Responding to EEOC Discrimination Charges - What’s Your Business Case in 2026?

Overview:

The EEOC processed more than 88,000 new discrimination charges in Fiscal Year 2025, resolved over 90,000 charges, and recovered almost $660 million for workers. Enforcement priorities may shift from one administration to the next, but the message for employers is straightforward: charges are still being filed at a heavy volume, employees understand the process, and once a charge arrives, your documentation, your managers, your discipline history, and your policies may all come under review.

Many employers make the charge harder to defend because of what happened around the decision. The performance file is thin or reconstructed after the fact. Two supervisors handled similar conduct in different ways. The accommodation conversation sat untouched for weeks. A manager’s email called the employee “difficult” without explaining the business reason. The position statement was drafted in a rush near the deadline, and it does not quite match what the witnesses remember. None of that may be the original allegation, but it can shape how the investigator views the entire file.

The charge itself often signals more than it says directly. A termination charge may also raise questions about disability accommodation, pregnancy protections under the PWFA, religious practice, harassment that was never formally reported, pay or promotion patterns, DEI-related employment decisions, or hiring criteria influenced by automated screening tools. Retaliation concerns can also develop after the charge is filed, especially when the same manager continues supervising the charging party without guidance on what to say, what to document, and what to avoid. Reading the charge carefully — including what is implied, not just what is alleged — is where the response strategy begins.

This session is built for the people who actually handle the response: HR professionals, managers, business owners, and compliance staff. Bob McKenzie will walk through the charge process step by step, including how to evaluate what is really being alleged, what documents to pull and preserve, how to gather manager and witness input, how to prepare a position statement that holds up under scrutiny, when to involve outside counsel, and how to evaluate mediation before agreeing to it. Whether this is your first EEOC charge or one of many, the session will give you a practical approach for managing the response from intake through resolution.

Areas covered in the session:

• A review of Discrimination Charges Filed with the EEOC
• A review of a discrimination charge
• How to read between the lines of a discrimination charge
• Should we hire an attorney?
• What is “Non-binding” Mediation and should we accept mediation
• How to outline and prepare your case
• What documentation you need
• Is it beneficial to obtain statements from witnesses or managers
• The importance of having work standards
• How to handle requests for additional information
• Decisions from the EEOC
• How to Respond if the EEOC Finds Cause That Your Company is Guilty of Discrimination

Handouts Including:

• EEOC Charge Issue-Spotting Worksheet for HR
• Position Statement Evidence Organizer
• Scenario-Based EEOC Charge Workbook for 2026

Why should you attend?

An EEOC charge can become difficult very quickly when the response is rushed, incomplete, or built on weak documentation. This session will help you understand what to look for the moment a charge arrives, how to read the allegations carefully, and how to avoid early mistakes that can affect the entire case.

You will learn how to organize the facts, identify the right documents, gather manager and witness input, and prepare a response that is consistent, credible, and supported by the record. The goal is not just to answer the charge, but to answer it in a way that protects the organization and reduces unnecessary exposure.

The session will also help you think through practical decision points, including when legal counsel should be involved, whether mediation makes sense, how to handle additional information requests, and what to do if the EEOC finds cause. Attendees will leave with a clearer, more disciplined approach to managing discrimination charges from intake through resolution.

Who Will Benefit?

This webinar is designed for professionals responsible for receiving, reviewing, investigating, documenting, or responding to EEOC discrimination charges. It will be especially valuable for those who need to understand how employment decisions, manager actions, documentation, and response strategy are evaluated once a charge is filed; those include:

• Human Resources Directors/Human Resources Managers
• HR Business Partners/Employee Relations Managers
• Employee Relations Specialists/Compliance Officers
• Employment Compliance Managers/Labor Relations Managers
• Workplace Investigations Professionals/HR Generalists
• Payroll and HR Operations Managers/Office Managers with HR Responsibilities
• Business Owners/Small Business Employers
• Plant Managers/Operations Managers
• Department Managers/Supervisors
• In-House Counsel/Employment Law Attorneys
• Risk Managers/Corporate Compliance Professionals
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leaders/Talent Acquisition Managers
• Recruiting Managers/Benefits and Leave Administrators
• ADA Accommodation Coordinators
• Pregnancy Accommodation / PWFA Compliance Leads
• Training and Development Managers
• Executive Leadership involved in employment decisions