For one reason or another, business owners may find that one or several office romances have occurred among their workers. While surveys differ on how successful these relationships turn out to be, human resource experts caution that they can often lead to lead liability issues, where co-workers claim individuals are getting favorable treatment.
With this in mind, here are a few tips business owners may want to keep in mind as it pertains to allowing employees to date one another.
Perhaps the most straightforward option is to make office romances permissible. However, experts say that there should be strings attached to this allowance.
For instance, it may behoove business owners to draft some type of dating policy, where both sides have to come to mutual agreement about what is and is not allowed in the workplace as far as interactions go. Business owners may also want to write up a contract, where both parties sign the document once they understand the company's sexual harassment policy. This may prevent liability issues should they materialize.
Another option is to prohibit these types of affairs entirely. While establishing a company policy that bans office romances may help managers avoid liability concerns, it can be difficult to determine what qualifies as permissible and forbidden. Before establishing a ban, experts say that managers should be clear about the type of behavior that's deemed unallowable.
More than anything else, however, the company policy on dating in the workplace should be unambiguous. Once the standards have been established, business owners may want to update their HR compliance statutes with their workers so that everyone is familiar with company policy and who they should contact if rules are broken.
