Reporting harassment or discrimination in the office is one of the challenges most employees face. Some choose to live in silence for fear of judgement that may lead to further discrimination or even worse, firing. Well, Google is learning from its own mistakes and has now announced that it will make cultural changes on how employees can report harassment and discrimination allegations.
This comes after 20,000 employees participated in a walkout in November last year, protesting against the company’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against top executives. The employees criticized Google for not leading the way as a vanguard company by employees who were adamant for change. “Google is famous for its culture, but in reality, we’re not even meeting the basics of respect, justice and fairness for every single person here,” Google employee, Claire Stapleton said.
According to a recent report, Google employees can now report concerns on a dedicated website. The tech giant also published an investigation report containing employee-related misconduct investigations, including discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, with a section on sexual harassment investigations. In the same breath, Google will be rolling out an Investigations Care Program to provide better care to Googlers during and after investigation.
The firm has also publicly shared workplace policies—including clear policies on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace conduct. The company hopes to roll out the same platform for its users after perfecting it internally.