The FDIC’s Sexual Harassment Prevention Program

We recommend that the Chairman: (a) incorporate a specific harassment-free culture standard into the Performance Management Program and Bonus Criteria for all staff; (b) incorporate harassment prevention into the bonus criteria for managers and executives; (c) develop and implement a process that considers violations of the anti-harassment policy when determining whether an employee should serve in a supervisory or managerial capacity; and (d) develop and implement a process that considers violations of the anti-harassment policy when determining whether an employee is eligible to receive a bonus.

We recommend that the Chairman/COO develop and implement a mechanism to ensure that corrective actions used to close recommendations related to the sexual harassment prevention program are sustained.

We recommend the Director, Division of Administration, develop and implement quality control procedures to ensure the FDIC maintains an accurate and complete population of sexual harassment misconduct allegations and related records.

We recommend the Director, Division of Administration, conduct a review of prior allegations to ensure that it has an accurate and complete population of sexual harassment allegations and that it has maintained all allegation records in accordance with the FDIC record retention schedule, which requires that all records be maintained for 7 years.

We recommend the Directors, Office of Minority and Women Inclusion and Division of Administration, develop and implement standard operating procedures for case file records management, including where to securely maintain files, what to maintain, and how long to retain records.

We recommend the Director, Division of Administration, update and implement investigation standard operating procedures to clearly guide investigations by ensuring that investigations are: conducted appropriately and consistently; convey the outcome of the investigation, including a Report of Investigation; and are well-documented.

We recommend the Director, Division of Administration, provide regular investigation training to the LERS Specialists conducting investigations under the Anti-Harassment Program.

We recommend the Director, Division of Administration, develop a centralized disciplinary action tracking system or tool and related procedures for what information should be captured in the tool and in support of the disciplinary decision.

We recommend the Chairman consider developing and implementing Agency-wide, consistent penalties or recommended penalty ranges to be used in disciplinary actions for harassing conduct, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations, and, as necessary and appropriate, incorporate the consistent penalties and recommended penalty ranges into policy and procedures.

We recommend that the Chairman develop and implement regular, comprehensive, and effective required training on preventing and reporting sexual harassment for all non-supervisory employees that incorporates elements from the EEOC 2023 Promising Practices, including a larger emphasis on the Agency’s prohibition for retaliation of any kind.

We recommend that the Chairman develop and implement regular, comprehensive, and effective required training for all supervisors and executives on preventing and reporting sexual harassment that incorporates elements from the EEOC’s 2023 Promising Practices, including a larger emphasis on the Agency’s prohibition for retaliation of any kind.

We recommend that the Chairman develop and implement a plan to routinely analyze the FDIC’s sexual harassment training, ensure that it is current, and measure the impact that training is having on reducing harassment and retaliation in the Agency.