Building a Safe Workplace for all SOIL Staff

Since it was first published in 2015, SOIL’s Human Resources Manual has served to guide, unite, protect, and inform SOIL’s staff. The manual, written in Haitian Kreyòl, contains 24 pages with topics ranging from vacation time to salaries, confidentiality, performance evaluation, conflict resolution, and so on. Even though each employee goes over the entirety of the manual with their supervisors, SOIL felt it was worth investing the time in providing even further clarification and training on one subject: workplace harassment.

After spending almost a year looking for someone who would offer such a training in Haiti, SOIL was delighted to find Nathalie Marc-Charles, a Haitian HR specialist and CEO of the boutique Human Resource consulting firm HR Connect. Nathalie held two trainings, one for each office, and nearly every SOIL staff member was able to attend. Nathalie started off by congratulating SOIL for deciding to address a topic that far too many organizations would rather not confront.

Harassment as we addressed it consists of both physical and sexual harassment. While physical harassment is straightforward for most people to wrap their heads around, the idea that commenting on someone’s clothes could qualify as sexual harassment was a surprise to some. Nathalie presented the definition of sexual harassment and we went through a variety of scenarios as a group to move from theory to practice. We also watched a powerful testimonial video on sexual assault and harassment by Haitian actress and comedian Gaëlle Bien Aimé.

Throughout the training, Nathalie facilitated difficult conversations effectively, and in the end SOIL employees felt that they had a clearer understanding of what harassment, particularly sexual harassment, means in the context of the workplace, as well as a clear path to redress should they feel that they are experiencing harassment at work.

SOIL is proud to have taken this step towards creating the safest workplace that we can and we are committed to ensuring that our Human Resource Manual is well-understood and well-applied.

If your organization is interested in contacting Nathalie at HR Connect, you can call her at +509 4743-4242 or email [email protected].

Support SOIL

SOIL depends on individual donations from people like you to fund our work in Haiti. Please consider supporting SOIL today.

Want to keep reading? Check out these other recent posts on the SOIL blog

• Capacity Building Training for SOIL’s Sales Team Sep 19, 2023
• SOIL’s EkoMobil Service Sees an Increase in Rental Requests Aug 29, 2023
• SOIL Welcomes CDC to Offices in Cap-Haitien Aug 21, 2023
• Meet Rich Flammer: SOIL’s New Advisory Board Member Aug 15, 2023
• SOIL and IAF Meet Up in Fort Bourgeois Aug 9, 2023
• CBS: The Future of Safely Managed Sanitation Aug 4, 2023
• New Study by WHO and UNICEF Reports Women and Girls Most at Risk From the Water and Sanitation Crisis Jul 27, 2023
• 2023 Tourism Innovation Summit Kicks Off in Cap-Haitien Jul 7, 2023
• Grinder Campaign Update – Thank You! Jun 28, 2023
• SOIL Participates in Water and Sanitation Forum in Cap-Haitien Jun 22, 2023