Anti-Harassment, Discrimination, and Retaliation Policies

Every company needs a clear policy prohibiting harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Harassment covers inappropriate conduct—sexual comments, unwanted contact. Discrimination means treating someone differently because of a protected classification. And a retaliation policy assures employees they can report problems without fear of being punished for speaking up.

That last piece is critical. Employees who believe they’ll face consequences for reporting misconduct simply won’t report it—and unresolved problems escalate.

Discipline and Discharge: Keep Your Flexibility

Whether you use a point system or a three-strike rule, the most important thing is to reserve discretion to escalate consequences—including immediate termination—after a single incident. If your policy guarantees three strikes, a terminated employee can argue you didn’t follow your own rules. Build in language that lets you act decisively when trust is broken or when a single violation is serious enough to warrant separation.

Required Workplace Postings

Every employer is required by law to display certain posters in break rooms or common employee areas. These posters inform employees of their legal rights. You might think employees can simply look this up online—and they can—but the law still requires you to post them. Non-compliance is an easy violation to avoid.

Act Early

Establishing these policies early—before problems arise—is far less expensive than dealing with the fallout after an incident. A clear policy framework protects the company and gives managers the tools to act consistently.

Video Transcript

One of the most costly mistakes a business can make isn’t hiring the wrong person. It’s not having the legal infrastructure in place to manage what happens next. Without clear policies, you risk confusion, conflict, and costly legal exposure. That’s why some of the most essential protections you can implement early on are rooted in how your company handles misconduct.

Defining Harassment and Discrimination

Another important First policy to establish in your company is A policy against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Harassment would be something like sex harassment, some sort of inappropriate sexual contact, or sexual comments. Discrimination. That is discriminating against somebody because of the category or classification they are in.

Retaliation Protections for Employees

And then retaliation. A retaliation policy quite simply says this: “If you report improper conduct in the company, the company will not retaliate against you, and the company will not tolerate any other employees retaliating against you.” That is an important assurance for an employee in a company, so all employees know that if anything improper has occurred, they can report it without being retaliated against. They will be protected.

Establishing Clear Consequences

Discipline and discharge are other important policies to think about early on in the company. For example, discipline means If you do something wrong, if you violate a company policy as an employee, here is what the consequences are. And then discharge, of course, is when you terminate the employee, and under what circumstances will you terminate somebody?

Using Point or Strike Systems

Sometimes companies use a point system. Sometimes companies use like a three-strike rule. So strike one is your first offense, strike two is your second offense, you do it again, that is three strikes, you are out.

Keeping Flexibility in Decision Making

What is important with whatever rule or system you come up with is this: Make sure that you reserve discretion to escalate the circumstances and even terminate a person after the first incident, if you so choose. Why? Because if your policy says, “Somebody gets three strikes.” And then they do something once that is very bad and you fire them. They can come back and say, “You didn’t follow your own rules. You said we get three strikes. I only got one strike and then I was out. You violated your own rules that I was relying on.”

Reserving Management Discretion

And so to protect yourself as an employer, if you are going to have a system in place for discipline and discharge, then make sure you at least reserve discretion for yourself. The best practice is just to say, you can find examples online or AI can provide it, but generally, instead of having a system, for most companies, it makes more sense to just say the manager or management will have discretion to impose a consequence that is appropriate for the circumstances when it arises. So in other words, you reserve all discretion to management to make a decision once you have all the facts about what violation actually occurred because there are certain circumstances where a single violation is enough to let somebody go.

When One Violation is Enough

For example, if a person violates trust, they operate without integrity, and you can’t even trust them to be in the company anymore, it may not take three events. Often one event is enough, especially for an experienced manager who knows problematic employees. If you have one serious violation of trust, it is better to get that employee out than they will have them around and causing other sorts of issues within the company.

Employee Rights Posters

One other important reminder is Every company needs to have in its break room or its common employee area certain posters that are required by law. These posters remind employees of what their rights are, and you might think, “Well, in the day of the internet, can’t they just look those up?” They can, but the law still says, “You are required as an employer to have those posted.”

Final Reminder from Aaron Hall

I am Aaron Hall, an attorney for business owners and entrepreneurial companies. It As I always say, before you rely on any of this, consult with an attorney. It is my hope that you use these questions to identify topics and questions to bring up with your attorney. I hope you are doing well. Take care.