Katrina Campbell

In order to explain the importance of ethical training and compliance solutions, you must go beyond the legal definition of harassment. An organization’s discussion has to focus on what’s appropriate behavior for their culture, their environment, in the field in which they’re operating. Obviously what’s appropriate for the locker room (and there are many employers that actually have locker rooms) is going to be very different from what’s appropriate for a school or an office or some other kind of organizational environment. So you have to be really careful about saying something other than “this is harassment, this is against the law and everything else is OK.” Be really clear about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.

Harassment training serves two purposes. First, it’s education for people who don’t know or who may need a reminder. And second, it’s also notice for people who may be inclined to commit violations of a code of conduct or harassment policy. People who are inclined to act inappropriately need to be aware that when they do these things they’ll be held accountable for their behavior. Business ethics training not only educates people, which is really the main purpose, but it also puts people on notice which can help to preemptively avoid issues all together.

To that end, employers have to take action. They have to investigate potential ethics and compliance allegations when they do come up. And then when they find that the issues have been substantiated, they have to take action - meaningful action that reflects the seriousness of the infraction. It can mean termination, but it can also mean other forms of discipline and corrective action. So it’s not always about just saying “fire this person” or “fire that person” and leaving it at that. Organizations should always evaluate what they could be doing better to avoid similar situations in the future; this means evaluating all levels of the organization, including the most high profile employees. You have to take action when it involves the senior level management or corporate supervisors too. Companies need to go beyond the training and be willing to take action regardless of who may be involved.