by Ellen Feeney
Mandatory and regular anti-harassment training is one of the key ways to protect your employees and everyone in your workplace from harassment.
Smart employers recognize effective sexual harassment training is an important part of creating a workplace that is safe for everyone. Many organizations are experiencing a rise in workplace harassment complaints and providing strong training, whether legally required or not, is necessary to address harassment in the workplace. Sexual harassment training serves many purposes – education, compliance with laws, and risk mitigation.
Education
Does everyone in your organization know what sexual harassment is? Do they know what to do if they experience harassment directly or witness sexual harassment as a bystander? New laws provide specific guidance to help ensure employers provide adequate training on sexual harassment prevention. Attendees, generally employees, are trained on what constitutes sexual harassment; how they may report incidents; how investigations are carried out; and what remedies are available to individuals who experience harassment.
Sexual harassment has a legal definition, but an important part of sexual harassment training is to emphasize your organization’s commitment to fair treatment in the workplace. Successful training will be interactive and include examples that are meaningful for attendees. Training participants should learn from scenarios that cover multiple situations.
In Canada, harassment and sexual harassment are prohibited under employment standards, human rights, and occupational health and safety laws in most jurisdictions. Employers have specific obligations to provide a harassment-free workplace; some jurisdictions including Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario require employer, supervisor and/or employee training on harassment including recognizing harassment, and policies and procedures for reporting, investigating, and documenting harassment.
Compliance with Laws
More local jurisdictions are requiring employers to provide training. Laws vary and may differ depending on the industry or the size of the employer. In addition, there are differences with respect to the required content, format, and frequency of the training.
Additionally, employers may have to include certain information in their training, such as federal statutory provisions concerning sexual harassment and available remedies; the employer’s policy regarding sexual harassment; examples of the type of conduct that constitutes sexual harassment; and even bystander training.
Laws in this area are rapidly changing. Provincial, territorial and federal governments will continue to contemplate new or revised sexual harassment training requirements. Always check to see what specific training requirements are in place in jurisdictions where you have employees.
Risk Mitigation
Most laws have monetary or other penalties for employers who do not implement required training. In addition to avoiding penalties related to training, effective training mitigates risk related to sexual harassment complaints. Mandatory and regular anti-harassment training is one of the key ways to protect your employees and everyone in your workplace from harassment. Training should be required for all employees at all levels of your organization. Sexual harassment training should be part of your onboarding program for new hires. Review your training annually to make sure it is still relevant and complies with all applicable laws. Employers should ensure that their harassment training programs are high quality, relevant, easy to follow, and up-to-date with evolving requirements.
Learn More
[WEBCAST] Sexual Harassment Prevention in the Workplace – Many organizations are experiencing a rise in workplace harassment complaints. Strong training, whether legally required or not, is necessary to address harassment in the workplace. This webcast (live on March 11 @ 2 PM E and available on-demand after that date) will provide critical insights and best practices on the importance of effective sexual harassment training. Register now or replay anytime.
This article originally appeared in SPARK powered by ADP.
