Employers should prepare for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay more attention to the caliber of their internal investigations into workplace harassment, some employment lawyers said.

Employers whose internal probes of workplace harassment complaints are not found to be sufficiently thorough and impartial could be more likely to face an enforcement action or get hit with orders to undergo remedial training on how to conduct an investigation, lawyers said.

'It Adds Fuel to the Fire'

The newly articulated standards for employers looking into harassment allegations were contained in a guide on workplace harassment that was issued in April, but some employment lawyers said the report's references to investigation standards drew little notice amid attention focusing on parts of the report that discuss abortion and LGBTQ issues.