What is Workplace Awareness Training?
Training programs serve as one type of tool that enables an employer, through the trainer, to impart their expectations, their policies, and their procedures. Our session help employees understand appropriate workplace conduct – not by lecture or disciplinary action, but rather by discussion and examples.
Whether an employer has a large HR team, a solo internal HR representative, or a financial director doubling as HR, an impartial external trainer can provide a neutral and unbiased forum to educate without judgment.
Training forums serve as a communication tool and is a “best practice” for fostering effective employer-employee relations. Believe it or not, most employees value education. They are curious and continuous learners who seek information that is relevant to their work life.
These presentations illuminate values, highlight compliance obligations, and set forth business needs.
Why Is Anti-Harassment & Anti-Discrimination Training Important?
While it is not a requirement in all states, most Equal Employment and Human Rights agencies encourage employers to conduct education and anti-harassment training programs for all employees on a regular basis.
In some cases, an employer’s failure to train hiring managers and supervisors about the legal issues around discrimination law amounts to a reckless indifference of the law. Lack of such training has been found to justify an award against the employer. In cases where punitive damages may be sought, proof of training may mitigate (reduce) the damages assessed.
In order to avoid or diminish liability, appropriate detailed training must be conducted to show that the employer took reasonable care to prevent sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Insufficient or poor training with inappropriate information will not support an employer’s good faith efforts to prevent harassment or offer a reasonable defense.
Attorney Figman’s experience in litigating harassment and discrimination cases, as well as her service as a state administrative hearings officer in such cases, enhances her ability to provide high quality legally compliant training. She has completed MCAD training certification for anti- discrimination/anti-harassment programs. She develops separate training sessions for managers/supervisors and employees to ensure that each group is provided with focused comprehensive programs designed for their distinctly different needs. In addition, each training program is interactive and prepared for the employer’s unique type of business and corporate culture.
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Ms. Figman provides in-person training to sites with only twelve employees to companies with over one hundred employees. Her virtual presentations have been a great resource to employers during these times of remote work. She also addresses business groups and professional organizations.