2026 Culture Report Spotlight: The State of Workplace Harassment

See what employees get wrong about harassment—and where your organization is most at risk

Workplace harassment isn’t always obvious—and that’s where risk begins.

“Only 15% of employees correctly identified retaliation as illegal behavior”

This Culture Report Spotlight, part of Emtrain’s 2026 Workplace Culture Report, analyzes 6.5 million real employee responses to reveal where harassment understanding breaks down—especially in workplace relationships, retaliation, and off-site interactions.

What You’ll Learn:

• Where employees miss harassment risks in everyday workplace relationships
• Why retaliation is the most misunderstood—and highest liability—behavior
• How work travel and client settings increase legal exposure
• Where employees overreact vs. underestimate real risk
• How to align employee judgment with legal and compliance standards

Most organizations assume employees understand harassment boundaries. The data shows they don’t.

On the final page of this report, Emtrain offers additional downloadable resources including a Retaliation Guide, Retaliation Awareness Infographic, Video Scenarios, and an Employee Relations Complaint Decision Tree to help organizations manage risk and maintain healthy workplace cultures.

Download the report to learn how employees interpret harassment scenarios—and what that means for your training, compliance, and culture strategy. 

Built from real training data using Emtrain’s Workplace Color Spectrum®