountability is expected, ideas can thrive without consequence, and encourage employees to participate in efforts that improve diversity, equity, and inclusion.