Why In-Person Sexual Harassment Training Matters
Recently, while leading an interactive sexual harassment prevention training, we received an answer that reinforced exactly why in-person sexual harassment training matters. People were able to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and learn from each other in a way that’s difficult to replicate online.
In order to distinguish what constitutes sexual harassment, we ask if it’s OK to touch someone on the arm in order to make a connection, and we ask if it is OK to shake hands. We do this to illustrate that not all contact constitutes sexual harassment, that there are traditions like shaking hands that are perfectly acceptable. But this time a young man raised his hand and insisted that shaking hands was sexual harassment because it was touching and any touching was not acceptable and should be classified as harassment.
We explained that handshaking is a traditional way of greeting or acknowledging and, by itself, is not harassment. We also explained that if he didn’t want to shake hands, he could simply decline. The discussion helped him understand that context matters and that touching alone does not constitute sexual harassment.
At Bridge Training Consultants, our goal is to increase understanding. That’s why we believe in-person, interactive sexual harassment prevention training matters. We’re not here to lecture or just recite rules and legalities. We want to ensure that employees understand not only what is an isn’t acceptable, but also why, in order to foster a respectful workplace. We ask questions and we invite questions to be asked of us because it gives us an opportunity to fully explain where the boundaries are and why it’s important that they are observed.
This is where in-person sexual harassment training differs from online sexual harassment trainings. Videos cannot pause to answer questions, to discuss reporting procedures, local vs. federal law, or explain why policies exist. Online training is legal, is meets training requirements, and it checks the box, but it does a disservice to the people who work for the company because it’s incomplete. It doesn’t allow for questions, and it doesn’t provide explanations and that is extremely important because it is those gray areas that generate the most claims when the boundaries are not fully understood.
Bridge Training Consultants provides sexual harassment prevention training exclusively in person because we believe it’s the most effective way to build understanding. Often behavior that results in a sexual harassment claim comes about because the offending party simply did not understand that what they were doing constituted harassment. The more information your team has, the better they understand the boundaries, the fewer claims you will have. That’s why in-person sexual harassment training matters. Bridge Training Consultants’ goal is to eliminate sexual harassment through knowledge and understanding.