Institute for

Conflict Resolution

Your Best Course of Action

You are required by law to provide your employees with a safe and non-hostile work environment. If you do not pay immediate attention to a complaint of sexual harassment, you are opening yourself up to costly litigation. Basically, there are 3 ways to handle a report of sexually inappropriate behavior:

1. You could ignore it, or delay any action.
2. You can retain an independent investigator (which can be effective but very expensive).
3. You can handle the inquiry internally (which requires an efficient plan of investigation.)

Option #3 requires the following course of action:

A. Decide who will conduct the probe.
B. Decide who else needs to be interviewed, besides the alleged victim and the harasser, and in what order.
C. Determine what questions are to be asked, and how the parties' rights will be protected and how confidentiality will be maintained.

Ideally, you should launch an investigation within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

Be mindful of the following should you decide upon option #3:

The person chosen to lead the inquiry should be a trusted member of your management team, a human resources representative, or your corporate counsel. According to noted attorney Sheldon C. Toplitt, human resources officials represent your best choice since they have experience questioning employees and "make credible witnesses when matters end up in court." He adds the warning that when you use in-house counsel, it may mean that attorney-client and work product privileges are waived if counsel directly interviews witnesses. In addition, it is crucial that a complete file be kept. This file should contain the complaint, employee handbook policies and personnel procedures, witness statements, notes of telephone conversations and meetings, corroborative documents (such as offensive emails and obscene pictures) and a final written report.

drsol@workconflicts.com