Top 3 mistakes in most harassment policies
May 20, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Best Practices, Harassment, Special Report
HR pros never look forward to handling harassment complaints. But it still beats what can happen if complaints aren’t handled.
Of course, you know companies need to encourage employees and managers to report harassment, and make it easy to do so.
But many companies still get tripped when trying to create effective harassment policies and complaint procedures. Here are three common mistakes the courts are finding now:
No protections against retaliation
One reason employees might hesitate to report harassment: fear of retaliation. That’s why harassment policies should mention that retaliation is not tolerated.
Also, the policy should make it clear that complaints can be made anonymously, as much as possible. Complete confidentiality can’t be guaranteed, since that might hamper the investigation - but it should be known that the person’s identity will only be revealed on a need-to-know basis.
One avenue
Another common mistake is listing one person to bring complaints to. That causes big problems if that person happens to be the alleged harasser, or if he or she hears the complaint but doesn’t act on it.
Usually, the mistake is just telling employees to bring complaints to their supervisors. But even listing someone in HR might be inadequate, if that’s the only avenue. Policies should name at least two contacts (generally HR and one or more supervisors).
Confusing language
Too many policies are written in complicated legal jargon or just don’t do a good enough job explaining the steps of the complaint process. In court, the “We never got a complaint” defense won’t hold up if the employee can show he or she wasn’t adequately told how to bring a complaint forward.
That’s what happened in one recent case. A teenager sued her employer for harassment and won, even though no one at the company received a complaint. Why? The court saw problems with its complaint procedure. Specifically:
- Workers were told to bring complaints to their “district manager” - but not who that was or how to contact him or her, and
- Different documents gave two different phone numbers to call, neither of which reached a live person.
The judge ruled the company couldn’t have expected employees to navigate the process, especially considering some of them were minors.
Long story short: Companies need to write policies and procedures the average employee will understand.
(Cite: EEOC v. V & J Foods, Inc.)
Tags: complaints, EEOC, policy, procedure, V & J Foods
May 21st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Your explanations are clear and thorough; great writing and much appreciated information
May 21st, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Harrassment complaint from worker about customer. How does that need to be handled specifically?
Thanks
Kathleen
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
A suggestion on how to handle the problem Kathern Shanahan discussed in the May uissue. One of our clients, a bank, had a similar experience. One customer would conduct business with only this teller. Whenever he was in the bank to make a deposit or other function he would wait in her line and when his turn came he would comment on her good looks, suggest that they go on a date, etc. The man was a major bank customer. The teller began to feel as if she was beng stalked. She went to her supervisor to register a complaint. After some discussion the supervisor told the teller to notify him when this customer came into the bank and to her window. His solution was to stand next to her whenever he conducted a transaction at this teller’s window. The supervisor did this every time the customer came to the bank. After several of these transactions he became upset and asked why this was happening. When he was told his remarks to the teller embarassed her and made her feel uneasy as if she were being stalked, he apologized, stopped making the unwanted comments and went to the windows of other tellers. The supervisor handled the problem courtiously, retained the customer’s business and relieved the teller of her very real concerns.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
How does a small company, with less than 20 employees achieve confidentiality and also provide for more that the owner as the place to bring the complaint to. . The company I am talking about is a small manufacturer with only one female employee, the office manager, who reports to the owner. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
August 21st, 2008 at 10:37 am
Regarding Russell’s question, does the company have a relationship with a local attorney? That could be an avenue for presenting a complaint. Are there any management employees who could be trained so as to provide an avenue for lodging an complaint? Or perhaps an agreement could be made with a HR consultant / outsourcing service vendor?
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I am a county employee and maybe sounds incredible buth went l tried to complain above same sexual harassment ml boss asked mi to fixed the problem with that person then l tried HR they ignored me se l deside to go to county HR buth again l was ignored instead l start having allott of travel with mi boss l ended having a terrible depression at the point that l had to take a decision my work or my health et was berry sad for mi tho know that is impossible to get helped by the county et doN’T matter were l go es steell the county
I DoN’T Know WATH TODO :(:(