All employers are recommended to provide basic training for all current and new employees about unlawful workplace harassment.
Topics for basic anti-harassment training for all employees:
- Understanding what is harassment and what is a hostile work environment
- Legally protected categories
- The definition of sexual harassment
- Examples of conduct that can lead to harassment or create a hostile or unwelcoming work environment
- Review of the employer’s policy against harassment
- What to do if you witness harassment at work
- How to report harassment to the employer, and who to contact to file a complaint
- Enforcement agencies (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Vermont Attorney General’s Office, Vermont Human Rights Commission)
For more proactive harassment and discrimination prevention whenever resources permit, employers should also educate employees about:
- Bystander intervention - to help workers gain skills to support victims of harassment and intervening in inappropriate workplace conduct
- Workplace civility - to help workers understand the workplace standards, norms, and expectations for positive, respectful work environments for all
- Implicit bias or unconscious bias - to help workers understand how implicit or unconscious biases impact the workplace and how they treat or perceive others
Additional resources about harassment prevention training:
- Let’s Talk Gender, Let’s Talk #Harassment Cards, VT Works for Women
- EEOC Select Task Force on Harassment’s Checklist for Compliance Training
- Anti-Harassment Training in the Era of #metoo, Rita Risser Chai, March 2017
- How to Talk About Sexual Harassment, Leanin.org
- “Spotlight on Sexual Harassment Law,” Hope Pordy, Esq., Vermont Bar Journal, Spring 2018
- Resources about the EEOC Training Institute
- See the Vermont Trainer’s Directory