In an article published last month in The Atlantic, author Caitlyn Flanagan focuses on Globoforce’s WorkHuman 2018 conference in Austin, Texas, and its keynote panel that featured champions of the #MeToo movement, including Tarana Burke, Ronan Farrow, and Ashley Judd. Flanagan attended the conference among an audience of supportive HR professionals. Historically, HR has struggled to reduce the frequency of workplace sexual harassment deplored by the panel and reported in surveys conducted by the EEOC. Throughout her piece, Flanagan wonders if many in-house HR departments, pressured by the demands of leadership, have overemphasized compliance in a way that merely indemnifies organizations against harassment accusations. Outside of compliance requirements, what can leaders do to enable and empower HR departments to combat sexual harassment in the workplace?

Flanagan is sympathetic to the middle managers who occupy HR positions, 75 percent of whom are women. She emphasizes that most at the conference clearly understood the problem and came up with solutions almost immediately:

The HR workers I met at the conference reported that there is only one way to eradicate harassment from a workplace: by creating a climate and culture that starts at the very top of the company and establishes that harassment is not tolerated and will be punished severely. Middle managers can’t change the culture of a company; only the most senior people can do that. And expecting an HR worker—with a car loan, a mortgage, college tuition around the corner—to risk her job in a fight against management on behalf of an employee she barely knows is unrealistic.

What if—instead of simply trusting that standardized compliance will do the work of diminishing sexual harassment—we also acted on the suggestion made by the HR professionals who spoke with Flanagan in 2018? Leaders can assess their workplace culture honestly and frankly, developing a mission for change that begins at the top. As a result of leadership’s self-reflection, employees throughout the company hierarchy will look more to HR departments as a resource for aligning behavioral values within an organization, rather than simply a legal buffer zone against liability.

As HR professionals reported to Flanagan, executives shape the character of an organization, and by taking the time to self-examine behaviors, communication styles, and belief systems, they can amplify personal strengths and model change in a way that will inevitably and positively affect the entire workforce. Leaders need to exploit the resources available to them—whether through in-house HR or an outside consultant—demonstrating to all reports and team members that there is no individual within the organization who can’t be benefited by coaching and feedback.

From these personal assessments, actions precisely relevant to a business’s singular character can emerge, based on the mission, workflow, hierarchies, employee backgrounds, and overall environment unique to the organization. Team members will respond with more enthusiasm to changes that arise not from boilerplate, mandated compliance but rather the organization’s particular character, with all its specific challenges and opportunities.

Part of the work is to ensure accountability when responding to complaints of unfair treatment in the workplace, but equally important is the customized standard of comportment set by leadership, communicating to the workforce that leaders walk the talk when it comes to respectful interactions.