Stay Up-to-Date On State-Specific Harassment Prevention Training

Do you follow The Try Guys?

Keith Habersberger, Ned Fulmer, Zach Kornfeld, and Eugene Lee Yang left their jobs at Buzzfeed after forming their own production company, 2^nd Try LLC, where they have made a living creating content about trying . . . anything.

The Try Guys’ “thing” is to challenge themselves to try new things – embracing failure and learning from it. They have gone viral for their authenticity and playful, friendly comradery. However, just a few weeks ago, Habersberger, Kornfeld, and Yang announced that they would cut ties with Fulmer for engaging in an extra-marital affair with an employee.

While fans of The Try Guys were disappointed to hear this news, compliance professionals might agree that the production company handled it beautifully. Here’s what The Try Guys did right:

• Quickly investigate claims of improper behavior. As soon as they learned of Fulmer’s allegedly inappropriate behavior, The Try Guys confronted everyone involved. They made it clear that Fulmer’s actions were against what they stand for as a company after a thorough internal investigation.

• Protect the person involved in the situation. While they rightfully kept the name of the employee confidential, many news outlets have since reported on her name. The Try Guys publicly requested that the internet be kind, as they know that women are often demonized more than men in this type of scenario.
  

• Discipline the person who committed the harassment.Despite their long history with Fulmer, The Try Guys promptly removed him from company operations. Not only did this immediately stop potential harassment, but it sent a clear message to The Try Guys’ team and the public that this type of behavior would not be tolerated.
  

• Document the investigation and the steps taken to remedy the situation. Obviously, The Try Guys were not at liberty to discuss an ongoing investigation. However, they did make it clear that they are taking the situation seriously and involving all appropriate parties.

While Fulmer’s extra-marital affair seems to have been reciprocated, it is important to note that many companies have established clear policies on personal relationships within the organization. Typically, companies include this type of information in their global code of conduct.

Relationships between a supervisor and an employee can have a negative impact on the entire team – especially if other employees notice the relationship and claim a hostile work environment. After all, quid pro quo sexual harassment may be implied in intimate relationships between a supervisor and an employee.

If The Try Guys have taught us anything, it is that workplace harassment isn’t just a type of training that employees undertake every couple of years after joining your organization. It is a real problem that continues to arise in organizations around the world.

Consider these statistics:

• Women have a 54% chance of becoming a victim of harassment
• 72% of victims were harassed by someone more senior in their workplace
• 75% of sexual harassment cases in the workplace go unreported
• 39% of employees aren’t confident their issues will be addressed, and 46% fear retaliation
• Workplace harassment costs an average of $1,053 per victim

It is up to your organization to effectively train employees – and managers – on how to promote a safe and inclusive workplace. And then to make good on their commitment.

At the end of the day, compliance leaders have a lot to consider when developing workplace harassment prevention training programs. Many states require anti-harassment training, and those regulations can change regularly, making it difficult to keep your content up to date and in compliance.

Skillsoft addresses regulatory requirements and works with you to build a culture that promotes respect and rejects harassment.

Importantly, our solutions focus on people, not just rules. For example, Skillsoft’s bystander training empowers employees to recognize harassment in the workplace and provides them with multiple options to intervene when they see this behavior. The course puts the learner in the victim’s shoes, helping them see the emotional impact of harassing behavior.

Skillsoft has just released 115 new workplace harassment training courses to help organizations stay up-to-date with harassment prevention requirements. Our customers may choose from four types of content created for both managers and employees: memorable, standard, workplace, and retail.

• Memorable (Office 1) - Training explores the deeper levels and details of bad behavior and elicits an uneasy, uncomfortable feeling in learners. Edgy content helps demonstrate the weight and significance of workplace harassment topics.
• Standard (Office 2) - Training addresses bad behavior in a more benign manner. Content is slightly restrained in the depth and detail of bad behavior discussed compared to "edgier" videos.
• Workplace - Training is aimed at job roles in a production/industrial, blue-collar environment rather than a corporate/office environment.
• Retail - Training contains a mix of workplace scenarios from the existing content and newly-created scenarios specific to the retail environment. In addition, the instructional content has been modified to reflect a retail setting.

Our courses are:

• Self—serve. Skillsoft’s modular design structure makes configuring courses a simple, cost-effective process. Interchangeable scenario video content provides unprecedented flexibility to target both white-collar and blue-collar employees. This provides diverse and relatable depictions of harassment to fit the variety of demographics that may be employed in your organization.

• Customizable. Configurable to reflect your organization’s unique needs by leveraging a library of interchangeable video assets, Skillsoft’s full suite of anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training helps organizations educate their employees to understand, prevent, and respond to the various forms of harassment.

• Interactive. Skillsoft courses are produced in a modern, cinematic style to create emotionally engaging stories that reinforce learning objectives, create an emotional impact in viewers, and ensure retention.
  

These courses include content for both employees and managers, with state-specific training available for California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York. As states continue to rapidly change their specific laws and regulations, companies must be aware and be able to adapt quickly to stay compliant.

Differing state laws present challenges and complexities as they pertain to developing a sufficient and effective sexual harassment training program. Furthermore, as the issue of sexual harassment continues to be in the public spotlight, organizations must seriously ask themselves the following questions when developing such a program:

• How are we keeping up with new and changing regulations?
• How do we govern employees in multiple jurisdictions?
• How do we train employees in multiple jurisdictions who are subject to different training requirements?

Is your organization up-to-date with harassment prevention training requirements? Contact a Skillsoft expert today!