In the modern era, sexual harassment cases have been featured front-and-center across many media outlets. Though most reasonable people would agree that it is important for a company to have a well-structured sexual harassment policy, this can be difficult for smaller businesses with limited resources. One way to deal with this issue is to outsource Human Resources services to specialized PEOs (or Professional Employer Organizations).
The Risk of a Lawsuit
The main reason to have an enforceable, high-quality sexual harassment policy in place is to protect your workers. Consistently, happier employees are more productive and stay with the company for a longer period of time, reducing the cost of high turnover. Another important reason to have a policy in place is to avoid a costly lawsuit as a result of alleged negligence. Lawsuits can negatively affect a business in several ways, including:
- Settlement: Of course, if you lose a lawsuit, there is a risk of high payments mandated by the court to the opposed party.
- Time: Lawsuits can take your attention away from the vital inner workings of your company while you are forced to dedicate your time to legal matters.
- Fees: Court fees and lawyers’ fees vary according to jurisdiction, but they can be costly in long-term court cases.
- Reputation: Even if your business wins the lawsuit, there is a possibility that its reputation will be damaged in the eyes of business partners, potential customers, and future employees.
At NetPEO, we have access to the nation’s largest network of PEOs. This puts us at an advantage for finding a PEO that specializes in handling sexual harassment policies.
How PEOs Can Help With Sexual Harassment Policies
In addition to taking on the burden of designing and writing a sexual harassment policy, a PEO can help in several other ways.
- Onboarding: A PEO can work with your new hires by instructing them about all of your company’s policies, including the sexual harassment guidelines.
- Training: As part of its yearly work, a PEO can hold occasional training courses to teach and reteach your employees about their expected conduct.
- Compliance: PEO specialists can make sure that your policy is in line with federal and state guidelines, freeing up your time to spend on the central areas of your business.
Businesses that use PEOs to outsource the creation and implementation of their HR policies tend to have a more well-rounded, structured policy. This is because PEOs are specialized organizations who employ experts in HR matters. Plus, smaller businesses with fewer than 100 employees may not have enough resources to be able to afford to spend the time and energy required for developing sound sexual harassment policy.
The crafting of a sexual harassment policy is one of several key PEO solutions that our in-network PEOs offer clients at NetPEO. All of those services can prove crucial to running your business as smoothly as possible.
How NetPEO Works
Say you need a sexual harassment policy or other important HR work but don’t know where to start. When you contact NetPEO, the process is made much simpler. We start with an analysis of the needs of your business to develop a profile that we can match with several of our networked PEOs. In other words, NetPEO acts as a broker to connect business clients with our partner PEOs in the most effective way possible.
Typically, NetPEO matches clients to a few PEOs from which the client can choose. After this choice is made, the client will sign a co-employment agreement with the PEO so that the PEO can begin assuming some of the duties that they have been hired to perform.
Though the better deal often is to outsource your company’s HR needs as a wholesale move, NetPEO also allows companies to pick and choose specific services in an a la carte fashion. For example, you can choose a PEO just to develop your sexual harassment policy if that is all your business truly needs.
Contacting NetPEO
If you have specific business HR needs like the development of a sexual harassment policy, start the process today by filling out the form on NetPEO’s contact page or call us at 678-376-1212. Not only can you get the expertise you need, but outsourcing these services can free up your time, prevent costly lawsuits, and save you money otherwise spent hiring full-time HR employees.
