Unfortunately, I had a pretty traumatic childhood. My parents were always fighting, and I was faced with trying to decide what to do about my own personal feelings. When I got older, I knew that I needed to do something to relieve the stress that I was feeling even many years later, so I started focusing on going to counseling. My first few appointments were a little nerve-racking, but the counselor worked hard to make me feel comfortable. I was really impressed with how gentle and kind she was, and I felt really great about the progress I was making. This blog is all about benefiting from counseling.
Benefitting From Counseling
How To Avoid Costly Mistakes During A Sexual Harassment Investigation
Ron Henry
A poorly conducted investigation can damage a company's reputation and cost the company financially. Companies are responsible for doing an unbiased, thorough investigation when an employee makes a complaint about sexual harassment. One in three women between the ages of 18 to 34 has been sexually harassed at work.
Sexual misconduct makes working conditions hostile. It also put indirect pressure on the victim to leave his or her job. As an employer, you have the legal obligation to maintain a workplace free of sexual harassment.
An effective and prompt response from an employer can eliminate or limit liability in a harassment lawsuit. For these reasons, it is essential that employers establish an effective system for investigating workplace complaints. Read on to find out how to conduct internal investigations to avoid costly mistakes.
Get Trained
Supervisors and managers should go through regular training. This training helps with identifying conduct that initiates retaliation, discrimination, and harassment. It also teaches managers how to respond to issues that they observe in the workplace and to problems reported to them.
If managers and supervisors are not properly trained, then the complaints will never make it to management or to whoever is responsible for investigating complaints. Not properly training your staff exposes the employer to significant liability in case of a lawsuit. Courts are looking to see what you did to solve the situation. If your staff is trained effectively to identify problems, then you can take appropriate and prompt action to resolve any conflict.
Know What To Do When A Problem Is Reported
Employers must understand what to do with a complaint in the workplace. Your managers should not investigate the conflict. They need to report the problem to the person in charge of investigating workplace complaints. This person is usually a personnel manager or human resource director. He or she should have a clean record, knowledge of company's policies, and employment opportunity obligations and the ability to stay impartial to investigations.
Ask The Right Questions
You can ask several appropriate questions than the standard when interviewing a victim. Other questions can pertain to how the person reacted, whether the person harassed anybody else, and if the harassment affected the person's job. You should also tell the employee to not worry about retaliation for telling the truth.
Incorporating these steps into your workplace investigations will minimize the potential liability of your company against claims. It sends a message to your employees when you create an environment that does not tolerate retaliation, discrimination, and harassment. For more information on handling workplace harassment complaints, contact a company like First Line Resources.
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