Help, I have a remote employee in California!
If you work in HR at an employer based in California, you’re probably all set to meet the January 1, 2020 deadline for sexual harassment training.
If you work at an organization with remote employees — especially if your employer is a smaller organization, political campaign, or other entity without a big HR team — you might be experiencing a little panic right now. You’ve got a little over 3 months to source sexual harassment training that meets the heightened requirements of California’s new state law, find the right service provider for your company, and get that training on the calendar. And half of November and December are out because of the holidays! What’s an HR human to do?
It’s going to be totally fine. I’ve got you.
I’m Jill Raney, Founder & CEO of Practice Makes Progress. My sexual harassment prevention training is called Anti-Awkward Anti-Harassment because I pull out all the stops to make my sexual harassment prevention workshops not an embarrassing, awkward, traumatic, or useless experience. In a nutshell: practice consent, and when someone doesn’t practice consent, practice accountability.
The California law requires:
— By January 1, 2020, an employer having five or more employees shall provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all nonsupervisory employees in California within six months of their assumption of a position.
— Employers must provide sexual harassment prevention training in a classroom setting, through interactive E-learning, or through a live webinar. E-learning training must provide instructions on how to contact a trainer who can answer questions within two business days.
— Any training must explain [a legalese-style list of what harassment is, how to not do it, how to report it, and how employers must act to stop it, including] discuss harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, which shall include practical examples inclusive of harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.
Check, check, and check!
Anti-Awkward Anti-Harassment is available as a 2-hour live and interactive webinar that’s rich in audience participation and concrete, real-life examples of why harassment is the worst and how to not do it. And it’s taught by me, a real-life nonbinary person! We talk about how sexual harassment is often a thing men do to women and is also a thing people of all genders and sexual orientations sometimes do and are entirely capable of learning how not to do.
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing wrote a nice little professional biography of me in their FAQ, “Who can provide sexual harassment prevention training?”
Human resource professionals or harassment prevention consultants with at least two years of practical experience in:
— Designing or conducting training on discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment prevention;
— Responding to sexual harassment or other discrimination complaints;
— Investigating sexual harassment complaints; or
— Advising employers or employees about discrimination, retaliation, and sexual harassment prevention.
Check, check, check, and check! I have over 15 years of combined experience in these things.
If you’ve got a sexual harassment prevention trainer you’re happy with, that’s great. If you’ve got a sexual harassment training provider that checks the box, but this California law has you thinking maybe you don’t want to just check the box anymore, let’s talk! And if your organization doesn’t yet have a sexual harassment prevention trainer, I would like to be that trainer, let’s talk!
