It may seem to be just another in a long line of missteps—or misleaps—by corporate bad boys, but in this week’s HP debacle, there’s a special twist for HR managers.
HR is always trying to find a way to convince the board that training is worthwhile, but for the most part, to do that they’ve had to point to expensive lawsuits that were brought against other firms when untrained managers did something dumb—a somewhat indirect approach.
But the news about Hurd and HP that is most useful to HR is this: HP’s stock price dropped about 8 percent on the news of Hurd’s revelations.
Now that’s a metric that gets the board’s attention bigtime.
And if you get the board’s attention, and get training going, what should you concentrate on?
- Policy
- Complaint Procedure
- Training
- Action Sooner rather than later
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1. Policy
As with most things HR, harassment prevention starts with a clear policy. You need that to be credible and you need it to back up any actions you take against offenders. Publicize your policy.
2. Complaint Process
You must establish a reporting/complaint system. Yes, you want your system to attract complaints. You want to hear the complaint earlier, not later, and certainly long before a victim decides to visit an agency or an attorney. Dealing with the complaint inhouse is far more preferable than dealing with it in court.
Make sure that your complaint system:
- Works. That is, phone and email contact information is up to date, and someone checks regularly.
- Offers several options. Make it easy for people to use the system, and be sure there’s an avenue or avenues that don’t involve the direct chain of command above them.
- Doesn’t scare people away. Employees need to trust that they can use the system without fear of reprisal or retaliation.
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3. Train Everyone, Including the CEO
Training is key. Everyone from the mail room to the board room (and the CEO) needs training. What is harassment, what should you do if you think you’re being harassed, and so on.
Particular important is the concept that harassment is defined more by the victim than the harasser. That is to say, “I was just joking” or “I thought she enjoyed it” won’t be an acceptable excuse for inappropriate behavior
(Go here for “Is Your Harassment Training Too Risqué?)
4. Action Sooner Rather than Later
Don’t hope that inappropriate action will stop on its own. Take action as soon as you know, otherwise you appear to be condoning the behavior. In the HP case, Hurd’s behavior (reportedly, two unusual trips out of town to interview a candidate, a responsibility that would normally be handled way below his pay grade) was noticed, but not acted on. Surely HP wishes something had been done at that point.