This article was first published by BRINK here.
The #MeToo movement has grown significantly since its inception five years ago, shining a spotlight on the widespread prevalence of sexual harassment and even violence in workplaces in several countries and leading to more frequent employment practices liability (EPL) claims.
In this episode of Risk in Context, Kelly Thoerig, Michelle Sequeira and Carrie Kurzon discuss the evolution of the #MeToo movement, how it led to cultural changes in workplaces, and how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the claims landscape.
On the need to revisit culture within organizations:
Organizations have this huge opportunity to be revisiting their organizational culture, and I would encourage firms to use a data-driven approach.Michelle Sequeira
On the need to look for red flags possibly related to sexual harassment:
The absence of reported claims or media scrutiny, unfortunately, in this area does not mean that an organization is in the clear.Kelly Thoerig
On sexual harassment in the work-from-home era:
Whilst we are seeing that claims had in the past been around office presence, now the reports are showing that 45% of women in England and Wales have said that they’ve been sexually harassed in an online virtual capacity, whether that is via Zoom, or Teams, or Slack, sexual calls, etc.Michelle Sequeira