Manager's Guide to Receiving Harassment Allegations: What to Do

By Barrie Gross

If an employee approaches you with concerns that he or she is being illegally harassed, are you prepared to have that conversation?

Would you know what to do? If you are a manager, the odds are that your company's harassment policy requires you to report the complaint to the human resources department because HR will conduct the investigation. That's smart. But that doesn't help you get through the initial conversation.

If your first reaction to the employee is that he or she should take the complaint to HR, there's a good chance that the employee will not go. After all, the employee chose to approach you instead of HR. Employees are not necessarily comfortable coming forward with such serious allegations and the fact that the employee chose to approach you usually indicates some level of trust. If you send the employee away, the opportunity to find out if something inappropriate is happening may be lost. That doesn't help the employee, you, or the company. So best practice is usually to have the first conversation and then get all the information to HR. And that's true regardless of whether the employee is part of your department or another.