Sexual Harassment Training - The Best Investment a Company Can Make

Sexual harassment training is one of the best investments in time and money that a company can make. It is imperative in today's litigious world that everyone in an organization knows exactly what sex harassment is and why it is unacceptable. Despite the heavy amount of press on the subject, there are still employees who either know better and still do it, or simply don't understand exactly what constitutes harassment in the workplace. In addition, a company can be held liable even if they didn't know the harassment was occurring if they did not provide training and a policy to employees.

Sexual harassment prevention training involves a description of exactly what workplace harassment is. Many companies show a sexual harassment training video to show exactly what sexual harassment looks like. However it's done, the company needs to go through every different type of harassment and make sure that every employee knows what is acceptable. After the training is done, they should be required to pass a quiz and sign that they received the training and understand the policy. Your company will then have a record that the employee received the training and that you made an effort to stop harassment in your workplace.

The training program should include training on quid pro quo sexual harassment which is harassment that involves the rejection or promise of a tangible employment benefits such as hiring, promotions, performance review, work assignments, termination, work load and any other work related positive or negative outcome.

Next, it should involve the discussion of hostile workplace harassment which is when harassment makes the workplace an unbearable place for an employee. The employee finds it impossible to work in the hostile environment because they feel demeaned, belittled or fearful. The victim need not even be the focus of the harassment. A victim can simply be bothered enough by behavior around them. The type of behavior includes but is not limited to jokes, touching, pictures, emails, whistling and any other sexually related activity.

Lastly, employees need to be warned that retaliation for harassment complaints is illegal and will not be accepted. They should know that retaliation and the original sexual harassment could result in a negative outcome up to and including termination.

One of the best investments for any company is sexual harassment training. It could end up saving thousands of dollars in legal fees and civil judgments. In addition, the stain on your reputation could be costly. Make sure that there is no doubt about your policies on harassment and provide comprehensive harassment training for all your employees.

Charlie Bentson King is a writer and producer of training videos for TrainingABC. TrainingABC is a distributor of sexual harassment video and sexual harassment DVD training programs.