Reviewing the Complaint & Investigation Processes

In the previous slide, you read that an investigation should take into consideration what would keep a complainant from immediately reporting harassment. Consider the person could have felt intimidated, been afraid of coming forward, feared retaliation, or perhaps even felt misplaced guilt about the incident. He or she could also have hoped that this was a single incident and would not happen again or been convinced that this was not something worthy of reporting.

Perhaps worse, the employee could have felt like he or she could not trust management or the investigation process or could have been unaware of the complaint procedures. Try to find out why he or she did not come forward, and fix any issues that could be related to this in your workplace.

Also consider, based on your conclusions, if your company needs the following:

• Another training of all supervisors, employees, or both
• Updates to the company's policies (and a subsequent redistribution)

To learn more about Sexual Harassment Prevention Training For Supervisors visit our Cal/OSHA Sexual Harassment Prevention Training For Supervisors Online Training web page.