A new day, a new sexual harassment scandal in the news. It’s clear we are in a watershed moment for the acknowledgment of illegal behavior and real consequences for those who conduct it.
Everyone should be aware, alert and alarmed.
At Emtrain, our goal is to prevent any sort of sexual misconduct in the first place. We provide modern online training using truly realistic workplace scenes to teach people‘what not to do’ and social polling to collect and share perceptions to help change behaviors and attitudes.
As we’re watching recent news unfold, we’re working as hard as we can to serve as a resource to people who have experienced any sort of inappropriate sexual behavior, and to help companies get a handle on how to reduce harassment incidents and remove harassers from the workplace.
One thing we can’t understand: why aren’t more companies training all of their employees on workplace sexual harassment prevention?
We’ve known for years – and it should be pretty clear to everyone now – that sexual harassment is a major issue in the workplace. We understand how it demoralizes, distracts and demotivates individuals and teams. We’ve experienced it ourselves.
Why aren’t all employees getting educated on which types of actions constitute harassment and which don’t? Aren’t people who are the subject of harassment entitled to know if what happened to them was illegal? Why aren’t we teaching bystanders how to intervene when they observe a problem? Shouldn’t everyone be informed about inappropriate actions so they can stop doing them?
We’re on a mission to help create healthier organizations and curing sexual harassment is at the very top of our list. That’s why we feel so lucky to have Patti Perez as our VP of Workplace Strategy. Patti is the leading expert on sexual harassment prevention, with a unique blend of experience: a career as an employment lawyer, then an HR executive, conducting over 1,200 workplace incident investigations and authoring California’s regulation on sexual harassment prevention training for managers.
‘Training everyone’ is in the national spotlight as the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives both progress legislation to implement mandatory anti-harassment training for all members and staff in Congress.
When we work with our clients, we encourage them to train everyone. We know that when third-party, expert content is made available to the entire employee population, they’ll actively use it. We know that people have questions about specific situations and need help understanding if an act is inappropriate, minor misconduct or full-fledged harassment. We know that employees need guidance to help them resolve issues quickly and efficiently. If it’s just a misunderstanding they can often handle it themselves.If it’s more, we can help both the employee and the employer move to a swift resolution.
Acknowledging and addressing issues, early and effectively, builds trust and goodwill. It creates a more loyal and productive workforce which research shows translates into greater profitability and shareholder value.
You’ll be hearing more from Patti as she shares strategies, practical tools, and expert insights to help anyone exposed to unprofessional conduct to report it and gain an efficient resolution, and to prevent inappropriate behavior, misconduct and full-fledged sexual harassment. Keep following the Emtrain blog, like us on Facebook, connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter to keep in touch.
Click the link for more information on our 35-minute online Sexual Harassment Prevention training for employees. You can also contact us at info@emtrain.com.
