Most employees likely think of harassment in male vs. female terms. A new BLR interactive CD-ROM training course will make them conscious of a wider perspective.
Ask your employees, or even your supervisors, for an example of “sexual harassment,” and you’ll likely hear the best-known version of it … a male showering a female with unwelcome, and even threatening, “romantic” attention.
But as yesterday’s Daily Advisor article explained, court and regulatory actions have expanded the definition far beyond that. Harassment can now be claimed against alleged harassers of the same sex. Sexual desire need no longer be a motivating factor. And what a few years back could be dismissed as “horseplay” or “joking around” among your employees can now land you in court with an expensive thud.
How expensive? Defending the average sexual harassment claim can cost $75,000 to $200,000 out-of-pocket, with additional costs for staff time spent on the case. That’s if you win! Lose the case, and the price tag can spiral up to double the initial amount or more.
What didn’t used to be harassment now may be. Train your employees to find … and not cross … the line, with BLR’s Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment. Try it free. Read more.
That’s why it’s so very important to train your people, and especially your managers and supervisors, in the full scope of harassment to get beyond the popular, media-driven stereotype and into less-frequently seen, but equally damaging, other forms of the problem.
It’s to that end that we recently reviewed BLR’S program, Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment. We’ve seen a number of harassment training programs over the years, but this one is qualitatively different, both in the message it transmits and in how it transmits that message.
You can tell that right from the opening slide when the narrator notes that “OK, this is the kind of subject that invites wisecracking that may remind you of middle school.” It’s a tone you don’t often hear in “educational” programs, but one that builds instant rapport and brings a smile, both of which open the door to learner receptivity.
From there, the program progresses through 40 slides, stopping repeatedly for interactive features. What are some of the key lessons?
–Definitions of the two forms of harassment: tangible employment actions and hostile work environment
–Examples of physical, verbal, and nonverbal harassment
–The fact that harassment is strictly in the eyes of the victim, and that whether the harasser knew his or her acts were objectionable is not relevant
–The understanding that the gender of the harasser or victim is irrelevant – key in understanding the concept of same-sex harassment
–Negative effects of harassment on both the employer and the employee
–The fact that harassers need not even be employees of the organization in which harassment occurs, and that witnesses or bystanders when harassment happens can also fall under the law’s protection
–What behaviors constitute sexual harassment? Including what is now perceived as objectionable and actionable that previously was considered just “joking around”
–What to do if you are harassed or witness harassment
Everyday Situations and Testing Emphasized
One of the most valuable aspects of the program is that it explains harassment in everyday terms, then continually tests for learning through two exclusive features:
Evaluate BLR’s Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment at no cost or risk. Click here.
–“Knowledge Laboratories” let the trainee see and hear examples of harassing behavior, while pop-quiz-type questions get them guessing at whether what they see qualifies as harassment. A click later, they immediately learn if they were correct.
–More formal “Knowledge Demonstration” quizzes test learning every few slides, and a flunking grade results in repeating the section or even the course.
Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment, in self-loading format, is available for a 30-day trial in your office with no obligation to purchase. Click the link below, and we’ll be happy to arrange it.
Avoid Harassment Lawsuits!
Use BLR’s training program, Interactive CD Course: Sexual Harassment, to show your employees where the line to harassment is, how not to cross it, and what the consequences are if they do. It includes audio soundtrack, quizzes, even a completion certificate. Try it for 30 days; then decide. Read more.