Gender equality and your organization culture….

One of the largest employment jury verdicts in U.S. history was recently awarded against Memphis headquartered AutoZone, Inc. The jury awarded Rosario Juarez $185 million dollars in punitive damages ($25 million more than her $160 million punitive damages request) and another $872,00 for lost wages and emotional stress. The verdict included findings of gender and pregnancy discrimination, harassment/failure to prevent harassment and retaliation even though basic levels of training were in place. While AutoZone will eventually recover financially from this blow, what steps do they need to take to repair their reputation, ensure these kinds of violations don’t happen again and to restore employee trust and engagement? Training alone will not suffice. There will need to be a well-orchestrated plan to address the California Court’s and the EEOC’s concerns. And, what about your organization? What is your company doing to support its basic anti-harassment/discrimination policies? Statistics show that mere training is not enough. Successful companies use a combination of policies, consistent company messaging and modeling, organizational system design and strategic periodic professional development coaching and team facilitation as well as interactive and practical trainings. Now is the time to evaluate your culture and professional development plan. If you are ever in the position AutoZone found themselves in and are asked about what steps you took to support your training efforts to ensure they actually impacted your culture for a positive and safe work environment, what will you say?

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