CII's widely-publicized new publication: "How Corporate Boards Can Combat Sexual Harassment" suggests numerous practices for boards across these categories: (i) personnel, (ii) board composition & structure, (iii) policies and procedures, (iv) training, and (v) diversity & inclusion, to mitigate the legal, financial, reputational and other potentially significant corporate risks associated with sexual harassment.
Noteworthy recommendations include:
- Ensuring executive accountability by charging a specific executive with responsibility for ordinary course workplace, social, and corporate culture issues
- Creating a Nom/Gov Committee subcommittee that is ethics & culture-focused to work with management on diversity and inclusion
- Developing a means for employees to report sexual harassment directly to the board
- Ensuring all monetary settlements of harassment cases are reported to the board
- Including sexual harassment as a executive pay "for cause" clawback trigger
- Tailored substantive training for employees, executives, and the board
A corresponding list of investor questions for boards about their oversight practices may be equally beneficial for corporate secretaries, in-house counsel, and other governance, legal and compliance personnel charged with facilitating development of board and committee agendas and the conduct of directors' oversight responsibilities.
The publication also includes links to several potentially instructive sexual harassment publications (inclusive of sample diversity policies), and these policy samples/templates: