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Compliance
Training: Who Needs It?
How important is it to train
your employees about their obligations under employment
discrimination and harassment laws? Consider these statistics:
for fiscal year (FY) 2005, the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC) received over 75,000 complaints of employment
discrimination and recovered more than $270 million in back
wages for the complaining employees through settlements, mediation,
and other administrative resolutions. Employees alleged in
these claims all forms of employment discrimination (race,
sex, including harassment, national origin, religion, age,
and disability) involving such issues as hiring, termination,
promotion, and leaves.
HR and legal experts agree
that most of these complaints are the direct result of managers
and employees making bad decisions because they do not understand
the employment laws. For example, if a supervisor does not
follow proper procedures to resolve a harassment complaint,
you could easily end up in court defending the manager’s inaction.
But, compliance training
can be hard to sell since the expense is clear and immediate
but its benefit is often intangible and measured by a lack
of complaints being filed. Still, if you do not properly train
your employees in these important issues, you risk becoming
an
EEOC statistic with a weak or nonexistent
defense.
Below is a breakdown of the claims filed in the most recent
period with the EEOC, plus six simple actions you can take
to avoid being added to these statistics.
EEOC Claims for FY 2005 Focus on Race,
Sex, and Retaliation
Overall, the EEOC reported that 75,428 complaints were filed
with the agency in FY 2005. Race discrimination was alleged
the most, accounting for over 35% of the claims filed. Sex
discrimination accounted for over 30% of the claims, and over
half of those cases involved sexual harassment. Here is a
summary of the complaints filed:
| |
No. of claims |
% of total |
| Race |
26,740 |
35.5% |
| Sex |
23,094 |
30.6% |
| Retaliation |
22,278 |
29.5% |
| Age |
16,585 |
22.0% |
| Disability |
14,893 |
19.7% |
| National Origin |
8,035 |
10.7% |
| Religion |
2,340 |
3.1% |
(Note that because employees often file
charges claiming multiple types of discrimination, the number
of total charges for the year is less than the total of the
seven types of discrimination listed.)
The EEOC collected $271.6 million in
back wages for the aggrieved employees through settlements,
mediation, and other administrative settlements. In addition,
the agency litigated 383 cases in court and collected over
$107 million to resolve them, an average of $279,000 per case
litigated (before legal expenses).
Six Steps to Prevent Claims
Given the time and money costs, you really
don’t want to be in the position of defending against a claim,
even if you win in the end. Most legal experts put a price
tag in the many thousands of dollars on the formal resolution
of a complaint at the government agency level. Add a court
battle to that, and your external legal expenses alone can
quickly spiral to many times that amount. So, a better plan
is to take proactive steps to prevent claims from being filed
in the first place, including:
1. Train supervisors
about discrimination, harassment, wage and hour, FMLA,
and other employment laws. Make sure they understand
the employer’s obligations and are prepared to handle any
complaints efficiently and appropriately.
2. Train all other employees
about their obligations under discrimination and harassment
laws. Focus on what workplace behavior is acceptable and how
to make complaints internally.
3. Review every termination decision
to ensure proper procedures were followed. Pay special attention
to whether the terminated employee is being treated consistently
with other similarly-situated employees.
4. Don’t retaliate.
Retaliation claims accounted for almost a third of the EEOC
discrimination claims filed, and employees often succeed with
these claims even if they lose the underlying discrimination
complaint.
5. Document, document, document.
Every employment decision should be documented so there is
no question as to why an action was taken or how the employee
was treated.
6. Get a second opinion.
Have a group or panel of outside experts you can call on when
creative solutions or specialized help is needed. Make sure
your attorney is part of this group. This network can be cheap
insurance in avoiding the cost and aggravation of bungled
compliance decisions.
Steps to Get in Compliance
Using eLeaP
- Sign up for free
account
- Upload/Create compliance policies
and training courses
- Contact eLeaP about available HR policies
- Add your employee list and assign
training
- Stay compliant with well document
tracking and reporting capabilities.
Let eLeaP help you become
successful. Our e-learning management and training solution
will give you what you want:
- eLeaP is affordable. Starting at only
$125. Simply pay for only what you need.
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skill you need is being able to type or "copy and paste".
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support. You are not alone. We are here to back up our pledge
to support you.
- Not ready to commit? No problem. Take
a Free 30-Day Trial. We want you to be sure this match
is right.
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