Posh Compliance
                     What Should We Do in 
Response to Harassment 
& Discrimination Issues in 
the Workplace?
Remember Our
Role
I see all too often, some of our peers lose perspective of the duality of our role as 
an internal human resource professional. This duality consists of two distinct 
responsibilities:
1.Risk Management – Make no mistake about this, an employer expects internal 
HR to protect the company’s interest. Our role as internal HR professionals is to 
help our organization manage, protect and minimize organizational risk.
2.Protect employee rights – As internal HR professionals, we are doing the 
organization a disservice if we do not take the responsibility of ensuring we are 
addressing if an employee has had a workplace right violated. Further, employees 
in our organizations will look towards HR for this help.
Investigate
The first time I had to do an investigation; I was 
admittedly nervous (see responsibilities above) on 
whether I would do this properly. Over the years, I 
learned “investigate” is really a fancy word for 
thoroughly (within reason) and objectively trying to 
figure out what more likely happened or did not 
happen. Most jurisdictions around the nation provide 
for the possibility of affirmative defences to 
employers if an investigation is done (along with a 
few other factors that meet the employer’s duty to 
exercise reasonable care).
Support
Regardless of the merit and/or motivation of 
potential victims, part of an internal HR pros 
responsibility is to make sure you work with the 
claimant(s) and possible victim(s) to ensure they feel 
supported. For years, we have seen retaliation 
claims consistently growing and is now by far the 
biggest area of formal EEOC complaints. Beyond 
ensuring our organizations are not retaliating, the 
way we handle our impacted employees will go a 
long way to determining our company’s ability to 
manage through the issues. 
Understand our 
Objectivity and Bias
We all have biases and we all have points of view. Of 
critical importance to our role as internal HR 
providers is to understand what our biases and 
perspectives are so we can determine if we are able 
to truly provide objectivity when sharing a point of 
view. We have seen many organizations make 
national headlines in part because HR functions 
failed to take this step effectively.
As we are faced with various discrimination and/or 
harassment issues facing our organizations, paying 
close attention to the above will help us be more 
effective as human resources professionals. 
For more information visit: 
https://www.mud.co.in/posh/
Thank You!