Question:
How often should I conduct harassment training?
Answer:
The idea behind harassment training is to prevent the harassing action from occurring and to provide a safe and welcome environment for your employees. By providing ongoing harassment training it reinforces your organization’s stance toward the tolerance of harassment and reminds employees of those actions that are considered to be harassment.
Many organizations conduct annual education/training sessions that include harassment as part of the training. Such training identifies the types of harassment, the consequences of engaging in harassment and the steps to prevent harassment. This is a great opportunity to refresh your employees’ knowledge of the subject matter and to further emphasize the company’s no-tolerance policy with regard to harassment. But new employees also need to have harassment training. Providing such training during on-boarding gets them started off on the right foot knowing what personal conduct will and will not be accepted in the workplace. In both instances be sure your employees acknowledge their training and awareness of harassment policies in the workplace in writing.
Since an employer can be held legally responsible for the actions of his employees, it stands to reason that every effort should be made to regularly remind employees of the expectations of their behavior that comes along with being employed by your organization.
While harassment training may not be legally required, it is critical to an employer’s ability to construct a defense, should the need ever arise. In today’s litigious society, employers need to be proactive in creating that defense before they are notified of legal action. Additionally, there are specific requirements that training should include in order for it to meet requirements acknowledged by courts.
In addition to providing regular ongoing training for your own piece of mind, be aware that many states require specific types of harassment training of employees and also have specific guidelines for how often training should be conducted. Check your state guidelines for more information.
Are you overdue on harassment or other annual training? Does your current training curriculum need to be refreshed to reflect changes in company policy or legal requirements? Strategic HR, inc. has the expertise and resources to help. Visit our Training and Development page to learn more.
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Debbie Hatke, MA, SPHR is a Senior Human Resources Management Consultant and Talent Strategy Manager with Strategic Human Resources, Inc. (http://www.StrategicHRinc.com). If you have questions or comments about this article, you can contact Debbie at Debbie@StrategicHRinc.com. |
