empathihr.com
Management consulting & workplace defense

Stronger decisions.
Time back for your team.

One system that carries the work behind your employment decisions and builds your defense along the way.

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Why the record matters

The work you skip today is
the record you need tomorrow

Most employers never build the record. Not because they don’t care. Because nobody on the team has the time.

Strict
The default rule for supervisor harassment when no defense is in place
You’re liable whether you knew or not.
$660M
Recovered by the EEOC for workers in FY2025
Includes a record $528M recovered before a lawsuit was ever filed.
0%
Of resolved EEOC lawsuits in FY2024 ended in a settlement or judgment in the workers’ favor
An undocumented defense is no defense.

An undocumented decision is hard to defend. And it took just as long to make.

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Where the value starts

The employment decision
and the record behind it

Every employment decision has three moments. We carry the work at each one.

Before the decision

  • Management consulting
  • Write up support
  • Termination review

When concerns arise

  • Complaint handling
  • Thorough investigations
  • Documented findings

When challenged

  • EEOC charge response
  • Evidence organization
  • Position statements

At every step, we carry the work. Your leaders keep the decision.

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One system. Five pillars.

Everything we do is built on five pillars

Each pillar takes a job off your plate. Together they build the record that protects you.

01

Living policies

Written for your state and industry, refreshed every year. You stop rewriting the handbook.

02

Targeted training

Role specific and documented by individual. You stop chasing sign in sheets.

03

Third party hotline

Phone, email, and app reporting, answered by people who know your policies. Your managers stop being the complaint desk.

04

Documented investigations

Video documented interviews and written findings. HR stops running investigations on top of the day job.

05

Ongoing consulting

Write up support, termination review, quarterly check ins, EEOC response. You stop guessing.

The affirmative defense is one thing this system produces. The time back is the other.

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The affirmative defense

A tool the system produces, not the reason for it

What it is

When a supervisor is accused of harassment and the employee was not fired, demoted, or docked, an employer can raise a defense if it can show it took reasonable steps to prevent and correct problems, and the employee had a clear way to complain and didn’t use it. It’s called the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense.

  • Documented policies, training, and complaint channels
  • Complaints investigated and corrected promptly
  • A reporting path the employee could have used

You have to build it before the complaint arrives. After the fact is too late.

When the defense isn’t available

If a termination, demotion, or pay cut is part of the complaint, the defense is off the table. The system still puts you in a better position than you would otherwise be in:

  • A clear, documented business reason
  • Consistent handling across managers and locations
  • A complaint that was investigated, not ignored
  • A record you can hand to counsel on day one

The goal is to never get there. The system is how you avoid it.

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An established resource

Management consulting when the decision matters

What should we do?
What supports the decision?
How should we communicate it?

empathiHR works through it with you

Review the facts and prior action

What happened, what was said before, and how similar situations were handled.

Develop clear documentation

The write up, the reason, and the expectation, in plain language a manager can deliver.

Prepare the management conversation

Who says what, what to avoid, and what to capture afterward.

One call, usually the same day. Not a week of second guessing.

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Corrective action & documentation

Write ups that explain what happened
and what must change

A vague record

“Poor attitude.”
“Not a team player.”
“We’ve talked about this before.”

Reads like an opinion. Proves nothing about what happened or when.

A useful record

  • The specific conduct and dates
  • The policy or expectation involved
  • Prior guidance and the employee’s response
  • Required improvement and follow up

Reads like a fact pattern. Supports the next decision, whatever it is.

We help managers turn concerns into clear, factual documentation. Faster than they would write it alone.

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A consequential management decision

Termination review before
the decision is carried out

Four questions, answered before anyone is walked out.

Business reason

Is the stated reason clear and supported?

Supporting record

Do the records support the action and its timing?

Consistency

How have similar situations been handled?

Execution

What needs to be documented and communicated?

A review takes a phone call. An unemployment hearing or a charge takes months.

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One setup. Ongoing response.

Complaints receive an immediate response
and a thorough investigation

Phone, email, or app reporting. Every complaint follows the same path.

1

Receive the complaint

The employee reaches us directly by phone, email, or in the app. We take the initial statement.

2

Investigate thoroughly

Interview the people involved, on video where possible, and examine the records.

3

Document findings

A written report that explains the evidence, the conclusions, and the limitations.

4

Support next steps

Keep leadership informed as it determines what action to take.

Your team doesn’t spend days or weeks taking statements and chasing witnesses. We do. All evidence lives in a case management system your leadership can access and export when needed.

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Why one provider matters

Disconnected vendors don’t add up to a system

The EEOC and the courts look at whether you had a coherent system, not a stack of separate contracts. So does your calendar: one provider means one call.

CapabilitySeparate VendorsempathiHR
Policies drafted for your state and industry◬✓
Training tied to those specific policies✗✓
Hotline staff who know your policies and people✗✓
Investigations by the same team that trained your staff✗✓
One documentation trail, ready for counsel or the EEOC✗✓
Annual refresh across every pillar✗✓
One vendor to call, one contract, one invoice✗✓
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From management action to evidence

The documentation behind your response

The underlying record

  • Policies and training records
  • Relevant communications
  • Write ups and prior action
  • Interview records and findings

A coherent explanation

  • What happened
  • What management knew
  • Why the decision was made
  • How the organization responded

When a charge arrives, empathiHR prepares the response

01

Review the charge and relevant records

02

Investigate allegations and develop the chronology

03

Draft the position statement

04

Organize the supporting documentation

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From HRfix through empathiHR

No adverse actions.

Our record responding to EEOC charges for clients who fully implemented the system.

That experience informs how we advise managers, investigate complaints, and build the record.

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Insurance & workplace response

Your EPLI isn’t a substitute

Insurance responds after the claim. The system does the work that keeps most claims from getting there, and builds what the carrier will ask for if one does.

EPLI

May fund covered defense costs, settlements, or judgments under the policy.

Doesn’t prevent the complaint, run the investigation, or write the response. Many policies expect a documented program to already exist.

empathiHR

Provides management guidance, investigates complaints, and prepares the documentation and charge response.

Does the day to day work your team would otherwise carry, and produces the record the policy assumes you have.

Coverage and notice requirements depend on your policy. Review with your broker or carrier.

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From onboarding to operating

Up and running inside of 30 days

One time onboarding. After that, there is no scope setting for each complaint. You call, we go.

1

Assess

Map your handbook, training records, and complaint handling. You get a written gap report.

2

Build

Policies, training rollout, hotline activation, investigation playbook, and the consulting cadence.

3

Document

Acknowledgments, call logs, investigation reports, and distribution records, generated as you go.

4

Maintain

Annual policy refresh and updated training. Quarterly check ins to work through what is changing.

Proactive engagement each quarter. A scheduled conversation about changes in the business, recurring questions, management and documentation needs, and priorities for the next quarter. We stay engaged between complaints.

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The operating value

Time back comes from work we take on

Management & HR

  • Guidance on difficult decisions, usually the same day
  • Support drafting write ups
  • Review before termination
  • A place for employees to be heard that isn’t your managers’ day

Investigation & response

  • Interviews and record review
  • Written findings and documentation
  • EEOC position statement preparation
  • Evidence kept in one case management system

Your leaders retain the decisions. We help carry the work behind them.

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Stronger decisions.
A documented response.
More capacity for your team.

Where would your team put this to work first?

A 30 minute conversation shows you where the time is going today and what we would take off your plate.

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