Checklists for Employers

Checklist Four: Compliance Training

A holistic harassment prevention effort provides training to employees regarding an employer's policy, reporting systems and investigations. Check the box if your organization's compliance training is based on the following structural principles and includes the following content:

• Structural Principles

  ▢ Supported at the highest levels

  ▢ Repeated and reinforced on a regular basis

  ▢ Provided to all employees at every level of the organization

  ▢ Conducted by qualified, live, and interactive trainers

  ▢ If live training is not feasible, designed to include active engagement by participants

  ▢ Routinely evaluated and modified as necessary

• Content of Compliance Training for All Employees

  ▢ Describes illegal harassment, and conduct that, if left unchecked, might rise to the level of illegal harassment

  ▢ Includes examples that are tailored to the specific workplace and the specific workforce

  ▢ Educates employees about their rights and responsibilities if they experience conduct that is not acceptable in the workplace

  ▢ Describes, in simple terms, the process for reporting harassment that is experienced or observed

  ▢ Explains the consequences of engaging in conduct unacceptable in the workplace

• Content of Compliance Training for Managers and First-line Supervisors

  ▢ Provides easy-to-understand and realistic methods for dealing with harassment that they observe, that is reported to them, or of which they have knowledge or information, including description of sanctions for failing to use such methods

  ▢ Provides clear instructions on how to report harassing behavior up the chain of command, including description of sanctions for failing to report

  ▢ Encourages managers and supervisors to practice "situational awareness" and assess the workforces within their responsibility for risk factors of harassment

A reminder that this checklist is meant to be a useful tool in thinking about and taking steps to prevent harassment in the workplace, and responding to harassment when it occurs. It is not meant to convey legal advice or to set forth legal requirements relating to harassment. Checking all of the boxes does not necessarily mean an employer is in legal compliance; conversely, the failure to check any particular box does not mean an employer is not in compliance.