Since Harvey Weinstein had his great fall, nearly every one of our Client Employers have said to us, “I know we really need to schedule some anti-harassment for our staff.” Then, work gets busy, and then the quarter is wrapping up, and then a big project takes over, and on and on. This is not an issue you can avoid. You can’t bury your head in the sand and think it is going away. The single best thing you can do as an employer to provide your employees with a workplace free of harassment and discrimination is to train your staff. Now is the time to schedule the training!

At Lake Effect HR & Law, our attorneys and HR professionals are all experienced and engaging trainers on Anti-Harassment Practices. Our approach is not a secret, but our delivery is. We really are that good. We get your team talking, laughing, feeling comfortable about the uncomfortable. People tell us they dreaded the training, but ended up, actually, having fun. Hard to believe, right? Schedule a session and you will believe us.

So what is our approach? Here is what we do every time:

  1. Provide a legal review and suggested updates to workplace policies and practices. We look at not only your actual Anti-Harassment policy, but also the policies that connect to it: social media, behavior and conduct, use of electronic systems and networks, confidential information and more. We also reflect off your industry and culture, and reflect on how this supports your mission and vision. How we provide this training at a bank differs from an arts non-profit.
  2. Provide an in-person training to your team. A webinar means people are checking emails. A video means people space out and don’t participate.
  3. Engage everyone in attendance in the dialog. No one is allowed to slouch in the corner or avert their eyes.
  4. Deep dive into your organization’s anti-harassment policy and the related policies. Teach your team where all of the answers are within your policy. What is harassment? Who is protected? From whom? How do you report? What is retaliation? What happens in an investigation? What are the possible outcomes?
  5. Review real life situations, pertinent to your industry and culture. Some offices are huggy, while others are not. Some offices are serious and quiet, some are not. Some have board members and volunteers regularly in the mix, others don’t. All of those factors and many more affect your office culture and employee workplace interactions.
  6. Answer questions that your employees have about what is OK and what is not – and what is dependent on the situation and presentation.
  7. Spend extra time with your managers to review their enhanced responsibilities as supervisors. Clearly, being a manager is not as glamorous as it appears. We give them some more tools to help address these difficult situations as and when they arise.

If you are ready to schedule your Anti-Harassment Training, contact any of the attorneys or HR professionals at Lake Effect HR & Law. We are ready to help you tick this item off your to-do list.