Human Resources Package Case StudyExecutive Summary Sexual harassment is one of the most frequentlydiscussed topics in employee relations today. EvenDonald Trump has advice for victims of sexualharassment.InaninterviewwithUSAToday,Trumpsaidthat ifhiseldestdaughterIvankawereeversubjectedtosexualharassment,he“wouldliketothinkshewouldfindanothercareerorfindanothercompany.”

It seemsDonald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has a betterunderstanding of employment law and workplacebehavior issues than her father. Ivanka Trump told FoxNews: "I thinkharassment in general, regardless, sexual

orotherwise, is totally inexcusableand if it transpires itneeds to be reported and it needs to be dealtwith on acompany level." "Wehave a very strongHR teamat theTrumpOrganization,who isequippedtodealwiththeseissues if they arise and you hope they never arise, youhope you have a culture in which they don't arise, butwhentheydotheyneedstobedealtwithswiftly."The Supreme Court says that if an employer has apublished sexual harassment policy, the victim has toreportsexualharassmentaccordingtothepolicyandgivethecompanyachancetofixit.

Follow Donald Trump’s Advice on Sexual

Harassment? Not A Good Idea.

Challenges

There are a few key challenges when dealing with sexualharassment cases. These types of claims are not only ugly,butcanalsobecostly. Nootherkindofclaimhasquitethescareandshockvaluethatasexualharassmentclaimcarries.That is because most people associate sexual harassmentwith sexual overtures, unwelcome touching, or outrightassaults on an employee.Most sexual harassment creates ahostile work environment for the employee which has thepurposeoreffectofunreasonablyinterferingwithaperson'swork performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, oroffensiveworkingenvironment.TherecentcaseagainstFoxNews and its $20M settlement is a classic example of theseriousnatureofthissubject.Thefollowingcasestudiesareintended to illustrate how employers can proactively avoidor mitigate claims of harassment and the high cost oflitigationassociatedwithit.

Illustrative Cases

Case 1.Over thecourseof severalmonthsanareadirector“Brandon” of a financial services company “LucrativeFinance” makes sexual advances toward a femalesubordinatenamedJennifer. JenniferrejectedtheadvancesandfiledacomplainttotheHumanResourcesDepartmentofLucrative. While working hand-in-hand with its in-houselegal team Lucrative HR Department launched aninvestigationonJennifer’scomplaint,butfoundtheresultstobe inconclusive. During a regional meeting, Brandon’sadvances continued and he left several drunken explicitmessageson Jennifer’shotelroomphone. Jenniferrecordedthe message and launched a second complaint with thehuman resources department, but this time she provided acopy of the sexually explicit phone messages. Lucrativeconductedaninvestigationimmediately,andfoundBrandonhas violated the company’s harassment policy and he wasterminated. Jennifer late filed a charge with the EqualEmployment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Here,Lucrativewasabletoshowthatitpromptlyinvestigatedthetwocomplaintsofharassment,andthelatterresultingintheterminationofBrandon.TheEEOCdismissedthecomplaint.Lucrative did not have to pay anything to Jennifer and itstimely action saved Lucrative a ton of money by way ofexpensivelegalcostandordamagers.

Case2.Astartupcompanyofthreeemployees“Neglijex”quickly grew to over sixty with offices in the US andabroad. The founder’s of Neglijex had established an“opendoor”policyforitsemployeesthatappearedontheHRhandbook,butthehandbookwasneverimplemented.TheopendoorpolicyofNeglijexwascreatedtoempoweremployeesandboostmorale.AtNeglijex’sfirstChristmasparty, a QA manager named “Justin” made certaininappropriate sexual remarks to one of his new femaletesters “Testie”. During the weeks that followed, Justincontinued to engage in sexual banter and dirty jokesagainstJenniferuntilJenniferdecidedtoquitherjobandfiled a charge of sexual harassment with the HumanRights Commission (HRC). TheNeglijex’s defense beforeHRC was that it was never given the opportunity toinvestigate and take corrective action. The commissionconducted a full investigation and found that thecompany failed to act reasonably to prevent theharassmentbecausethecompany’sopendoorpolicywasnotaclearharassmentpolicywithareportingprocedure.The HRC made a finding in favor of Testie. Testie andNeglijext agreed for mediation that resulted in asettlement.ItwasimportanttonotethatNeglijexdidnothave an HR and Labor Law saavy in-house counsel orteamthatprovidedreviewandfeedbackontheadequacyof its opendoor policy to satisfy the SexualHarassmentPolicy obligations of Neglijex. Neglijex also did not haveaccess to a legal team that conductedonsite training foritsemployees.

Results, Strategies and Future Plans on Dealing with Clients There are a few key lessons to be drawn from the illustrative cases discussed above to provide guidance when dealing with sexual harassment issues:

1. Adopt a clear disciplinary policy and an explicitpolicyonsexualharassmentinyouremployeehandbook.

2. Haveaformalcomplaintprocess.

3. Haveaprovisionoraprocess thatallows forgoingoutsidethechainofcommandtomakeacomplaint.

4. Educate all employees on the various forms sexualharassment that can take place and on the harm it cancauseviaon-sitetrainingconductedbylegalexperts.

5. Have an organized procedure for quickly andeffectivelydealingwith suchcomplaintsandensure thateveryoneknowsaboutit.

6. Setanexamplefortheemployees-thebestpolicyinthe world will be useless if management ignores it anddoes not take the problems or complaints seriously, orworse,ifmanagementispartoftheproblem.

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