Batali, Besh, Bourdain, Colicchio. Big names in the restaurant business are talking about rampant sexual harassment, either by admitting to it or calling out others for it. Hotels have fared no better, with mainstays like Omni, Marriott and even luxury grande dame The Plaza Hotel all facing lawsuits, among countless others.

It's clear to see how these missteps can easily bring down the mighty, as they not only invite bad press but can result in CEOs stepping down, sinking stocks, lower profits, and worse, devastatingly expensive lawsuits.

Mere weeks ago, following allegations from at least 150 current and former employees of sexual harassment against Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts' stock tumbled billions in just days and now the entire Wynn board is being sued.

In response to the epidemic of sexual harassment reporting, a new female-founded venture called B3OND (pronounced "beyond") has launched a survey series project born of two established, boutique advisory agencies. B3OND's survey and consulting packages were specifically created to simply and succinctly unearth sexual harassment in businesses. General sexual harassment surveys are available for any type of company and specific surveys exist for industries where it has proven to be especially rampant, including hospitality.

"It is crucial for employers to root out sexual harassment in their companies and get ahead of any impending scandals or lawsuits. Our surveys and the resulting data provide important insight, effect change from within organizations and help businesses demonstrate they take these issues seriously and are willing to evolve," said Heather Yanak, J.D., B3OND CEO and co-founder. "Seeing a dearth in the consulting industry for an easily implementable remedy to this problem, we sensed an immediate need for this service."

What sets B3OND's surveys apart from traditional consulting programs is set out by three cornerstones: streamlined design (all surveys are 20 questions or fewer), ease of implementation, and immediately actionable results and guidance. B3OND's unique client experience further differentiates from traditional consulting firms in time and money. Rather than committing to six or seven figure contracts and several months of interviews and observation with consultants, as is normal with larger consulting firms, B3OND's surveys are relatively affordable and produce results in mere weeks.

Further, surveys are multilingual (8 major languages, so far), require no additional/special technology or software to administer and can be edited for a particular client's needs. Analysis and consultation services on the resulting data is optional to the client and can be amended according to clients' needs, as well.

The survey series, which launched in October 2017, segued into sexual harassment and the hospitality industry, specifically, given the current business climate around the #metoo and #timesup movements.

"We are especially focused on industries receiving a disproportionate amount of media attention for being sexual harassment hotspots as this sort of misbehavior is often very much entwined with accepted business culture," says co-founder and V.P. of Data & Analytics Tracy David Bradley, Ph.D. "Although our initial surveys centered around FCPA, third party risk, and overall corporate culture, we recognized the dearth of simple but effective surveys available based generally on sexual harassment and specifically on the retail, hospitality, tech and entertainment industries, so, creating them for existing and new clients was a self-evident expansion for our firm."

ABOUT B3OND

With over 40 years of collective survey design and assessment experience, woman-owned firms Cameo Advisory Group and Illuminate Advising & Analytics launched their joint survey product line B3OND in October 2017.

Co-founders Tracy Davis Bradley, Ph.D. and Heather N. Yanak, J.D. create succinct, multilingual surveys aimed at jump-starting the diagnostic and strategic efforts of an array of professionals and functions, including compliance/ethics, human resources, legal, risk, marketing, IT, and sexual harassment in the hospitality and other at risk industries. B3OND surveys efficiently establish a baseline of current gaps or potential issues across a range of risk areas, providing critical input for setting strategic objectives and targeting limited resources. The survey series was developed in response to feedback received from clients over the years who wanted shorter, reliable surveys to help them take immediate steps to address issues brought to light by the surveys.

"Our clients didn't want to take months to design, deploy, and analyze a survey only to be left to decipher what the data indicated they needed to do and how to prioritize their efforts," said Bradley.

The name B3OND is a nod to the three cornerstones of the agency and the three women at the helm: Heather Yanak, serving as CEO, Tracy Bradley, serving as VP of Data & Analytics, and Caroline Starry, J.D., Dir. of Communications & Business Development. For more information on B3OND, please visit www.b3ond.com.

Caroline Starry
Director of Communications & Business Development
B3OND