Katrina Campbell, Global Compliance, Vice President, Training and Education Solutions
Andrew Foose, Global Compliance, Co-President, Training and Education Solutions

First and foremost, in order to prevent compliance allegations employers must respond promptly when an accusation is made and to demonstrate that the organization is taking the allegation seriously. One of the worst things that employers can do is to hesitate and/or speak publicly in a way that reflects uncertainty. Employers should avoid that sort of wishy-washiness and be direct and honest. For example, you can show the allegations are being taken seriously by responding with “we had an allegation, we’re going to take it very seriously, we’re going to look into it and depending on the outcome we’re going to take appropriate action.”  In addition to showing that the organization is determined to get to the bottom of whether or not an allegation is true, this practice also promotes confidence in their employees or, in another context, students, that these things will be taken seriously. If no one believes they’re going to be taken seriously, no one is going to want to come forward.

 We learned from the Shirley Sherrod case that you have to investigate first. Don’t come out making comments other than, “we’re looking into this, this is very serious, we are taking it seriously, and we have to find out the facts first.” First find out the facts, likely through your incident reporting process, and then take action. If you find out that something is true or it is substantiated, take action. I think we’re getting to a point where we feel like we have to respond publicly to everything.

If you’re a public-facing organization, then you may need to respond in a way that addresses the fact that you have an external constituency. If you’re an entertainment organization or a sports organization or someone like that, you may have to respond publicly to control the flow of information in today’s media environment. I still would not be interested in responding as to the details of someone’s personnel situation, but instead you can talk about corrective action you are taking if you find that this is a systemic problem. But first, look internally, investigate, figure out what’s going on, take action, and then correct whatever needs to be corrected and then move on to get on with your business. At the end of the day, you are trying to run a business, so you can’t let these things take over.