This is an excerpt from our Employee Handbook. We have released it under the Creative Commons Public Domain license, so you can freely use it in your own organization’s policies.
We pledge to make employment at Howard Development & Consulting a discrimination-free and harassment-free experience for everyone. This policy prohibits discrimination or harassment based on the following grounds, and any combination of these grounds:
- Race, ethnicity or color
- Sex, sexual identity or sexual orientation
- Gender, gender identity or gender expression
- Age
- Religion or creed
- Visible or invisible disability (including mental, physical, developmental or learning disabilities) or neurodivergence
- Mental or physical health, medical condition or genetic information
- Nationality, ancestry or place of origin
- Military or veteran status
- Marital status
- Family structure or family status
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding
- Body size
- Personal appearance
- Political affiliation, political views or political ideology (excluding speech or actions that rise to the level of discrimination or harassment as described in this policy)
- Conviction of a non-violent criminal offense unrelated to the duties of employment with the company
- Association or relationship with a person identified by one of the above grounds
- Perception that one of the above grounds applies
- Any other grounds prohibited by federal, state or local law
We’ve done our best to make this a complete and exhaustive list of the grounds upon which harassment and discrimination are prohibited; however, we also understand that this list will likely need to change over time to accomplish our goal of ensuring a harassment-free and discrimination-free workplace for everyone.
In everything we do as a company, we aim to protect and empower employees who are members of groups that have been historically marginalized, underserved or underrepresented in employment with tech companies. Company leadership may expand or modify the list above from time to time to further that goal. If we’re faced with questions or gray areas that are not specifically addressed by the list above, company leadership will be guided in its decision-making by the goal of protecting historically marginalized and underrepresented groups from harassment and discrimination.
We will review this policy at least annually and update it as needed to ensure a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone on our team.
Our Standards
We pledge to act and interact in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive, and healthy community.
In practice, this means that we will:
- Demonstrate empathy and kindness towards other people
- Encourage and be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences
- Gracefully give and receive constructive feedback
- Accept responsibility and apologize to those affected by our mistakes and learn from the experience
- Focus on what is best not just for us as individuals or the company, but for the overall community
Examples of unacceptable behavior include:
- The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind
- Trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks
- Public or private harassment
- Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical address, without their explicit permission
- Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting
We also hold all our clients to this same standard. If you experience discrimination or harassment when interacting with a client, please report it immediately to your manager and/or by following the complaint procedures described below. We will protect our employees from discrimination and harassment at all costs, including by ending relationships with toxic clients.
Reporting and Enforcement
Company leaders are responsible for clarifying and enforcing our standards of acceptable behavior and will take appropriate and fair corrective action in response to any behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive, or harmful.
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported to the company leaders responsible for enforcement at:
- [ Leadership Contact Info Here]
All complaints will be reviewed and investigated promptly and fairly. All company leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of the reporter of any incident.
This non-discrimination policy is adapted from the Contributor Convenant, the Ontario Human Rights Commission Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Policies, the British Columbia Human Rights policies and the California Fair Employment and Housing policies.