This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Recommendations for best sexual harassment trainings for the workplace

Jolene76·Dec 10, 2021

Posted in:Advice

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting on here but I have really found value in reading these advice forums so I thought I'd reach out for some insight. For those who work in HR or have implemented training on sexual harassment at the workplace - what resources did you use?

I tried looking up a few resources online but honestly, what I found felt outdated. As of right now, my company does not have any type of training set in place and there have been incidents at our company happy hours and holiday parties and I would like to pitch it to my company to add mandatory trainings ASAP. Please let me know what your thoughts are/if your company is using anything that you find helpful!

Thank you :)

Gwenn83·Dec 10, 2021

Glad to see your initiative here to leave a mark / make it better than you found it—this is exactly the type of employee any manager or founder would be lucky to have. We can't always see or know everything so people having "owner's mentality" is drive change and leave impact outside of their core tasks to help improve the organization is commendable! I can't be a ton of help here. I wonder if you might be able to share the incidents that happened, stripped for sensitive details of course.

Brionna·Dec 10, 2021

Hello! Former lawyer and in house counsel here. First, good job posting this anonymously. Do not share any details about any of the incidents you mentioned with anyone outside of your company who is not hired as your company's lawyer or your own personal lawyer. Second, some states actually mandate sexual harassment trainings for companies with a certain number of employees so check to see if you are in one of those states and if so, buy whatever you find online and immediately circulate it so you can be in compliance. Third, once you do that OR if you aren't in one of those states, I would check out https://www.allvoices.co/ and see if you can find any resources from them. They are woman owned and Claire specifically started the company to develop better, safer, and more secure solutions for whistleblowers in the workplace and there's a lot of resources on the site. Good luck!

ahj00ma·Dec 11, 2021

Thanks for sharing the all voices link! Definitely checking them out. Love what they've created.

rachaelharnish·Dec 11, 2021

I highly recommend Ethena. It trains on so much more than just anti-harassment (e.g. allyship, microagressions, etc.).

AkhilaIruku·Dec 11, 2021

Really appreciate you recommending us @rachaelharnish! Ethena is a women-founded start-up tackling this exact problem - our founders Roxanne and Anne saw how traditional training was outdated and did not have the intended impact of driving change towards creating safe and inclusive workplaces. We decided to upend tradition and create training that's engaging to learners. tackles a variety of topics like Rachel mentions, and impactful because we train with bite-sized learning over the course of the year vs. one and done. Check us out at www.goethena.com :)

ahj00ma·Dec 11, 2021

Thanks for sharing Ethena! Really helpful

Jerin·Dec 11, 2021

I'm so sorry this is happening at your company. Thank you for taking the initiative on this important and distressing topic. This is close to my heart because I spearheaded the sexual harassment policy for the third-largest university in the U.S., which has impacted millions. One of the clauses we were able to pass is mandatory training for all students, staff and faculty. I've facilitated trainings myself, organized in-person and virtual events, and written about the topic. I really hope this doesn't seem disrespectful to Ehena as I've only read good things about them and want to support their innovative work. I wanted to provide two other resources, in case you're based in NY. 1) The New York City Commission on Human Rights provides free training to companies and representation to victims. The Commission is led by an openly-gay WOC and she helped spearhead some of the best sexual harassment policies in the U.S. https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/law/sexual-harassment-training.page2) The Gender Equality Law Center is also run by a woman and the ED is a personal friend. They both represent victims and provide training to employers. You can contact them for free legal help at: 1-888-833-4363https://www.genderequalitylaw.org/One of the worst and most damaging aspects of sexual violence is how society shames and isolates the victims. Please let me know if I can be more helpful. In Solidarity,Jerin

LisaG·Dec 13, 2021

Hi. Full disclosure I'm the CEO and Founder of https://www.tequitable.com/. While anti-harassment training is important for compliance (and as someone mentioned is a legal requirement in many U.S. states), tEQuitable's approach is different. We provide a confidential tool and in-the-moment advice to help employees and companies get in front of and prevent bias, discrimination, and harassment in the workplace. Given your description of the situation, that might be helpful? Happy to connect offline and chat about the full range of options.

Briana·Dec 13, 2021

I had to take one through Stanford and thought it was great - much more modern and relevant - it was done by a company called Groundswell: https://groundswellchange.com/