Sexual Harassment Training
Sexual harassment has enormous costs in the workplace, including damaging mental health, lowering group morale and lawsuits. It can lower employee productivity, and increase absenteeism, employee turnover and sick leave costs.
Harassment in the workplace is exceptionally common. Sometimes the perpetrators are knowingly misusing their power, ut workplace harassment is accidental. Employees may not realize that what they meant as a joke is hurtful, offensive and perhaps grounds for a lawsuit.
That’s why your employees need workplace sexual harassment prevention training. According to a survey released by the Association for Talent Development, 71% of HR professionals said their companies conduct sexual harassment training. Alterity’s training courses can make the difference between a harmonious, productive workplace and one fraught with tension, suspicion and low morale.
What is Sexual Harassment?
Sexual harassment, a form of sex discrimination, violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This ct applies to employers with at least 15 employees, and to employment agencies, labor organizations, and local, state and federal government.
There are two types of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment. The first type is easy to spot. A supervisor requires sex or some type of sexual contact from a job candidate or employee as a condition of employment. Only people in positions of power—those who can hire, fire and/or promote employees—can commit quid pro quo sexual harassment.
Hostile work environment can be obvious or subtle, requires more workplace training to . Overt examples include touching a coworker sexually or repeatedly inviting them on dates when they clearly aren’t interested. Subtler examples include making derisive generalizations about a person’s gender, us sexual language, or displaying sexual images at work.
Both the victim and the harasser could be of any gender. They don’t have to be of the opposite sex. According to the Washington Post, nearly 20% of sexual harassment claims are filed by men. A sexual harasser could be the victim’s supervisor, a coworker, a supervisor in another area of the company or a non-employee. The workplace harassment victim might not even be the person directly being harassed, but could be anyone affected by the inappropriate conduct.
Alterity’s Sexual Harassment Training
Alterity’s online sexual harassment training is part of our Respectful Workplace Program. We’ll empower your employees, enhancing their emotional intelligence, helping them recognize situations that involve sexual harassment or sex discrimination, and they know what to do about it.
Alterity’s program is specifically designed to comply with federal, state and local requirements for sexual harassment and sex discrimination training. Your employees will learn through interactive videos, knowledge checks, assessments, scenarios a a virtual coach who provides thought provoking questions and commentary.
We make it easy to manage. Employees access learning programs through our intuitive, web-based learning portal. Posters and communications are available to help you launch your program and promote adoption. And, we help you manage it all—importing users, assigning courses and learning paths, and creating scheduled reports to track company-wide compliance.
Contact us today to ensure your employees are self-aware about sexual harassment, and your company is complying with state laws.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can employees benefit from sexual harassment training?
Online learning program will help your employees recognize sexual harassment behaviors when they happen either to them or to others in the workplace. They’ll also learn what doesn’t qualify as sexual harassment, factors can lead to sexual harassment, and how to . Your employees will learn to set better boundaries between their social and work environment, and understand what’s appropriate for each. Supervisors learn their roles and responsibilities in preventing and responding to sexual harassment. They’ll learn to deal with sexual harassment complaints, and practice interviewing techniques for drawing information out of all the parties involved in any complaint.
What are the laws about sexual harassment training?
Requirements for sexual harassment training are federally mandated, but vary widely from state to state. While some states have no such requirement, all officially recommend employee training in sexual harassment. If your company winds up facing a lawsuit, proving that you required employees to participate in sexual harassment training could be a mitigating circumstance.
Currently, 18 states mandate some type of sexual harassment training: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Washington. California training sexual harassment laws require employers with 50 or more employees to provide a two hour mandatory training to supervisors. This must happen within six months of that person becoming a supervisor. All public employees in California must also complete sexual harassment training, regardless of their numbers.
In Oklahoma, training requirements only pertain to state employees who investigate discrimination complains. In Connecticut, employers with three or more employees must provide sexual harassment training to everybody employed. Several states require sexual harassment training for all state employees. States may also require regular refresher courses, such as every two years. These laws may change rapidly, so it’s important to stay on top of requirements in your state.
Does sexual harassment training work?
Providing training to your employees is about more than a box to fulfill a state law; you want it to work.
A 2016 EEOC report concluded that trainings fail when too focused on avoiding legal liability. Effective sexual harassment training must engage your employees and make them think. It should raise awareness of how others perceive their actions and how they might need to change. A survey released by the Association for Talent Development shows that 71 percent of human resource professionals said their company conducts some form of sexual harassment training.