Partner Nicole Page Quoted on How Employers Can Avoid Hiring Sexual Harassers

Law360 recently published an article entitled, “5 Tips To Help Employers Avoid Hiring Sexual Harassers”, which featured Partner Nicole Page. While it is difficult for employers to find evidence or accusations of sexual misconduct in standard reference checks, there are some ways employers can avoid hiring someone they will regret bringing on to their team.

For example, employers can use job interviews in order to investigate a potential hire’s history of sexual misconduct by asking direct questions on the topic and reading their body language in response. It may also be useful to review social media posts and conduct background checks.

Nicole explains however, that the best defense against harassers in the workplace is for employers to cultivate workplaces that do not allow sexual misconduct to take place. Nicole states, “Once [would-be harassers] get into your environment, are they going to feel empowered to continue that bad behavior? Or are they going to be getting messages from the top down, and all around, that that kind of stuff is not acceptable?” She notes that the societal muzzling of sexual misconduct claims remains a fundamental problem in the hiring process and that the rise of the #MeToo movement hasn’t erased women’s fear of career-crippling retaliation if they report sexual harassment. For that reason, having a diverse workforce from top to bottom is a good way to debilitate would-be harassers, regardless of what they’ve gotten away with in the past. She notes, “If you have women in positions of power – and I don’t just mean one token, but a significant amount – then you don’t see this kind of behavior as much. You just don’t.”

To learn more, read the full article on Law360 here.