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Five Common Mistakes In Sexual Harassment Policies

Rush Nigut wrote recently about five common mistakes he see employers make in drafting sexual harassment policies.  Rush makes very good points, here are a few highlights:

• The written policy does not provide and communicate in writing multiple channels for the complaint procedure. Employees should be able to report harassment to more than one person within the company. The complaint process should be clearly defined in your employment manual.
• Supervisors are not trained each year and supervisors are not required to report harassing conduct. Consequently employers often miss out on a possible defense in any lawsuit.
• Once notified of harassing conduct employers fail to take immediate action to investigate. Employers have the attitude that the employee must "deal with it." Complaints of harassment are often not taken seriously.
  

Rush's post is a good reminder for employers, and the entire post can be read here.  Don't forget, California employers with 50 or more employees must provide two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to their supervisors and managers every two years.  This requirement started in 2005.

Full post as published by California Labor & Employment Defense Blog on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).