A couple years ago, I got a call out of nowhere. It was a referral from another client and they were in trouble. An employee had filed a sexual harassment complaint with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and they were suddenly facing a possibly disastrous situation.
This was a midsized company with a little over 35 employees but at this time they had never found a reason to put together a process to handle a sexual harassment complaint. They just didn’t think it could happen to them. This absence of protocol left them vulnerable so I went to work right away.
An employee had been passed over for a promotion and she was sure it was because another female employee who had received the promotion was having a personal relationship with the supervisor who awarded her the job.
The Challenge
When filing a complaint with the EEOC there is no cost to the employee filing the charge and regardless of the outcome she could use the investigation documents to hand over to an attorney if she decided to pursue the case further, saving her a lot of money in legal fees.
The employee who filed the complaint didn’t feel like she had any other recourse than federal authorities because the company had never put a process in place for her to follow. Their involvement meant a full investigation. The legal bills they were facing had them very worried.
To make matters worse the offending supervisor and the woman who received the promotion denied the affair. This meant the entire process became much more difficult and costlier.
How I Helped
By hiring me to detail all aspects of the situation, they saved themselves thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees.
I assembled every fact and had the entire situation documented for the lawyers when they were brought in.
It took just over 7 months to finally get this whole thing sorted out. The supervisor eventually confessed to the affair and was terminated immediately. The real work came afterwards when I had to make sure they weren’t vulnerable to this kind of situation again.
It’s not unusual for companies to forgo some very important human resources procedures. People are busy with their jobs building the business and don’t realize that things like sexual harassment policies are essential no matter what the business size is.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!
My solution was multi-tiered and involved an Employee Assistance Program with a direct hotline for employee support and companywide training that addressed every possible facet of work conduct and what to do if someone breaches policy.
Managers were given additional training; new policies were created and an employee handbook was developed so that all employees know what is acceptable and what to do if lines are crossed.
The Results
This client was extremely grateful, and while the circumstances were negative, we did our best to push on and tackle the problem together. They were fortunately very agreeable, and we really didn’t hit any walls other than the offender’s initial dishonesty regarding the affair.
We were quite lucky in terms of the woman who filed the complaint too because once she had filed the complaint, she was essentially bullet proof at the business. She kept working though, doing a great job and she was awarded the promotion once the company understood her complaint was valid as well as receiving the pay she would have earned had she received the promotion from the start.
Lessons Learned
One thing that many business owners don’t know is that it is free for the employee to file a charge against them. Then, once the investigation is completed, he/she can take all the investigation documents from the EEOC to an attorney and minimize the cost for them to hire an attorney to represent them. Education, training and having solid HR processes in place are the key to preventing charges and lawsuits in the first place. But if you do encounter a problem – call Katherine; she knows how to handle it.
Sarah – Lawyer Testimonial
At the end of it the client learned a valuable lesson any business can take to heart: without proper policies in place you are completely vulnerable to being exploited by any employee who sees the opportunity and your employees are vulnerable to harassment of every kind.
Taking the step of bringing in an experienced HR consultant not only protects your business, it protects your employees and provides a much safer, healthier working environment for everyone.
Had this client already put harassment policies into place, the 7-month, six-figure nightmare would have been solved in an afternoon at no cost!
This is far from the only situation I’ve encountered like this. Many business owners simply don’t know, nor do they realize just how bad things can get without these policies.
If you haven’t implemented sexual harassment policies or you have any other human resources questions, please get in touch. These situations can arise out of nowhere but with the right preventative measures you, your employees and your company can be fully protected.
Taking advantage of my expertise gained over 35 years in corporate human resources and eight years as an HR consultant to small business owners , your business will be fully protected, your managers and employees properly trained and you will prevent sexual harassment claims from causing you stress, months of litigation and risking your reputation and your business.
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