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Building A Comprehensive Harassment Prevention Strategy: A Legal Roadmap For Employers

Employers provide their employees with several forms of compensation in exchange for their work: a regular paycheck, health insurance, paid sick and vacation time, and often other perks or benefits. One often unspoken but universally expected benefit of employment that everyone expects is a safe work environment. A safe work environment encompasses everything from physical safety from injury to mental, emotional, and physical safety from harassment. This expectation of safety from harassment is backed up by state and federal laws that require employers to prevent harassment in their workplace. Unfortunately, many employers are not sure how to do that, especially when they are in the early stages of having employees. Harassment prevention requires more than simply advising employees not to harass each other. Instead, it requires a complete strategy, including policies, training, and corrective action when harassment occurs. At Schwab & Gasparini, our experienced labor and employment attorneys may be able to assist you with creating an anti-harassment strategy that includes all the necessary components to protect your employees and meet all state and federal legal requirements. Call our Syracuse office at (315) 422-1333, our Albany office at (518) 591-4664, or our White Plains or Hudson Valley offices at (914) 304-4353 to book your free consultation and discuss your anti-harassment policy needs.

The Difference Between Harassment and Discrimination

A key element of any harassment prevention strategy is understanding the difference between harassment and discrimination. The two are very similar, but the differences matter when ensuring that neither occurs in the workplace. Discrimination involves unfair treatment based on specific protected characteristics. Discrimination often manifests as employment decisions, such as not being hired or being passed over for a promotion, and is most often directed by a person in a position of authority toward someone who does not have the same authority, such as a manager or supervisor toward a line worker in a factory or a receptionist in an office. 

Harassment involves unwelcome conduct that creates a hostile work environment. Harassment is often based on the same characteristics as discrimination, which is why people usually confuse the two or believe they are the same thing. However, while harassment can manifest as employment decisions, it also frequently includes verbal and physical conduct. Additionally, harassment can be between any two employees, including employees on the same level in the company hierarchy. While discrimination is typically an employee with authority discriminating against one who does not have authority, harassment can also be directed from an employee who does not have authority toward one who does. Harassment can also be directed toward employees of different generations, known as age harassment.

Establish Strong and Comprehensive Harassment Policies

The first step in harassment prevention is establishing strong and comprehensive harassment policies. Creating these policies requires several steps, starting with defining prohibited conduct and resulting in a distributed policy. 

Define Prohibited Conduct

Creating a comprehensive and strong harassment policy starts with clearly defining harassment. This includes determining the prohibited conduct and providing examples of how that prohibited behavior may manifest physically, verbally, or online. This part of the policy should also include information about the protected characteristics that people may be harassed for. While employers cannot cover every possible behavior that may be defined as harassment, they should be as thorough as possible to ensure that employees understand harassment is not permitted and cause them to reconsider when they are about to engage in behaviors that may cross the line. 

Make the Policy Zero Tolerance

Employers must have a zero-tolerance stance regarding harassment. This stance must make clear that harassment will not be tolerated, regardless of the alleged harasser’s seniority or position. A zero-tolerance statement must indicate that, regardless of the circumstances, any harassment will result in disciplinary action, including the potential for termination.

Include Clear Reporting Procedures

Outlining clear reporting procedures is a critical component of any harassment prevention strategy. Reporting procedures should include multiple channels, including internal channels such as forms, hotlines, or online portals, and external channels such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). These reporting procedures should be easily accessible and also include anonymous reporting options to allow harassment victims who may be uncomfortable reporting to feel more confident doing so.

Ensure Confidentiality and Non-Retaliation

Harassment victims are often afraid to report what happened. They are afraid that their colleagues may find out and view them differently. They also fear that the harasser or others in the company will retaliate against them for reporting the incident. These fears are what may allow harassers to continue their behavior unchecked, particularly if the victims have no reassurance that their fears are unfounded. Most employers take steps to assuage those fears, but should also be aware that New York’s Human Rights Law explicitly prohibits retaliation. Therefore, a comprehensive harassment prevention strategy must include a clear statement that all reports are confidential and that retaliation is not permitted, along with information outlining what will happen if someone does attempt to retaliate against the victim.

Include an Investigative Process and Corrective Actions

In a harassment prevention strategy, all complaints must be thoroughly and fairly investigated promptly. Most companies will not have just one employee who investigates these complaints, so including a detailed investigative process is critical to ensuring that every complaint receives the same standard of investigation. This process should include an initial review, an impartial investigation, and a conclusion. Investigations should also have a written record with details such as a detailed account of the alleged harassment, who was interviewed and what they said, descriptions of evidence, and the conclusions reached by the investigator.

Corrective actions are another critical aspect of harassment prevention. When an investigation concludes that the harassment did occur, the harasser should face some form of discipline. Many companies opt for a system that starts with a warning and ends with termination when additional offenses occur. Others prefer systems that take action based on the severity of the offense. However, employers may want to consider a system that blends both options, allowing them more flexibility in corrective actions.

Disseminate and Communicate the Policies to Employees

Once an employer has created a strategy with clearly defined prohibited conduct, confidential reporting procedures that prohibit retaliation, and an investigative process with corrective actions, the next step is to disseminate and communicate the policies to employees. The policies should be in writing and distributed to areas easily accessible to employees. This might include break rooms, work areas, or online. Employees should be informed of new or updated policies and allowed to review them.

Implement Effective Harassment Prevention Training

Once a harassment prevention strategy is complete, it is time to implement it with practical training. This is an ongoing process, starting with the day an employee is hired and continuing regularly throughout their employment, to ensure that employees are adequately trained and kept abreast of changes or updates to the strategy.

Hold Regular and Mandatory Trainings

Training for harassment prevention should begin with new hires during orientation. Upon implementing a new policy or changes to the existing policy, employers should hold another training. Even if the policy does not change, it is recommended that employers hold training on at least an annual basis to ensure it remains fresh in employees’ minds.

These trainings should also be mandatory to ensure that everyone attends. If an employee is absent when training occurs, they should be provided a separate opportunity for training.

Tailor Content and Make It Interactive

Harassment prevention content should cover topics such as identifying and preventing harassment, understanding everyone’s legal responsibilities, reporting procedures, and fostering a culture of respect in the workplace. Because the information provided is crucial, we recommend making it interactive to ensure employees are paying attention and have a firm grasp of the subject matter. Scenarios, role-playing, and discussions all work well to ensure the impact of training. This interactivity can also help employers confirm that the strategy is clear and easy to understand. If everyone misunderstands a particular point, this may mean that the employer needs to rewrite it to make it easier to understand.

While many aspects of harassment and its prevention are universal, employers often have unique aspects of their workplace or business that provide unique circumstances for harassment. Employers should tailor their content to these unique situations to ensure full compliance and no confusion about what harassment looks like in those situations.

Focus on Prevention

While employers should cover all aspects of their harassment prevention strategy in training, including how to report harassment and what corrective actions will be taken, the focus should remain on prevention. This means being proactive in addressing potential issues. Employers should ensure they have set clear expectations and communicated them clearly. They should also foster a culture where employees feel safe speaking up when they experience or see harassment.

Encourage Bystander Intervention

In many harassment prevention training programs, the primary focus is on prevention, but the secondary focus is typically on encouraging the victim to speak up for themselves and to report the harassment. While this is still a critical component, training should also include teaching bystanders to recognize harassment when they see it happening to others and encouraging them to step in. Provide suggestions about different ways bystanders can intervene, and remind them that they can also report harassment when they witness it.

Have Specialized Training for Managers and Supervisors

Managers and supervisors are in positions of authority and have a duty to protect the employees who work under their leadership. This means that supervisors and managers have a duty to ensure their staff are not harassed. Employers should provide specialized training that teaches these employees about the specific responsibilities they have regarding harassment prevention and responding to complaints.

Regularly Evaluate Training and Review Employee Feedback

Finally, employers should regularly evaluate their training program and review employee feedback. Regular evaluations will allow employers to update their training to reflect changes in law, new forms of harassment, or refresh investigative procedures or corrective actions when they have made changes. Employee feedback tells employers how employees feel about the training. This might include complaints about confusing, missing, or outdated content, how the training is presented, or other information that can assist employers in improving their training and making their harassment prevention strategy more effective.

Build a Culture of Respect and Belonging

Another important aspect of a comprehensive harassment prevention strategy is building a culture in the workplace that does not allow for harassment. This means building a culture of respect and belonging so that employees feel safe and supported, which prevents harassment while also encouraging employees to report it if it occurs.

Have Strong Leadership Support

Like children look to their parents and teachers to learn acceptable behavior in life, employees look to management to learn what is acceptable behavior in a particular workplace. Management must lead by example. Managers and supervisors, all the way up to top-level roles, should demonstrate respectful behavior and enforce the policies being implemented.

Promote Open Communication

Encourage open communication throughout the company. Encourage employees to speak freely with each other when there are issues that need to be addressed. Develop open communication channels for employees to voice their concerns to supervisors, managers, Human Resources, or others. The more open the employer is to open communication in other aspects of the business, the more likely it is that employees will be deterred from engaging in harassing behavior and that those who are harassed will feel comfortable advocating for themselves and reporting it.

Encourage Character Traits That Minimize Harassment Risk Factors

Character traits like fairness, kindness, flexibility, resourcefulness, creativity, openness, and confidence may reduce the risk of harassment in the workplace. While they do not guarantee that harassment will not occur, they do foster a safe and friendly work environment. Employers can encourage these and similar traits among their employees and look for them when interviewing potential new employees.

Address Unacceptable Conduct Promptly

Many times, people will ignore seemingly minor inappropriate behavior because it is easier. They will shrug off insults, half-heartedly laugh at unacceptable jokes, or pretend not to see inappropriate behavior because it does not seem to be a big deal. When a harasser gets away with the minor stuff, it encourages them to become bolder. Instead of ignoring what seems like a minor, ignorable offense, employers should address this unacceptable conduct promptly. Employers should also encourage their employees to speak up and address the conduct, including reporting it through the appropriate channels.

Implement Robust Reporting Mechanisms and Investigative Procedures

Investigative procedures and reporting mechanisms are part of strong harassment prevention strategies, but they cannot just be written into the policies. They must be implemented to be useful.

Create Accessible Reporting Channels

Employers need to create robust and accessible reporting channels. These can include forms that can be filled out by hand, hotlines, online portals, and any other methods an employer thinks are useful. Reports should go directly to the people or departments responsible for investigating them. There should also be an option to make anonymous reports, even if the investigation identifies the person reporting or the victim. Anonymous reports often make victims feel more comfortable reporting harassment, and may also encourage bystanders to report what they saw.

Conduct Prompt and Thorough Investigations

Once a report has been filed, the investigation should begin promptly. Investigations should be thorough and impartial, with a neutral investigator. Employers should train several individuals to investigate reports, or hire an outside party, to ensure that regardless of who the alleged harasser and victim are, there is always a neutral party able to investigate. Investigations should include gathering evidence, interviewing all parties involved including any witnesses, assessing the credibility of the evidence and the parties involved, and documenting the investigation process and findings.

Ensure Due Process for All Parties

When investigating a harassment claim, employers should ensure that all parties are treated fairly and that no one is suspended, terminated, or otherwise disciplined without a thorough investigation. The alleged harasser and the victim should both be given an opportunity to explain their side. If the alleged harasser is deemed guilty, the employer should explain what evidence was used to come to that conclusion and explain the corrective action that will be taken and what will happen if another offense occurs (unless the employee is being terminated).

Keep Thorough Records

Every investigation needs a thorough written record. This record should include the initial complaint, the evidence and witness information, all investigator notes, the conclusions drawn, and any corrective actions taken. These records should be kept for at least the length of the employment of the alleged harasser and victim, and for a period after their employment. Employers may want to consult with an attorney at Schwab & Gasparini to discuss how long they should keep these records.

Follow Up on Investigation Outcomes and Corrective Actions

Once an investigation is complete and corrective action has been taken, many employers close the complaint and consider it resolved. While this would be ideal, it is important that employers follow up to ensure that the situation is truly resolved. This includes confirming that the harassment has stopped and that any corrective actions assigned have been taken. For example, if the harasser was ordered to take harassment prevention training again, the employer should confirm that they have taken the training.

Enforce Accountability and Monitor the Workplace

Once a harassment prevention strategy is in place, the employer should take steps to ensure its effectiveness. This starts with imposing consistent and proportionate discipline for violations of the policies. Employers should also enforce accountability at all levels of the company, ensuring that employees from entry level to executives all face the same investigations and corrective actions when complaints are made. They should also monitor and assess the workplace to ensure all employees are being properly trained, not engaging in harassment, and feel comfortable reporting harassment if they see or experience it.

New York Employers and Sexual Harassment

A comprehensive harassment prevention strategy also includes sexual harassment. New York State requires every employer to adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy that uses either the state’s model or its own policy that meets or exceeds the state’s minimum standards. Those minimum standards include:

• Interactive training content
• Prohibiting sexual harassment with examples
• Explaining relevant laws and remedies
• Including a complaint procedure and form
• Informing employees of their rights
• Stating that harassment is misconduct with sanctions
• Prohibiting retaliation

Employers can incorporate sexual harassment training into the broader harassment prevention training, or they can offer it as a separate training. In either case, proof of both trainings should be kept, such as a signed training completion sheet that indicates both trainings or a separate completion sheet for each.

How a Labor and Employment Attorney Can Assist You

Harassment has no place in a work environment. Employers have a duty to protect their employees from general and sexual harassment, and must create and implement a harassment prevention strategy to ensure their employees’ safety. A knowledgeable New York labor and employment attorney may be able to assist in creating, reviewing, or updating your prevention strategy. We may also be able to assist you in confirming that you have met all state or federal legal requirements for such trainings and determining how long to keep records such as training completion records and complaint and investigation records. If you would like to get more information, call Schwab & Gasparini in our Syracuse office at (315) 422-1333, our Albany office at (518) 591-4664, or our White Plains or Hudson Valley offices at (914) 304-4353.

Mon Aug 4 2025, 12:00am