Our team of experts fields real-life, everyday questions from HR managers and gives practical answers that can be applied by any HR pro in the same situation. Today’s question: What are an employer’s obligations for stopping “spam” that employees find offensive?

Question:
Like a lot of companies, we get bulk e-mail (”spam”) that could be called offensive. We have spam-filtering software, but of course it doesn’t catch everything.  Also, sometimes outsiders send sexually explicit jokes, cartoons, etc.

What’s our liability in these instances regarding employees who find the material offensive and demand that we stop it? Could our failure to do so be cited as sexual harassment?

Answer:
One of the keys here is whether you’re making a good-faith effort to stop the spam, explains Hunter Lott, a partner with the HR consulting firm HCap International. Using modern spam-filtering software appears to meet the good-faith standard.

As for individual e-mails (jokes, etc.) that people may find offensive: Once people report the problem and the source, you must take reasonable steps to prevent further incidents, such as informing the sender to stop or, if technically possible, blocking e-mails from that sender.

Tags: e-mail, hcap international, hunter lott, sexual harassment, spam