What specifically does the “Best Practices” policy review accomplish?

It assists in creating a legally defensible policy, which is an integral part of creating an organization’s affirmative defense.  As a employer, you want to ensure that your harassment policy and procedures have been communicated throughout your organization and that the policy’s wording is clear, neutral and user-friendly.

Questions to consider regarding your policy:

• Does your policy cover the issue of false allegations that may occur during an investigation?
• What types of examples are given for prohibited behavior?
• How are issues of confidentially and retaliation addressed? Are they addressed at all?
• What is the process that should be followed by an employee who has a complaint?
• What is the process for filing a complaint?
• When and where does your policy apply?
• What does your policy say are the responsibilities of your manager when an employee files a complaint or when prohibited behavior is witnessed and no complaint is filed?
• What are the duties of your managers during the fact-finding process?
• Do your policy/procedures instruct your managers to contact the Complaint/HR department? Is it clear when your managers need to contact your Complaint/HR department?
• Are your managers clear on how to document harassment situations and when to do it?

Things to avoid regarding your policies and procedures (otherwise, problems may result):

• Policy created by legal counsel and is too “legalistic” and not user-friendly
• Complaint process is not clear

Advantages of Policy Review

• Affirmative Defense
• A perfect time for a “best practices” policy review is before doing harassment training. Respectful workplace/harassment training should be built around a company’s policy and procedures.  The policy and procedures communicate what is acceptable behavior to your workforce. They need to communicate the roles and responsibilities of each employee.  Effective training communicates and clarifies an employer’s          policy.
• Remove any obstacles related to employees who want to file a complaint
• Clarify managements’ responsibilities so they will be less likely to make mistakes that can create liability for your company.

Credentials

Stephen Anderson has been training over 25 years.  During that time, he has been retained as an expert witness.  The ADI training materials have been review and scrutinized in over 20 court cases and have never been found lacking in content and scope.  Stephen uses the exact same process whether acting as a consulting expert or expert witness for the plaintiff or defense. The ADI training and consulting methodologies are stalwart –and, have withstood all legal challenges.

Recent Testimonial
“Stephen Anderson's review of our Harassment Policy proved very enlightening.  Several modifications were made which strengthened and clarified our policy.”
Kenneth Castel
Sr. Regional Human Resource Manager
MSC Software Corporation
February 6th, 2006

Please read Stephen Anderson’s response about policy and “best practices’ review:

I've reviewed all my clients (25 to 35,000 employees) Sexual Harassment/Non-harassment policies/complaint process, since about 1985 and 95% of them have revised their policy/process based on my review.

• Even if an attorney writes a Policy, many are not employment law attorneys.  Even if they are employment law attorney, their approach is usually to take a 'less is better' approach when writing a Policy.
• My review includes legally, what is reasonable...AND, I take the perspective of:
• The supervisors who are responsible for enforcing the Policy in their workplaces
• Employees who are supposed to follow it and not do prohibited behavior
• The employee who is being harassed...and does the policy/process provide clear guidance on the complaint process.  Does the procedure encourage or discourage complainants from going to their employer as opposed to going to an outside agency for assistance