Sexual harassment is a huge issue and nobody should have to deal with it. Yet, we all know that it is not that uncommon in the workplace, which brings us to the conclusion that something has to be done about it.
Fortunately, a lot of states have taken it upon themselves to regulate this by the law, meaning that there are now certain requirements that you need to follow when providing your staff with proper training on sexual harassment.
Read about what you can do to prevent harassment: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/prevent-harassment-workplace-2625.html
As mentioned previously, some states have regulated this by law, and California is one of those. This means that you are now obligated by the law to provide proper training to your employees in California and thus get them informed on how to identify sexual harassment and what to do after identifying it. Since you are probably aware of this, it means that the only thing that’s left for you to do is find the correct training program.
Well, that can be quite tricky and people might be tempted to make certain mistakes in the process. If you don’t want to make those mistakes yourself, then you will need to get properly acquainted with them before you start searching for the right training. I am guessing that you aren’t really keen on making any kinds of mistakes, meaning that you are certainly ready to learn about them and thus make sure to avoid them in your searching process.
If that’s the case, then you have certainly come to the right place. In case you couldn’t have guessed it, here’s what’s going to happen. I am going to give you a list of some of the most common mistakes that employers in California make when choosing these trainings. That way, you’ll be able to learn them, remember them and then do your best to avoid them once you launch your own search. So, here we go.
Picking The First You Come Across
There are certainly a lot of great trainings that you can come across and most of them will be in compliance with the law. If you don’t know how to comply with California’s requirements regarding these trainings, then you should click here to get a better idea about it. In any case, the point is that a lot of these programs you’ll find will be great, but a lot of those will be, well, not so great.
This means that you should never rush into picking the first program you come across, as that can be a huge mistake. After all, how are you to know if that particular program is the best one if you don’t take some time to compare it to a few other ones? The key is in checking out a few different programs and doing some comparisons before choosing the one that you believe is the best. So, don’t rush into anything and take it slowly instead.
Not Checking If It Complies With The State Laws
I’ve briefly mentioned above that you will need to meet California’s requirements regarding these trainings on sexual harassment prevention. Well, I suppose that what I am about to say will be perfectly logical to you, but I do need to emphasize it.
Basically, you will have to check whether the programs you are choosing are in compliance with those requirements. If you fail to check this, you can make the mistake of choosing the programs that aren’t in compliance with the law, which could get you in trouble.
Not Caring About Quality
If you are one of those employers who simply want to get things over with, then you might not care about the quality of these trainings too much. This, however, is another mistake. If you don’t do your best to help your employees feel safe in the environment you are providing, then you will certainly face a lot of issues. In order to help them feel safe, you’ll have to provide them with high quality training on the prevention of sexual harassment, among other things.
Forgetting To Read A Few Reviews
In order to prevent harassment, you’ll have to make sure that the quality of the training is amazing, as we’ve made it clear. This further means that you shouldn’t forget to read reviews written about certain programs. The reviews will help you determine the quality, which is precisely what you have to do.
Ignoring Bad Reviews
Similarly to the above, you should never ignore the bad reviews that you come across. Those were written for a reason and you should certainly not take them for granted. It would be best for you to find a program that is rated well and that has a lot of positive reviews, as that will guarantee the quality that you want.
Why it is important to go on training for Sexual Harassment?
Training is one of the best ways of approaching harassment and preventing it. If everyone feels responsible for contributing to a respectful and safe work environment, sexual harassment will be reduced. Therefore, all employees should participate in the knowledge and gather the knowledge and skills that will help them understand the consequences of the harassment and how they can prevent it.
When all employers are open about this topic, it will encourage individuals who are going through something like this to report the problem. Also, this will strengthen the workplace culture and bond the coworkers.
In the further text, we prepared some other crucial reasons why it is important to participate in sexual harassment training.
- Sexual harassment is an ongoing problem in many work environments nowadays. Unfortunately, many people are ignoring this fact and they even neglect the action of sexual harassment. Increases awareness of acceptable and unacceptable behavior is part of the training. In that way, all employees are going to know what are the elements of sexual harassment and how to recognize it and how to react after that.
- Taking sexual harassment training will help the whole company to take and determine preventive measures. This will reduce the risk of the occurrence of this problem. Many employers do not even know that they are responsible for the sexual harassment that is happening to some of their employees in the company. More precisely, even employers do not have knowledge about this topic, so everyone in the company’s hierarchy will be aware of taking the steps to prevent this and allow a healthy environment where everyone can be free to speak about this.
- When sexual harassment already occurs, it does not affect only the victim of this act. However, it affects all other employees in the company as well. A victim of harassment in the work will not feel good emotionally and mentally. Logically, that will affect how that person is performing the job. It will not be efficient and productive as it needs to be. Instead, that person will likely make some mistakes that could jeopardize the whole business of the company and even the profit of the company. Sexual harassment training doesn’t just make clear what the term refers to. The training also informs the victims what steps they need to take and how to report the harassment. Everyone deserves to feel protected in the workspace and to not feel scared to tell when he or she does not feel safe in the work environment.
- We are living in a world, where people are too afraid to report sexual harassment because they are scared that they could lose their job and be penalized. Victims are not just complaining to their superiors without a reason. Everyone needs to work on creating a culture where the victim can report such incidents without worrying about the consequences and losing her or his job. Victims need to understand that they are not weak and that the problem they are dealing with is very serious and all they deserve is understanding and help. When a company shows that they care and feel responsible about this topic, everyone will take the harassment seriously and it would be reduced.
Rhydian Choi 
Kim Marks