4. The Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy must include several ways that employees can report incidents or concerns—not just talking with their immediate supervisor.
It is important to give employees and supervisors a variety of methods to report concerns and incidents of Sexual Harassment.
Sometimes Sexual Harassment incidents happen between people within a department, or in a small department where everyone knows each other. It might be difficult for the victim to speak up about incidents that involve people they work with every day.
Therefore, every policy should give the victim options to talk to other supervisors, someone in Human Resources, the Chief Executive Officer, other management personnel, or even an outside attorney or someone on the Board of Directors.
The lawsuit Meritor Savings Bank vs. Vinson (1986) made it clear how important it is for employees to have reporting options. In this case, the victim, Ms. Vinson, had no one to report to other than her supervisor—and he was the one sexually harassing her. The courts do not look kindly on this.
Contact Randi Frank if your employees and supervisors need training on your company’s Sexual Harassment policy. Randi can give you a quote for Sexual Harassment Prevention Training and Policy Development.
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