Reports of the sexual harassment and even discrimination in workplace will always appear to be all-time high. You will see the media reporting about these allegations on a daily basis, and covering all the industries like technology, entertainment, law, media, finance, government and what not. There is also an indeed growth in the popularity of sexual harassment in the workplace lawyers as the victim will always move forward with such legal action under his or her sleeve. The company and even the employer is likely to be the one to get the blow of such cases. Now, you have 9 tips solely for the employers, on how they can actually deal with such workplace based sexual harassment cases.
Taking help of the lawyer:
Discrimination complaints or sexual harassment can always lead to some serious liability, which will include some punitive damages as designed to punish the company for handling complaints in an inappropriate manner. The sexual harassment law firm can face liability even if there is a low level supervisor who fails to comply with the company's policies and rules. Some of the cases require adding complex applicable laws and regulations. Therefore, taking the help of a lawyer is important.
Notifying the Board of Directors:
Board members are always there to provide some helpful advice regarding some of the difficult allegations, based on their experience. On the other hand, the board members might further hare to be surprised with some bad news. So, it is always the job of the employers to actually notify the Board of Directors if any such allegation came into being. They should know everything about the claims from the first.
Remember to treat the victim with respect:
Any bad move or wrong step from the company can create a stronger case against them. So, it is mandatory for the employers to treat the complaining victim or party with respect. They should not give them any chance to say anything bad about the company or the employers. So, it is vital to take this step in hand with ultimate care and affection.
Thorough investigation of the case is important:
If you ever ask Lawyers for harassment cases, the pros will always ask you to promptly and thoroughly investigate the case. All the complaints made should be properly taken care of and inspected, as it might help them to find some loopholes, if the fault is not from the company's sides. Failing to treat any complaint seriously can easily exacerbate the issue and even the liability to some extent, and that's the last thing you could have ever wanted.
Proper action during and after investigation:
A full on investigation into the sexual harassment cases and discrimination will mostly take time and it is one proper rule that the employer needs to follow. They have no time to waste and should take immediately action with respect to the employees who might have raised the concerns. There are multiple protective measures available, and those depend solely on the circumstances.
Get one anti-harassment and well-drafted policy:
In ideal cases, the company has already been quite careful in drafting anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy. If it fails to have any such policy then you should not waste time and get to adopt one right away. The helpful policies might run for 2 to 3 pages in the length and you can get hands on some samples from the experienced HR consultants or employment lawyers in here.
Get to cooperate with the government agencies:
It is always advised and strongly that the employers get the chance to promptly investigate the complaints of harassment or any of the unfair employment practices in here. There are some agencies, which might conduct their own investigation as relating to the employee claims, mainly after the employee files any administrative charge accusing employer of discrimination over here.
Be sure to check if the complaint can be resolved through arbitration method:
In case the litigation is threatened or just filed in court, it is time for the company to determine whether any of the arbitration agreement is applied in this claim. Arbitration might have a downside for the employers but has its share of special and strong upsides as well. It will include less public airing of the dispute and faster procedure to complete the mess.
Do not try to retaliate:
It is always the job of the company or the employers to not retaliate against any of the complaining employee, even when the initial complaint proves to be unfounded in nature. These retaliation claims are mainly difficult to just defend against discrimination allegations. So, be sure to cover this point here as well.
These are the nine major tips for the employers to focus at while dealing with the current workplace sexual harassment based complaints from employees.
