CEO of Kantola Training Solutions, an innovative eLearning company focused on Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Harassment Prevention.
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If you have employees who work from locations all over the country, you know that some states require harassment prevention training while others don't. But if you’re choosing to only train employees in states where it’s required, you may be treading on dangerous territory.
Why? Because aside from protecting your employees' safety, harassment prevention training protects your organization against major legal and reputational threats that can create untold damage. Let’s explore a bit more.
EEOC Guidelines Now Emphasize The Importance Of Training
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released proposed guidelines on harassment in the workplace that offer essential insights and recommendations to help organizations protect their employees and maintain a safe, inclusive work environment. They cover a wide variety of important topics, such as expanding protected grounds for harassment and broadening the definitions of disability, age, religion, national origin, race and color to include stereotype-based harassment. But these new guidelines also put a significant focus on employee training.
The EEOC says training can serve as a powerful tool for preventing harassment and safeguarding your organization from being found negligent in response to claims of a hostile work environment. They stipulate that training is both an essential element in the prevention of harassment and a pivotal aspect of demonstrating your organization’s commitment to creating a safe, respectful workplace. And that dedication serves as a key point of protection.
5 Ways That Training Everyone Protects Your Organization
But for training to be effective, all employees—without exception—must undergo it regularly. Moreover, the EEOC states that supervisors and managers in particular must receive training with clear instructions that enable them to “prevent, identify, stop, report, and correct harassment."
Let’s look at how comprehensive harassment prevention training, when delivered to all employees, can safeguard your organization and explore the added protections it can provide.
1. Training establishes an umbrella of protection. By training all of your employees, your organization will be taking constructive action to provide a layer of protection against possible legal, financial and reputational consequences that can arise from harassment claims.
2. Consistency around behavioral expectations reduces misconduct. All employees need to understand what to expect from their workplace and what's expected of them. Training can help set and reinforce clear guidelines for what is and is not considered acceptable behavior.
3. Empowering victims to speak up helps diffuse the risk of harassment. Hidden or unaddressed harassment will fester, grow and ultimately infect your entire organization. It’s only when it’s exposed that you can deal with it successfully. Providing harassment training helps employees understand that they're encouraged to stand up for themselves, and it equips managers with the tools and strategies needed to handle these sensitive situations.
4. Bystanders are more likely to engage and help prevent harassment. To create a harassment-free environment, all employees must be empowered to step in if they witness the mistreatment of a colleague. To get there, training can equip employees with the ability to correctly identify unwelcome conduct, as well as strategies to respond effectively.
5. Harassment training reduces your risk of being out of compliance with regulations. When it comes to harassment prevention, federal, state and jurisdictional requirements can be a moving target. For your harassment prevention training to be most effective, you must regularly update the material so it covers new and changing regulations.
Perhaps the most important protection that harassment prevention training can provide is the power to create positive change. When every member of your organization understands their rights and responsibilities, the door is open to create a culture of respect and inclusivity. By doing so, you foster a workforce that is not only better equipped to prevent harassment but also more resilient and capable of navigating through whatever challenges lie ahead.
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