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How to get the most out of your sexual harassment training

John Sherman

2018-10-21

Reading or listening to the news is all you need to understand why sexual harassment training in the workplace is so critical. Without proper education, many people will continue doing and saying things inappropriately because either they do not understand the consequences or do not recognize their actions as being wrong. With the right education, everyone in your organization can get on the same page as to what sexual harassment is, how to prevent it, and who to report to should an incident happen.

What Constitutes Sexual Harassment?

Examples of Sexual Harassment

Physical sexual acts in the workplace
Making sexual favors a part of staying employed or promotions within the organization
Any unwanted physical contact or touching
Talking about or being within hear shot of one or more people sharing stories or fantasies about sex, telling off-colored sex-related jokes, or passing around explicit emails, text messages, or photographs

Because sexual harassment covers so many different things, it is essential that you select the right forum and content for training. Also, instead of having your employees take one course, mandate they continue taking courses as a stipulation of employment.

Effective Training

The environment in your organization is only as good as the training you provide your workers. You could have the best talent available and even employees dedicated to doing an excellent job for your company. However, unless they receive proper training on critical issues like sexual harassment, seemingly innocent actions could prove disastrous for them and your business as a whole.

According to numerous experts, many sexual harassment training courses are ineffective. For your company, not only do you need to have every employee complete the correct training courses but also have a system in place for enforcement. As part of that, your staff needs to know that the company will terminate anyone who violates the established policies. Also, your workers need the names of key individuals they can trust should a sexual harassment incident occur.

When researching different training courses to provide to your employees, choose those developed by experts in this area and training that falls in line with the current laws and regulations.

While some training reaches across all departments, not every member of your organization needs to complete the same courses. For instance, your leadership teams would take more in-depth training, helping them to identify a potential problem and deal with an issue in a professional yet compassionate manner.

Regardless of which online training courses you select, they should accommodate specific needs and meet explicit goals. After recognizing areas of weakness with most programs, experts recommend several ways to make sexual harassment training more effective.

Knowledge – Courses should enhance your employees’ understanding of what sexual harassment is, how to avoid it, and who to report to.
Leadership Endorsement – Choose training courses that your leadership team can endorse and participate in along with their staff. That gives workers the support they need during and after training.
Company-Wide Strategy – For any online training on sexual harassment to work, it has to be part of your company-wide strategy of preventing problems at work. In other words, every department in your organization must understand, support, and act when it comes to sexual harassment.
Types of Courses – Because sexual harassment is now such a huge topic, when you select the right platform for online training, you will discover thousands of articles, podcasts, videos, and more on a broad range of related topics. Take advantage of as much as you can, including courses on witness harassment, intervention, and so on. While you need to select the right training for the different staff members of your company, you also want to avoid limiting the scope of what they can learn regardless of level.