You can’t truly know person from his or her interview. As an employer, every hire runs the risk of turning your office into a hostile work environment and opening your company up to sexual harassment complaints. Scientists have created a survey that can help you estimate if your supervisors are likely to sexually harass your employees.

In this blog post I will discuss Psychologist John Pryor’s “Likelihood to Sexually Harass Scale”. I will talk about an employer’s responsibility to respond to sexual harassment allegations, and explain how working with an employment discrimination attorney early, and informally, can help the company.

Sexual Harassment Is Not a New Problem

The #MeToo movement on social media has brought issues of sexual assault and workplace harassment to a new level of national awareness. But unwanted sexual attention at work is not a new problem. A closer look at the complaints against media moguls, politicians, and corporate CEOs reveals that this behavior has been going on for decades. So have the efforts to stop it.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, first enacted in 1964, recognized the need to protect employees of all genders from unwanted sexual advances, quid pro quo offers for sexual favors, and physical or verbal abuse. The law held employers, supervisors, and managers responsible for sexual misconduct that happened on their watch. Since then, the EEOC and private sexual harassment lawyers have been working, one case at a time, to defend employees’ right to work without sexual harassment or gender discrimination.

“Likelihood to Sexually Harass Scale” Gives Employers a Tool to Protect Workers

The scientific community has been working on the issue of sexual harassment as well. For over 30 years, Psychologist John Pryor, a professor at Illinois State University, has been working to find a way to sniff out problem employees and supervisors before they create hostile workplaces. Pryor first created his “Likelihood to Sexually Harass Scale” in the 1980’s to see if male supervisors’ behavior changed if they felt they could get away with sexual harassment.

He created a survey that tested sexual coercion — the willingness of a person in power to offer a bribe or threaten punishment for sexual cooperation. The test asked men to put themselves in 10 power positions: hiring a new assistant, promoting coworkers, and disciplining subordinates. It asked about their willingness to connect those decisions with romantic or sexual decisions. Then it compared their responses to those of known harassers. Over time, Pryor and his team put together a pattern of thoughts and behaviors of participants most likely to sexually harass employees:

• Lack of empathy
• Belief in traditional gender roles
• Tendency toward dominance or authoritarianism
• Feeling impunity or the belief they will get away with it

Generally, the more powerful a person felt, the more likely he was to cross the line into sexual harassment. That makes managers and supervisors more likely to sexually harass their employees than their less powerful counterparts.

Employers’ Duty to Prevent and Address Sexual Harassment

No one can control what another person says or does. There is no way for employers to stop every instance of sexual harassment. However, if you don’t respond to concerns raised by your employees, it could expose you to legal consequences.

The best way to address sexual harassment is to prevent it from happening. Commercial or even consumer versions of Pryor’s study could be a place to start, helping to identify high-risk employees. Managers and supervisors, particularly those who score as highly likely to sexually harass, can be required to attend training that outlines the law and company policies against sexual harassment and gender discrimination. You can also minimize the chances of harassment by requiring a third party be present in moments of high power dynamics (like hiring, promotions, reviews, and terminations).

When prevention fails, employers must take reasonable steps to address the sexual harassment that occurs. Depending on the circumstances, this could include disciplining the offender, rearranging shifts or assignments to separate the parties, reinstating lost positions or paying lost wages, and implementing procedural changes to keep it from happening again. Whatever you do, it is important that you protect the victim from retaliation, or you could be facing a separate gender discrimination claim on that alone.

Resolving Sexual Harassment Complaints

Employers have a lot to consider in addressing a sexual harassment claim. You need to balance the cost of defending litigation or EEOC charges against a lawsuit’s ability to disrupt your business. Often, the best answer is to resolve the matter privately by negotiating with the employee’s employment discrimination attorney or the EEOC investigator.

Informal mediation, negotiation, and other alternatives to public court can protect your business and your employee’s interests. Often, your employee is just as interested in resolving the matter quickly and quietly as you are. If you find yourself facing a sexual harassment complaint that could escalate, it is often better for business if you set your pride aside and work with your employee’s attorneys, rather than simply promising to “see them in court.”

At Eisenberg & Baum, LLP, our experienced sexual harassment attorneys understand the balance between prevention and an employer’s reasonable response. We are often happy to work with our clients’ employers informally to resolve sexual harassment complaints without the unnecessary publicity that can come with a federal complaint. If you are an employee facing sexual harassment and want an attorney who will respect your priorities, as well as defend your interests, contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation and understand the options for your case.