With numerous high-profile and alarming cases of harassment making news in recent years, the takeaways are clear. Workplace harassment is a pervasive issue across the nation, and businesses of all sizes must take proactive steps to prevent it. In addition to an anti-harassment policy, the most meaningful way to protect your business from problematic behavior is to educate employees and managers. Our newest Smart App, Harassment Training, is a simple and affordable tool for conducting effective, attorney-approved training. Instead of navigating the complexities of a learning management system (LMS) or hiring a professional trainer, employers can provide individual or group training via engaging videos and complementary audio. Without adequate prevention and response, harassment can hurt a company’s morale, lower productivity and increase the risk of costly lawsuits. Results from a March 2018 Trend Survey from ComplyRight show that less than 50 percent of small businesses are conducting harassment prevention training. Typically, this is because they are not equipped to create and carry out appropriate training. This efficient, cost-effective app fills that gap, allowing employers to train employees upon hiring, annually or in response to specific situations.
Sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2018 increased by 13.6 percent. The agency recommends “regular, interactive training tailored to the audience” as one of five principles for preventing and addressing harassment.

What to Expect with the App

Proper prevention training requires current, legally sound information, as well as documentation of your efforts. The Harassment Training app offers both, featuring attorney-approved content and automated recordkeeping to verify compliance. Since 2014, HRdirect has provided training products to more than 3,000 small business customers. But instead of DVDs, CD-ROMs and printed materials, the Harassment Training app is a next-generation electronic solution for assigning, administering and tracking training. Our in-house attorneys, legal researchers and HR experts combined existing resources with the latest, most relevant training content (and delivery) for small businesses. The content is broken into six federally compliant modules, which you can choose to assign as individual or group training. This flexible format allows employees and managers to complete training on their own time through a self-guided experience OR together as a group. Each of the fast-moving modules is about 10 – 20 minutes to accommodate busy schedules and boost retention. The training topics include:
  • Understanding Harassment
  • Examples of Prohibited Harassment
  • Special Considerations for Sexual Harassment
  • Your Responsibility and Reporting
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • Additional Manager Obligations
Employees will receive email notifications when they’ve been assigned training. After logging into the app and viewing the training, they must then complete five review questions to acknowledge completion. With this interactive feature, correct responses are confirmed right away, and incorrect ones include an explanation. Employers can be confident that training content is always up to date with the latest federal requirements. Plus, the app is fully automated to make it easy to monitor and track which employees completed training and when. A simple, at-a-glance grid shows the training status and completion date. This documentation is critical for showing you’ve done your part to conduct prevention training in your workplace.

Protect Your Business Today with Expert-Developed Training

Now, more than ever, regular harassment prevention training needs to be a top priority for employers. The new Harassment Training app lets you move your training online for a more affordable, flexible approach. Like all Smart Apps, it features easy, electronic administration and recordkeeping to streamline your efforts and save you time.