Illinois has set the standard for inclusive harassment prevention with training requirements that cover every employer in the state. The Workplace Transparency Act, which amended the Illinois Human Rights Act in 2019, eliminated minimum employee thresholds—making Illinois one of the only states where even single-employee businesses must provide annual training.
Our Illinois Harassment Training Requirements Checklist delivers complete guidance for achieving and maintaining compliance:
Universal Coverage Explained: Understand how Illinois’s 1+ employee threshold affects your business, what counts toward employee headcount, and why even the smallest employers must comply.
Annual Training Decoded: Learn the December 31 annual deadline, new hire 90-day requirement, and how to calculate training hours properly.
Hospitality Industry Deep Dive: Special requirements for restaurants, bars, and businesses licensed to serve alcohol, including supplemental training on third-party harassment and de-escalation techniques.
Content Requirements: Detailed breakdown of what topics must be covered, from harassment definitions to bystander intervention strategies and legal filing procedures.
5-Year Documentation Standards: Illinois requires longer recordkeeping than most states—know what to maintain and why it matters.
Free State Resources: How to use the Illinois Department of Human Rights’ model training program and policy templates.
Making Annual Training Engaging: Since training must be repeated every year, discover strategies to keep content fresh and employees engaged.
Whether you’re a sole proprietor, small business owner, or enterprise HR leader, this checklist provides clarity on Illinois’s comprehensive requirements.
