Informative Speech on Sexual Harassment: Prevention and Steps at Work

This report presents an informative speech on the critical issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. The speech aims to educate the audience on the nature of sexual harassment, which includes unwelcome physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature. The speech emphasizes the importance of proactive measures and policies implemented by employers to ensure a safe and secure environment for employees. It details the development of anti-harassment policies, employee education, and the establishment of clear reporting mechanisms. The report also highlights the vital role of employees in fostering a positive work atmosphere through awareness, sensitivity, and supportive attitudes towards each other. The speech concludes by reinforcing the illegality of sexual harassment and the collective responsibility of both management and employees to confront and prevent such misconduct. The report includes references to relevant literature on the subject.

Running head: ENGLISH
Informative Speech
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author Note

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TOPIC:
Sexual Harassment
SPECIFIC PURPOSE:
To help my audience understand what the steps are to avoid/stop sexual harassment at a
workplace.
THESIS STATEMENT: The aim of the speech is to probe into practices of sexual harassment
through various overtones and how to prevent it from happening at work places.
Introduction
 Sexual harassment is the unwelcome physical or verbal conduct or advances, which is
made in a sexual manner. The practices can be asserted over the victim, in implicit or
explicit ways.
 The topic would be discussed while paying deeper emphasis on objectivity while such
unwelcome conduct will be talked about with respect to refusal or acceptance of the
same..

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 Sexual harassment should be avoided by taking effective steps, by the employer and
preventing it from happening.
Body
1. Sexual harassment is a gnawing issue, which is heavily reported by employees at
workplace.
 Thus, it makes it a necessity to take preventive measures and policies to
ensure safety and security of the employees at workplace.
A. The responsibility lies with the employer, to make the employees feel
protected and safe.
 Thus, it is very important for them to take effective measures to deal
with sexual harassment.
I. The effective measures should also include laws.
 These measures would ensure that the employer is maintaining
standards and liability for safe environment for work.
II. It is important to have a clear intent to stop sexual harassment.
 The intent should be based on the importance to have a workforce, free
of such ill practices.
B. Anti-Harassment Policies are to be developed, which would clearly
give a message that any sexual unwelcome conduct will not be
tolerated.
 The Policies should set forth the consequences which will be taken and
the way in which a complaint can be made.

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C. The employer should offer information and education to the
employees on issues of harassment.
 The message and information will make people aware and feel safe in a
working space.
 The employees should have a clear understanding of the policies, so
that, no one has to be silenced despite their ill experiences.
 A well developed and implemented policy on the sensitive matter will help in
the process of dealing with such practices.
2. The responsibility does not entirely lie with the employer, in such a situation.
 Employees play a very important role to develop a positive atmosphere for
work, which prevents sexual harassment from happening.
A. It is very important for the employees to understand the importance of
the policies and sexual harassment misconducts.
 The employees must pay importance to understand the seriousness of
behavior practices which corresponds to sexual harassment and
violates policies of the company.
B. One must be observant and aware about potential incidents at work.
 The employees should be sensitive and keep a check whether their
approaches are being offensive in any manner.
C. The employees should have negative attitudes to not accommodate any
misconduct affecting the working environment.
 This can be followed by being careful about subtle forms of sexual
behavior.

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D. Employees should have solidarity and positive attitudes towards one
another.
 This will ensure that the work culture does not breed p=such practices,
even if anyone has such hidden intentions.
3. In order to avoid such circumstances, the employees can have sense of belonging
among each other.
 It is important to remind one another about the policies and the standard codes
of conduct and misconduct.
A. It is important to understand that sexual innuendoes, jokes and
comments are not to be welcomed.
 If anyone behaves in such a manner, it is important to report and
remind them about their conducts being offensive.
B. It is important to not entertain an offender or harasser.
 If the offender or harasser is smiled at and responded to, one might
think it is alright to continue and assert the offensive behavior further.
C. If someone being harassed feels not be safe to speak up, a confidential
help can be sought.
 The person feeing harassed may document the incidents or report it to
the higher authority to seek protection and penalization of the
offender.
D. It is very essential for employees to be supportive of each other.

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 If there is a person who is victim of sexual harassment, others should
offer support and guide them through the process of voicing the
concerns.
 It is thus very important to offer help and support and be aware about the
practices to save it from happening.
Conclusion
It can thus be concluded by reinforcing that sexual harassment is illegal and should be
prevented with the help of management and authority. It is needless to say that the responsibility
also lies with the employees to be observant, be able to confront the situation, expose the
harasser and escalate the matter. Every employee should have a supportive outlook in such a
situation, so that the victim feels safe to highlight the issue and put an end to such practices, so
that the offender does not feel it is in his power to continue such misconduct.

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Bibliography
Conte, A. (2019). Sexual harassment in the workplace: Law and practice. Aspen Publishers.
McDonald, P., Charlesworth, S., & Graham, T. (2015). Developing a framework of effective
prevention and response strategies in workplace sexual harassment. Asia Pacific Journal
of Human Resources, 53(1), 41-58.
Nielsen, M. B. D., Kjær, S., Aldrich, P. T., Madsen, I. E., Friborg, M. K., Rugulies, R., & Folker,
A. P. (2017). Sexual harassment in care work–Dilemmas and consequences: A qualitative
investigation. International journal of nursing studies, 70, 122-130.
Salman, M., Abdullah, F., & Saleem, A. (2016). Sexual harassment at workplace and its impact
on employee turnover intentions. Business & Economic Review, 8(1), 87-102.