Workplace Harassment – What It Is and What To Do About It

Duration: Offered as a 90 minute webinar or 2 days in class

Course Overview

In 2012 alone, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ordered that $365,400,000 (that’s 365.4 million dollars!) be paid out for discrimination and harassment charges. No wonder companies are working to be more proactive in preventing harassment.

But how do you prevent harassment from occurring? What sorts of policies should be in place? What should managers do to protect their employees? And if a complaint is filed, what will we do? All of these questions (and more!) will be answered in this course.

Learning Objectives

  • Explain what is acceptable behaviour in the workplace and what is not, and why
  • Apply the benefits of harassment training
  • Define the various types of harassment, including sexual harassment
  • Assist in creating a harassment policy
  • State some ways to prevent harassment and understand what role you can play
  • Demonstrate some ways to protect yourself from harassment
  • Know what to do if you are harassed or accused of harassment
  • Understand the complaint process, from the complaint to the reply, to mediation or investigation, to a solution
  • Identify situations where mediation is appropriate, and understand how mediation works in those situations
  • Describe appropriate solutions for a harassment incident
  • Know what to do if a complaint is false
  • Help your workplace return to normal after a harassment incident

Course Outline

1. Course Overview

2. Defining Harassment

  • What is Harassment?
  • Reasonable Man/Reasonable Woman

3. Defining Sexual Harassment

  • What is Sexual Harassment?
  • Is This Harassment?

4. The Purpose of Training

5. Creating a Harassment Policy

6. Other Prevention Strategies

7. Nipping it in the Bud

  • Your Role as a Manager
  • Making Connections

8. Protecting Yourself

9. What If It Happens to Me?

  • What Works and What Doesn’t?
  • Saying No

10. What If It’s Happening to Someone Else?

11. Someone Has Filed a Complaint Against Me!

12. Addressing a Complaint

13. Handling False Complaints

14. Mediation

  • Basics of Mediation
  • The Mediation Process

15. Investigating a Complaint

  • Setting up the Investigation
  • The Investigation Process
  • The Investigation Report

16. Making the Decision

17. Creating Solutions

18. After It’s Over

19. Skill Application

  • Task Preparation
    • Stage 1
    • Stage 2
    • Stage 3
    • Stage 4

20. Personal Action Plan