I get it – snooze-worthy, old-fashioned harassment and discrimination training isn’t in line with the vibe you’re trying to create at your hip tech startup. You want to be laid back, cut out all the corporate bull$&^*, build a community within your company that transcends normal working drudgery. I totally get it – millennials are flocking to you, and the rigid rules and boundaries of the generation before go out the window, because they have to. Millennials view bureaucratic rigidity as the workplace antichrist – a symbol of barriers to innovation and individual happiness at work.
I know that you’re trying to avoid giving your employees the corporate version of the classic mom lecture – “We have rules to protect you, we do it because we love you, this hurts us more than it hurts you.” Your employees aren’t children. Yet you may not be aware of the risk your organization faces – both legal and reputational – if you fail to provide adequate discrimination and harassment training and a little bit of structure around your corporate compliance training program.
I hope you’re in better shape than Tinder, GitHub, Square and any number of other companies (startups and beyond) that have been in the news recently. It’s clear that a harassment or discrimination claim of any kind goes beyond just the individuals involved – the company that employs them is on the hook too. And it happens to be your company – well, let’s just say that you really want to avoid the press that comes with such an incident.
Click here to read more about 3 Reasons Why Tech Startups Struggle with Discrimination and Harassment Training (And 5 Effortless Ways to Protect Your Startup)
