A
Anderson-davis has worked with over 4,000
organizations over the past 30 years in
countries around the world. As the most
experienced sexual harassment compliance,
harassment investigations and respectful
workplace compliance/sensitivity training
company in the United States, we understand
the needs of most companies. Our team is a
diverse and experienced group of
professionals. Why are we the best provider
in the industry? Legal expertise, a range of
curriculum choices, a customized approach,
affordable and award winning.
The following case study demonstrates how two
very different companies—one a predominantly
white-collar technology company and the other a
petrolium company with largely blue-collar
workforce—were able to employ Anderson-davis
training solutions to educate supervisors and
employees alike, building respectful workplaces.
Two very different organizations—one a
leader in the sales and manufacturing of
storage disk drives with a predominantly
white-collar workforce; the other, one of
the world’s largest petroleum product
refineries with a primarily blue-collar work
environment—shared the same business
problem: Both organizations had put
themselves at enormous risk by not
establishing a company-wide complaint
investigation process for effectively
investigating, resolving and healing
harassment and discrimination complaints.
For both organizations, this business
problem included three critical factors:
- Harassment and discrimination
complaints were not being consistently
and objectively investigated and/or
resolved.
- Neither organization had
developed an “organizational
memory”—they did not establish a central
HR documentation file for all HR
harassment and discrimination complaint
investigations and management’s
corrective actions.
- The human resource/security/legal
departments of both organizations lacked
a clear understanding and communication
of their respective roles and
responsibilities. The departments did
not understand how to be a resource to
each other during and after harassment
and discrimination complaint
investigations.
This business problem seriously impacted
both organizations including one being
involved in a costly lawsuit. Those impacts
included:
- Pattern sexual harassers and other
types of harassers were not identified
within their organizations. Their
behavior created hostile work
environments and significant employer
liability.
- In several situations the corrective
action taken by the employers toward
harassers was not consistent, prompting
the harassers to successfully sue their
employers for discrimination. One
example is of a Hispanic supervisor who
was terminated the very first time he
made sexual comments and jokes in the
workplace. Meanwhile, his non-Hispanic
peers who participated in the same
behavior, were simply told to stop and
were not terminated.
- Employees responsible for
investigating harassment and
discrimination complaints were not
effectively trained, causing them to
make a number of critical mistakes.
These mistakes included using the wrong
burden of proof when determining the
merit of sexual harassment complaints
where there were no direct witnesses,
not conducting objective and unbiased
investigations, recommending discipline
of an alleged harasser before completing
their investigation, lack of follow-up
with several complainants to ensure they
did not experience retaliation by the
harasser and colleagues and not
including the healing process during and
after several harassment investigations.
- Complainants were intimidated by
their organizations’ security
departments because they employed
criminal investigation interview
techniques when conducting
administrative process harassment
interviews.
- Because the human
resource/legal/security departments
within the companies did not clearly
understand and talk about their
respective roles and responsibilities
during and after harassment
investigations, there was limited
"organizational memory," no follow-up
with involved parties to identify and
prevent retaliation, and sometimes they
recommended inconsistent corrective
actions for similar offenses.
Anderson-davis, Inc. approached both
organizations’ business problem with a
three-phase process that focused on
instituting “best practices”, reducing their
liability, and providing customized training
for their corporate legal departments, all
levels of their human resources staff and
applicable security personnel.
The three-phase solution included:
- A comprehensive review of the
companies’ current sexual/non-harassment
policy and complaint process.
- Providing assistance to the client
organizations’ legal, human resource and
security departments in the creation of
a “best practices” sexual/non-harassment
policy and complaint investigation and
resolution process.
- Customized training for applicable
human resource/legal/security personnel
that assisted them in learning how to
objectively, effectively and
consistently investigate, resolve and
heal harassment and discrimination
situations and complaints.
Stephen Anderson, president of Anderson-davis,
Inc., worked closely with both companies to
implement the three-phase solution described
above.
Step One: Fact Finding
Prior to each training course Stephen
completed a “best practices” review of the
employers’ existing sexual/non-harassment
policy and complaint procedure. He then
provided their human resource/legal/security
personnel with a Client
Sexual/Non-harassment Policy and Complaint
Investigation and Resolution Procedure
Questionnaire.
Once the questionnaires were completed,
Stephen interviewed the companies’ senior
human resource/legal/security employees
separately and facilitated meetings between
them to gather more in-depth information
about their current policies and “usual”
procedures for investigating, resolving and
healing harassment and discrimination
situations.
Step Two: Consulting
Stephen suggested changes to their policy
and complaint investigation and resolution
procedures and coached the human
resource/legal/security personnel on how to
effectively implement the new
policy/procedures and present them during
Anderson-davis’ Investigations and Healing
Process training program.
Step Three: Custom Training
Stephen custom-designed and delivered a
skills-based, two-day training course, “How
to Effectively Manage Harassment
Investigations and the Healing Process” to
all applicable human resource/legal/security
personnel. The interactive training course
(80% skills practice) included taking the
participants through three distinct
client-customized harassment investigations
and skills practices, small and large group
discussions and a healing the workplace case
scenario. During the training, the newly
revised sexual/non-harassment policy and
complaint investigation procedures were
communicated and clarified by a company
representative.
How to Effectively Manage Harassment
Investigations and the Healing Process What
the participants learned from the course: (A
Condensed Outline)
- Legal trends in (sexual) harassment
and hostile work environment liability
- Clarification of legal, security,
human resources departments’ and
investigators’ roles/responsibilities
- How to consistently implement their
organization’s sexual/non-harassment
policy and complaint investigation
procedure
- How to plan and document an
investigation, while protecting
confidentiality and avoiding defamation
- How to appropriately talk with
alleged recipients, alleged harassers
and witnesses (and how to effectively
respond to their questions and concerns
- How to determine merit when there
are no witnesses
- How to determine appropriate
corrective action
- How to effectively manage the
healing process
Both client organizations used the
Anderson-davis, Inc. training course “How to
Effectively Manage Harassment Investigations
and the Healing Process” to certify all of
their human resource, legal, and applicable
security personnel. The clients periodically
offer the course to new human
resource/legal/security personnel, as do
other Anderson-davis, Inc. clients.
In addition to the training, Stephen
provided consulting services to both
organizations, assisting them in dealing
with specific situations identified during
and after the How to Effectively Manage
Harassment Investigations and the Healing
Process training program
After the completion of Anderson-davis’
three-phase consultation and training
intervention, both client organizations have
reported that their human
resource/security/legal departments are
working more effectively together, their
investigators are conducting more objective
and consistent investigations, they have
improved their organizational memory and
documentation process and their
investigators feel more confident in their
objective fact-finding skills. In addition,
both organizations have been more successful
in healing their respective workplaces and
individuals impacted by harassment
situations.
“Anderson-davis’ best practices review of
our Equal Employment Opportunity/Unlawful
Harassment policy and complaint process
provided us with practical guidance for
consistently investigating and documenting
harassment complaints. And as a result of
our HR professionals, legal and security
personnel attending Anderson-davis’
investigators program, they are better
prepared to manage and conduct objective and
thorough investigations and to effectively
manage the healing process,” said the Human
Resource Manager of the storage disk drive
manufacturer.
To explore ways that Anderson-davis, Inc.
can assist your organization in achieving
similar results or to learn more about their
customized sexual harassment, respectful
workplace and investigations training
programs, eLearning courses, award-winning
videos and consulting services, please
contact us.
We look forward to talking with you
regarding your corporate compliance needs!