In an ideal world, anyone who experiences harassment at work would head directly to the human resource department for an "immediate and impartial" investigation with appropriate results.

The recent spate of high-profile workplace harassment allegations demonstrate how far things are from that standard. Susan Fowler took her complaints of harassment to Uber's HR department, only to have her concerns dismissed because her harasser was a "star performer." At the Weinstein Co., meanwhile, HR allegedly funneled every complaint back to Harvey Weinstein, employees told the New Yorker.

An employee at Signet Jewelers, which is facing allegations of gender discrimination, said she never heard from HR after filing her complaint.

A spokesperson for Weinstein didn't immediately respond to a request for comment; Signet says it "has had strong systems in place for reporting and addressing" workplace harassment.

Human resources, it turns out, often comes poorly equipped to handle serious workplace harassment claims. Some of that inability stems from where the department sits on the organizational chart, some from the skills and talents of HR managers themselves. On top of all that, the basic compliance function of human resources — to ensure a company doesn't violate the law — is often interpreted as a mission to protect a company from lawsuits. "Employees have every right, in some companies, to look at HR as a tool of management, not as an advocate of employees," said consultant David Lewis, who has worked in HR for 31 years.

Protecting the company isn't actually as difficult as employees might imagine. According to two Supreme Court decisions in the late 1980s, if a company can show it has taken steps to address and prevent harassment, it's not liable for its employees' behavior. Today, about 80 percent of companies offer some kind of sexual harassment training, which covers at least the "prevent" part of the Supreme Court's standard.

Organizations that handle harassment well — and they do exist — have leaders who have "a very visible commitment" about preventing it, says Patricia Wise, a labor employment lawyer.

Some within the industry are now reckoning with the role HR plays in addressing workplace harassment. Lewis says his consultancy has received three times as many calls in the past month asking for help with harassment claims.

Greenfield writes for Bloomberg News.