To assist employers in reducing the likelihood of workplace harassment and responding appropriately to harassment complaints, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) Report of Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace includes four checklists for employer use. These checklists, which were issued as Appendix B to the report, provide a tool for auditing an employer's anti-harassment efforts in four areas.
- The Leadership and Accountability Checklist evaluates organizational leadership's efforts to create a culture of respect in the workplace. It analyzes the resources, staff time and effort leadership has devoted to prevent harassment in the workplace and hold employees accountable to related policies and expectations.
- The Anti-Harassment Policy Checklist analyzes the components of an organization's harassment policy, emphasizing the importance of including examples of prohibited conduct and a description of multiple avenues employees can use to report harassment.
- The Harassment Reporting System and Investigations Checklist considers the process in place to address harassment reports, including whether the organization has created a supportive environment for individuals to feel safe reporting harassment and whether report investigations are fair and impartial.
- The Compliance Training Checklist explores the structure and content of compliance training offerings for employees and supervisors.
The report reminds employers that the checklists are "meant to be a useful tool in thinking about and taking steps to prevent harassment in the workplace, and responding to harassment when it occurs." Where an audit shows that one or more of a checklist's topics is not covered by an organization, steps can be taken to strengthen the company's harassment prevention efforts, hopefully before policy violations occur.