For many of us, the phrase ‘compliance training’ conjures feelings of drudgery. Dull, mandatory training that you just want to get out of the way. While it may not be anyone’s favourite part of the job, compliance training is foundational for any business. 

Luckily, it doesn't have to be this way! Compliance shouldn't be a slog, as we recently discussed in our article on levelling up your compliance training. We believe it’s time to shatter that stereotype, giving employees the engaging compliance training they deserve. It’s a lofty goal, but maybe, it’s time to make compliance training sexy.

When done right, the benefits of compliance training are significant and far-reaching, ranging from higher productivity and profitability to increased employee engagement and risk reduction. These benefits apply to both small businesses and large global organisations, regardless of industry.

These benefits, coupled with your legal obligations, mean you are doubtless eager to ensure your business complies with state laws and industry regulations. However, like many, you might be unsure where to start. Compliance is a vast, intimidating topic, after all. Where to begin? You understand compliance is essential for the security and reputation of your business, but how can you improve compliance within your organisation? Thankfully, it’s easier than it sounds. 

Below, we’ve outlined three essential steps to get started on better compliance for your business. But first, we’ll examine the state of compliance training globally, sharing the key statistics you need to know. 

Let’s start with the good news first. Globally, compliance training is maturing. This year, the number of organisations with "mature and advanced" risk and compliance programs grew by 29%. Likewise, the number of compliance programs deemed “reactive and basic” fell by 34%. These statistics are hugely encouraging, showing that organisations are thinking more deeply about their compliance programs to deliver engaging, forward-thinking content. 

Even so, there is still work to be done, as just 17% of teams say their compliance culture is ‘fully aligned’ across the company. 70% say their compliance culture is somewhat aligned, while, more concerningly, 13% say it’s not aligned. On a brighter note, Deloitte finds that 57% of organisations rate their compliance culture as either positive or exceptional. 

These positive advancements make sense, as organisations lose an average of $4 million in revenue per non-compliance event, making a mature and comprehensive compliance culture essential. Similarly, CEI finds that US businesses spend an average of $10,000 per employee on regulatory costs, while regulatory monitoring can save $1.03 million on average. Moreover, there has been a 45% increase in non-compliance costs in the last decade. 

It is also interesting to note that remote work has impacted the cost of non-compliance. According to IBM, data breaches cost over $1 million more on average when remote work is a factor. Put simply, non-compliance is prohibitively expensive, meaning it pays to invest in an up-to-date compliance program. 

So, how much do teams invest in compliance? Bloomberg finds that 50% of organisations spend 6-10% of their revenue on compliance costs, while 20% spend less than 5% of their revenue on compliance costs. 

Further, according to Deloitte, 72% of teams say their compliance budget has increased over the last five years. Yet, 36% say the level of investment in compliance is inadequate, and it’s hard to argue. When the cost of non-compliance is so high, it’s well worth investing in a dependable compliance program. 

How are teams delivering compliance training?

In the wake of the pandemic, compliance costs now include 62% of organisations that use eLearning to deliver compliance training. 30% of teams use blended learning for their compliance needs, while 9% favour instructor-led training. Additionally, 34% of organisations outsource some or all of their compliance functionality. 

This shift towards eLearning has helped teams streamline their compliance programs, with 70% of compliance experts saying COVID increased their reliance on technology to improve decision-making, performance monitoring, and risk management. Overall, these figures represent a major paradigm shift, with teams discovering the benefits of eLearning for compliance training. 

While this shift to eLearning is a broadly positive step, there is still room for improvement, particularly for alignment and capacity. 60% of teams say their compliance training is only “somewhat tailored” to individual business units, while just 13% believe their compliance training is “highly tailored.” Further, 87% of teams say their compliance function has no spare capacity due to being understaffed, which is cause for concern. 

Top challenges and skills for compliance teams 

With these statistics in mind, it’s worth asking: what challenges are compliance teams facing, and what skills will they need to overcome these challenges? 

For starters, MetricStream identified some of the top challenges compliance managers face. These are: handling compliance assessments, undergoing control testing, and implementing policy and process updates. 

Likewise, Deloitte identified the biggest challenges compliance teams face: 

Coordination between business functions (17%)

To overcome these challenges, Thomas Reuters revealed the top three skills compliance officers need: subject matter expertise, communication skills, and anticipating future regulatory trends. 

Similarly, Deloitte found that the three most important skills for compliance teams in the future will be: influencing skills, communication skills, and stakeholder management. Future-ready compliance teams would be wise to start developing these skills. 

3 steps to better compliance training for your business

Now that we have a broad overview of the state of the compliance industry, the question becomes: how can my business deliver better compliance training? Here are three steps to exceptional compliance training. 

Compliance communication means informing staff of all policies, processes, and procedures that apply to an employee's industry and role. Essentially, it’s about getting staff to read, understand, and comply with relevant legislation and regulations. This can include anything from fire safety to cybersecurity, and everything in between. 

To achieve this clear communication, you must tell all staff that a compliance program is in place and ensure compliance regulations and policy changes are distributed, received, understood, and acknowledged by each employee. Many compliance programs focus on changing employee behaviour, while also communicating what to do in the event of non-compliance.

At this point, getting employee buy-in can often be challenging. Many employees may associate compliance training with negative stereotypes, such as wading through pages of legal jargon to understand the latest compliance updates.

Other challenges include competing priorities, which mean employees might not have time to read long compliance updates. Others still may be unaware of where updates are shared. Therefore, sharing compliance updates in plain, decipherable language is vital. You can also try summarising the key points of your compliance updates to ease time pressures. Finally, ensure all employees know where to access the latest compliance updates.

Thus, to create an effective compliance communication strategy, EQS recommends taking the following steps:

1. Maintain a central source of information so employees always know where to look if they’re confused. 

2. Establish a mechanism to communicate new regulations and amendments (i.e. a Slack channel, monthly meeting, or email updates). 

3. Align compliance messages across internal communication channels to ensure everyone sees them.

4.Generate continued interest in compliance topics by prompting employees to engage in continuous learning and upskilling. 

5. Harness the potential of microlearning to make compliance training seem less intimidating and time-sensitive. 

6. Make sure your compliance trainers also receive regular training to stay up-to-date with current information and trends. 

Most importantly, your compliance communication materials must carry the same key messages repeated over time to encourage behavioural change.

Compliance training for all employees is essential to make your company more compliant. 

Investing time and money into your compliance program to teach staff about company regulations and standards will ensure your organisation stays up-to-date, relevant, and on top of compliance issues, while also minimising the risk of legal problems. As outlined above, non-compliance can be exceptionally costly, so it’s never worth the risk. 

Satisfactory training coverage is an important measure of an effective compliance program, so you must ensure that all staff receive ongoing, relevant training on your company’s policies and procedures.

The easiest way to achieve this is via eLearning. As mentioned, 62% of organisations already use eLearning to deliver compliance training. Online training courses are available for all areas of compliance, making training incredibly easy, convenient, and effective. To learn more, check out Go1’s vast library of compliance training courses. 

3. Collect feedback on your compliance processes

Developing an effective feedback channel is a critical aspect of any compliance program.

Collecting feedback tells you what is really going on in your organisation, allowing you to identify problems before they become a risk. For example, you might want to ask some of the following questions:

Is your compliance training covering the topics your employees want it to cover? 

Are there any blind spots in your compliance training? 

Are employees retaining information after completing the training? 

What is your compliance training doing well? What could it be doing better? 

Are there additional topics on which employees would like to receive training? 

Do your employees find your compliance training engaging? 

What improvements would employees recommend to optimise your compliance training? 

Do your employees enjoy microlearning or gamification with their compliance training? 

These questions are only the tip of the iceberg, providing a wealth of practical, actionable insights that tell you exactly how your employees engage with your compliance training and how you could optimise your training in the future.

By encouraging staff to provide honest feedback and report any concerns, you can improve your processes, thereby improving your compliance.

It’s also essential to have a process that allows ‘whistleblowing’ without fear of retribution. Encourage employees to report any compliance failures or unethical behaviour and have clearly-communicated consequences in place for non-compliance.  

By following these steps, you’ll provide employees with clear communication, training, and feedback channels. Accordingly, you will be well on your way to building a stronger culture of compliance.

Keeping on top of compliance ensures greater transparency in the way your business operates, allowing you to improve your processes and efficiency. Improving your compliance training will also allow you to relax, knowing you’re doing the right thing for your staff and organisation.

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

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We’ve outlined three essential steps to get started on better compliance for your business. But first, we’ll examine the state of compliance training globally, sharing the key statistics you need to know. 

Getting started on better compliance training for your business

On a global level, compliance spending can be seen to be increasing, as organizations worldwide recognize the numerous benefits compliance brings to their business.

With the current boom of compliance happening across organizations worldwide, compliance specialists are in high demand globally, and this trend isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

However, there are still many companies choosing to invest only a small amount of time and money into making sure their business is compliant. Neglecting compliance issues can put companies at significant risk, in the way of hefty fines and penalties, as well as damage to their brand and reputation.

How much time and money are you spending on compliance for your company? 

Today we’ll look at the benefits of investing in company compliance, and show you why it’s worth spending more time, money and energy on this area of your business.

The Benefits of Investing More Money in Compliance

In the last year, between 2015 and 2016, there’s been a significant increase in the amount of money companies are spending on compliance, with a 60% increase in North America, 75% in Europe and 80% in the Middle East.

With compliance not actually generating income or profits for a business, why are so many organizations choosing to increase their financial investment in this area?

We’ve already mentioned the risks of neglecting compliance and the potential damage it can cause. With good policies and procedures in place, you can avoid considerable damage to your company’s finances, as well as your reputation. In many cases, the long-term damage of non-compliance will be far more costly than the financial resources needed to fund and operate an effective compliance program.

While these aspects are important, it’s also important to see the positive benefits compliance can bring to your business, rather than thinking of it only as a way to minimize negative impacts and risks.

With an effective compliance program, you’ll be making sure your organisation is staying true to its values and ethics, which is an essential component of your brand’s identity. A good compliance program demonstrates to both your employees and your market that you are committed to doing things the right way. It’s good business, on both levels. 

The Benefits of Spending More Time on Compliance

It’s also vital that you invest an appropriate amount of time and resources into your company’s compliance program. Think about how much time per week you invest in compliance – what resources are committed to managing compliance policies and procedures?

The most effective way to manage your organization’s compliance is to have staff who are dedicated solely to this area. Chief Compliance Officers (CCO) and Chief Risk Officers (CRO) have become essential resources for many organizations, rather than tasking various staff with these roles on top of their ordinary position descriptions.

Having staff committed to developing, implementing and assessing compliance policies and procedures will ensure your organization stays up-to-date, relevant and on top of compliance issues.

In a compliance report by Deloitte, the question is asked – “if you don’t have a lot of people whose only job is compliance, how can you ensure that the people responsible within the business units give compliance the same attention as everything else they are responsible for?” 

Make Compliance Part of Your Workplace Culture

As you can see, compliance is a combination of time and money – it doesn’t work without an appropriate investment of both of these factors. 

It’s important for organizations to recognize the benefits of investing in compliance programs to build a better culture of compliance. You can make compliance a part of your workplace culture, through strong policies and training in areas such as sexual harassment and workplace bullying and discrimination.

Compliance training for employees is a vital part of this step. By taking the time to teach staff about company regulations and standards, you can make sure their knowledge on organizational policies is always up-to-date and accurate, while also minimizing the risk of legal problems. 

Using e-Learning for Compliance Training 

E-Learning can be a great investment and training solution for your company, allowing your staff to complete training online, at their convenience, without interrupting their regular workflow.

Using a Learning Management System such as the Go1's online training platform, to provide staff with compliance training is a very popular choice for organizations because of the convenience and ease of use. With online compliance training, you can also keep track of individual progress and results, which is beneficial for employees, their team leaders or managers, and employer.

It’s also a more cost-effective solution, allowing you to save money on in-class trainers, as well as any facilities hire and travel expenses. Using a good Learning Management System for online training can reduce training expenses by more than 50%, saving you both time and money – which you can then invest in your new compliance program.

Why you need to spend time and money on compliance

Compliance is a very important part of any organization, regardless of whether you’re running a small business or managing a large global company.

Being compliant is essential for many aspects of your business, from local legislation, tax regulations, employee rights, intellectual property, data management and more. 'In its simplest form, you can think of compliance as playing by the rules. Failing to play by the rules can put your business at risk, resulting in significant fines for your company, as well as damage to your brand and reputation.

Unfortunately, company scandals involving ethics and corruption continue to demonstrate that many organizations are failing when it comes to building a culture of compliance. In the interest of your company’s reputation and long-term success, you must understand the importance of compliance and build an ethical work culture that respects and follows it.

So how do you achieve this? Read on for more information on how to create a culture of compliance in your organization. 

Foster an awareness of compliance in the workplace

To build a better culture of compliance you need to lead by example and start from the top, with CEOs, directors and managers showing their commitment to compliance. Without the active support of senior management in this area, your organization’s compliance policies will be little more than a token gesture, existing purely on paper rather than practice.

Managers and team leaders need to be aware of employee conduct (and misconduct) to help create a more visible culture of compliance. Make this a fixed part of your corporate culture, as you continue to build a strong and positive attitude towards compliance.

Fostering an awareness of compliance and instilling this value in your employees will go a long way in making your company more ethically sound.

Provide ongoing compliance training for all staff

One of the best things you can do to strengthen your corporate culture is to invest in ongoing active training for staff.

Through training, you can effectively teach employees how to recognize and respond to compliance issues. Involve all staff in compliance training, with the opportunity to revisit topics regularly to make sure their knowledge on organizational policies is always up-to-date and accurate.

You may also like to incorporate the topic into staff performance reviews to ensure employees are understanding and retaining this important knowledge, as well as being rewarded for demonstrating ethical behaviour.

Keep up-to-date with compliance regulations

In 2016, there has been a steady increase in regulatory initiatives worldwide. The compliance landscape is ever-changing, meaning businesses need to keep up-to-date with regulatory changes across the globe. 

To make sure your organization stays ahead, develop and implement a communication strategy to create awareness of compliance in the workplace, targeted at all staff, and consistently incorporate new regulations into your existing compliance program. 

If you’ve been neglecting setting up a compliance program, or updating your policies in this area due to financial reasons, think about the cost of potential fines and damage to your brand’s reputation. With fines of up to US $20M and imprisonment for up to 30 years for OFAC violations, you’ll soon see that it’s worth the cost.

There are significant benefits for companies who choose to invest in a better culture of compliance, including:

Organizations with high levels of integrity and ethics can be seen to have higher productivity, profitability, employee engagement and overall risk reduction, and compliance plays a big part in that.

Find out more about creating a culture of compliance

With so many tools and resources online, it’s easy to learn more about building a better culture of compliance.

Get a short introduction to this topic with the practical online course Promoting an Ethical Culture in Your Organization, which considers the important role of ethics and culture in organizations.

For more in-depth learning, L.E.A.D. with Integrity: Promoting a Culture of Ethical Conduct & Compliance looks at how you can turn a Code of Conduct into a living, breathing part of your organization.

This e-learning course helps managers and team leaders step up to the daily task of promoting ethical conduct and ensuring compliance in the workplace, through demonstrating personal commitment to their organization's culture of integrity. At the end of the course you’ll have a better understanding of the function of your organization's ethics and compliance program, as well as how to communicate standards of conduct to employees.

When you clock into work each day you’re normally focused on the tasks at hand; the emails you need to respond to, meetings you have to attend, and the calls you’ll be making throughout the day. As the one place in our lives that is supposed to be professional and “above board” at all times, it can be quite a shock if our workplaces suddenly turn hostile due to harassment.

Harassment is a serious issue for many workplaces in the US, and it can relate to any behavior conducted by a co-worker that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. This behavior might be based on sex, race, religion, or another discriminatory factor, and when faced with these hostile work environments we’re not only unable to complete our work but our mental and emotional wellbeing can suffer as well.

Harassment can come in the form of verbal abuse, intimidating behavior, or even physical contact—and with a rise in harassment cases of almost 10,000 per year since 1997, it’s never been more important to educate American workplaces on the topic.

Harassment in California, in particular, has been home to some of the most well-known discrimination and harassment cases in the country. With just over 7 percent of the country’s cases occurring in California, it’s fair to say that the Golden State has a significant problem with workplace harassment.

One of the most famous cases in California’s harassment history comes from the Regal Entertainment Group, after it was alleged that a female co-worker had sexually harassed a male employee persistently and further retaliated when the harassment was reported to a supervisor.

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found that the male employee at the theater was subject to continual sexual harassment in a hostile workplace, due to his female co-worker repeatedly attempting to touch him in an inappropriate manner. The EEOC also alleged that once he reported the behavior to the general manager, both he and his direct supervisor were then subjected to further harassment in the form of retaliation.

The retaliation experienced by the victim and his direct supervisor included lowered performance appraisals, stricter security of performance, and unwarranted discipline. Both sexual harassment and retaliation for a complaint are direct violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and when the EEOC eventually filed suit against Regal Entertainment Group in 2006 they were successful in the proceedings. Regal was forced to not only pay the employee $175,000 but also provide an adequate anti-discrimination training program for employees and report to the EEOC on a more regular basis.

The growing trend of harassment cases in California

The Regal Entertainment Group case highlighted a common issue in California regarding harassment cases in the workplace, and at the time of the case, the EEOC had noted an increase in men filing harassment cases in the last decade. This number included a jump from 12 to 16 percent of sexual harassment cases.

Although the situation seems to have improved somewhat in recent years, workplace harassment is still an extremely serious issue in California for both men and women. The EEOC released their findings from 2015 regarding workplace harassment and found that in California almost all areas of harassment had experienced a decrease in reported cases. Some areas, however, such as color, disability, and retaliation, had seen a dramatic increase since the initial report findings in 2009.

But what do these figures mean for the modern workplace? Simply put, prevention is the key. All workplaces should have compulsory and strict guidelines for training on discrimination and harassment to ensure that these problems are tackled before they come to fruition. While it might not prevent all cases from occurring, education is the best resource we have in the fight against workplace harassment.

How you can tackle harassment In your workplace 

Sexual harassment today might look very different to the cases we see in old-fashioned workplace training videos. We’re trained to look for overt signs of harassment such as verbal suggestions or physical contact, but it can sometimes be harder to spot than that. Harassment might take the form of an insinuating comment during work or even a private message sent through Facebook, so it’s not always as in your face as you might expect.

According to the EEOC, harassment can cover any unwelcome behavior that is based on sex, race, color, religion, origin, age, genetic information, or disability. If this behavior creates a work situation that any reasonable person would find uncomfortable, it’s likely to be a form of harassment.

If you feel that you’re in a situation in the workplace where harassment is occurring, either directly to you or someone else, you need to speak up. Although it might be uncomfortable, you should speak with the harasser directly and let them know that their behavior is making you uncomfortable, enlisting the help of Human Resources or management if need be.

Keeping active and ongoing written notes on the situation can also cover your bases, so begin this as soon as the harassment starts. Under the law, your employer is obliged to provide steps that will cease the behavior, so you don’t need to feel alone in the process.

It’s important to note that once you confront someone, you might even find that the harasser is unaware that their words and actions were making others uncomfortable. After speaking with them they may even take immediate steps to change their behavior, settling the problem there and then. However, there may be times when a harasser becomes annoyed with the confrontation or even refuses to acknowledge it, and this is where you’ll need management in your corner.

Real Workplace Harassment Examples in California

Regal Entertainment Group and the current problem of harassment in California 

We looked recently at the importance of sexual harassment policies in the workplace, to help employers and managers create safe, inclusive workspaces for their staff. As we’ve said before, all employees have the right to work in a positive and non-threatening work environment, free from any form of sexual harassment.

Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, with sexual harassment remaining a serious issue in many American workplaces. Being subjected to unwelcome and inappropriate behaviour at work, while trying to carry on and perform well under the usual stresses of a job, can have damaging and long-lasting effects on an individual.

When incidences of sexual harassment occur within a company, they also have serious repercussions and consequences for the organization as a whole. In the United States, laws have been put in place to protect both employees and employers from the long-reaching impacts of sexual harassment. Did you know that as an employer, neglecting to implement and practice proper anti-harassment policies may be a violation of both state and federal law?

Today we’ll look at how sexual harassment impacts the workplace and the negative effects it can have on both individuals and organizations. We’ll also point you in the direction of some online resources containing more information about workplace harassment, to help you navigate this important topic.

When an employee is being subjected to sexual harassment, the workplace becomes a hostile environment, with the constant threat of physical and/or emotional harm. This can lead to severe distress for victims, with individuals at risk of developing mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, PTSD or panic attacks, as well as the physical symptoms that accompany these disorders. 

Low productivity, motivation and morale levels, or high rates of sick leave or absenteeism, may also be signs that an employee is suffering from some form of harassment. As well as causing direct and immediate suffering for individuals, sexual harassment can interfere with work performance and career progression, and even result in people being forced out of their job and income completely.

How sexual harassment impacts organizations

A workplace environment that fails to properly address the issue of sexual harassment will be at risk of developing signs of a negative work culture – low morale, discontent employees and high levels of absenteeism will soon be reflected in lower productivity and profits.

Financially, companies can expect to face higher rates of staff turnover, with the added strains of hiring and training new staff, as well as the expense of sexual harassment lawsuits. A sexual harassment lawsuit will cost your company significant amounts of money, in addition to damaging your reputation and brand name.

Let’s look at the case of California-based company Braun Electric. 

A case of sexual harassment in California

In 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), an agency enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination in the United States, instructed Braun Electric to pay $82,500 for failing to address a sexually hostile work environment created by a manager.

The male manager continually subjected female staff to sexual harassment in the form of explicit propositions and grotesque sexual remarks, with one female employee forced to quit as a result of the ongoing hostile work environment.

Braun’s management did not act to address complaints from staff, with supervisors neglecting to report the ongoing incidences of sexual harassment they witnessed. The company failed to protect its employees.

As the director for the EEOC, Melissa Barrios said, "As agents of the employer, supervisors and managers should act as role models and promote an environment free of harassment. Employers should make sure that supervisory staff is trained not only on the laws against workplace harassment but also on how to effectively prevent and address such issues."

As well as paying the amount enforced, Braun Electric was instructed to retain an external equal employment opportunity monitor to review and revise its existing policies and procedures. The company also agreed to provide annual training for all staff on their rights as employees, as well as additional training for supervisory staff on how to properly deal with these issues.   

Learn more about sexual harassment policies

Managers can play a significant role in preventing workplace harassment. As a manager or team leader, it’s very important that you’re up-to-date with the sexual harassment laws in your state and have solid anti-harassment policies in place to deal with incidences in the proper way.

Does your organization have a strong policy around sexual harassment? Commit to creating a positive and safe environment for your staff, by developing and implementing an effective strategy that prevents and addresses workplace harassment.

You might like to learn more about this area through an online course such as Subtle Sexual Harassment – Management’s New Responsibilities. This short course goes beyond the basic definitions of sexual harassment, to examine the legal liability issues and questions of personal responsibility that managers must face. It offers guidance on important factors to consider when creating an effective sexual harassment policy, as well as practical advice on how to handle reports and complaints.

Subtle Sexual Harassment Training Scenes is another practical, informative resource for managers, with each online training module dramatizing an example of workplace harassment. Throughout the course, the social, legal and psychological impact of the events in each scene is examined, providing learners with tools for navigating this issue.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

We’ll look at how sexual harassment impacts the workplace and the negative effects it can have on both individuals and organisations.

The impact of sexual harassment in the workplace

Unfortunately, sexual harassment continues to be a significant issue in Australian workplaces. According to Safe Work Australia, one in three people (33%) have experienced workplace sexual harassment in the last five years, including 39% of women and 26% of men. 

Accordingly, workplace sexual harassment is an extremely important issue, with serious, far-reaching consequences for both employees and employers. Individuals who experience workplace sexual harassment face an unpleasant, hostile or dangerous work environment, often daily, with a high risk of physical or emotional harm. With productivity and motivation likely to suffer due to the harassment, their career progression can also be affected, and they may even be forced out of their job and income.

Companies also suffer the consequences of sexual harassment in their own way, becoming liable to negative impacts such as poor work culture, low morale and productivity levels, and financial stress from higher staff turnover.

With this in mind, we'll look at the importance of strong, well-defined sexual harassment policies to help prevent workplace sexual harassment. 

Being free from sexual harassment is a basic human right. Under Australian law, we all have a legal right to live and work free from sexual harassment. For employees, this means both during working hours and at any form of work-related training activities or functions.

As an employer, regardless of whether you’re a large-scale organisation or a small business, you have a responsibility to maintain a workplace that is free from sexual harassment. Employers and managers must take active steps to promote a safe and positive workplace for their employees.

The Australian Human Rights Commission defines sexual harassment as “any unwanted or unwelcome sexual behaviour, which makes a person feel offended, humiliated or intimidated.”

Sexual harassment can take many different forms. Whether someone is staring inappropriately, making sexually suggestive comments, telling or emailing inappropriate “jokes” or subjecting you to unwelcome physical contact – all of these examples are considered sexual harassment and must be addressed.

To do so, Safe Work Australia recommends taking the following steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment: 

Create a safe in-person and online work environment 

Create a positive and respectful workplace culture 

Address unwanted or offensive behaviour early

Provide training and education on preventing sexual harassment

Implement safe work systems and procedures 

Encourage workers to report any sexual harassment

Quickly respond to reports of sexual harassment 

The key to preventing sexual harassment is for employers and management to ensure that they have a clear policy in place, that defines sexual harassment, outlines unacceptable behaviour, and has clear consequences.

Implement a professional sexual harassment policy and provide ongoing training for all staff to make it clear that sexual harassment is 100% unacceptable in your workplace. Make sure that you and other managers encourage the prompt reporting of incidents and always act immediately on any complaints that involve sexual harassment.

In group environments such as the workplace, sexual harassment can have an unfortunate cumulative effect on other staff who witness the behaviour, serving to reinforce and normalise negative male/female stereotypes – especially if the behaviour is not stopped immediately. This is why it’s so important to speak up when you see or hear something unacceptable, even if you’re not in a management position.

If you are in a management role, you have an opportunity to make even more of a difference to how your staff think about sexual harassment in the workplace. Take a walk around the office or job site, taking note of any offensive posters, calendars or screensavers, and have them removed immediately. Make it clear that your sexual harassment policy is to be taken as seriously as it deserves to be. Keep the conversation going. Do more than just the bare minimum and initiate a positive, lasting change in your work environment.

Make sure that sexual harassment training is ongoing, with refresher training sessions held at least once a year to remind staff of the policy and reinforce its key messages. You can also hold separate sessions for managers and supervisors, to educate them on the policy and make sure they are aware of the correct procedures.

To get the ball rolling on these staff refresher courses, we recommend the short online courses Sexual Harassment training for Supervisors and Managers and Sexual Harassment Training for Employees. 

These courses feature modules from world-class training providers on identifying workplace sexual harassment, preventing workplace sexual harassment, and anti-bullying. 

Also available online, and perfect for follow-up training sessions with managers and supervisors, is a short course called Subtle Sexual Harassment – Management’s New Responsibilities.

This course goes beyond the basic definitions of sexual harassment, to examine legal liability issues and questions of personal responsibility that managers must face. It also offers guidance on important factors to consider when creating an effective sexual harassment policy, as well as practical advice on how to handle reports and complaints.

Whichever training tool you decide to use for your teams, you’ll be getting staff engaged and thinking about the issue – which is a step closer to creating a safe and positive workplace free of sexual harassment.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can support your team’s learning needs.

Sexual harassment continues to be a significant issue in Australian workplaces, so, we explore the importance of sexual harassment policies in the workplace.

The importance of sexual harassment policies in the workplace

Setting expectations through a social media policy can benefit you and your team

Everyone is involved with some form of social media. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn, we all spend some time every week checking up on our accounts and making sure our profiles remain up to date.

5 years ago it was common practice for a lot of businesses to have restrictions on their employees’ computers limiting their web access to avoid social media becoming in a distraction in the workplace. But as everyone has a mobile device full of social media applications at their fingertips, this is must now be dealt with head on in the form of a social media policy and training program.

This issue of distraction isn’t the only thing that should be covered in your policy, there are a number of areas that need to be addressed to protect your business from not only productivity and legal standpoints, but from a PR standpoint.

In this article will take a look at a few key areas that should be covered in your training and company legislation to avoid social media being the cause of problems in your company.

Setting expectations is one of the most important aspects of onboarding new employees. This sets the tone for what is expected of your new hires, and how they should conduct themselves in the workplace. The same goes for your social media policy.

If it is made clear that no social accounts are to be used outside of break periods throughout the day, your team members are aware that that should they be caught breaking the rules, they may be reprimanded and given an official warning for breaching workplace policy.

Before laying out any hard and fast rules about banning social media, have you considered how your team might be using it as a tool to help the company?

There are always exceptions to rules, and by using Twitter or LinkedIn you can actually find out a lot about a person or a company that you might be working with or looking to engage. Social media accounts can be a great tool for tracking down valuable information as well as communicating with your fan/user base and building your brand name via an online community.

If the expectation is set that the social tools should only be used if they are relating to a project, the team members are aware that if they breach the boundaries of the expectations that there could be consequences that could result in warning that in turn may lead to their dismissal from the company.

We’ve all seen this happen before. An employee goes on social media and says bad things about their company and/or team resulting in the termination of their contract. It’s becoming all too common at the moment, but this can be stopped with some basic social media training.

Training programs, which can consist of outlining the the key points in your social media policy, are a great way to let your team know how you expect them to represent your brand online, and what they can and cannot talk about. Depending on your company this may vary dramatically, however, sticking to a core set of guidelines when referring to your organization can make a huge difference in your online presence.

To avoid any issues or confusion in this area, it is important to outline a number of details so that employees know how to refer to the brand, and when they should be referring to the brand when promoting to their personal networks.

Links to reference (to blogs or websites)

Images/Logos to be used from an approved image library

Employees are a reflection of the company where they are at work or home, and that it’s very easy to trace back a single employees’ comments to a company. Bad example of this are easy to find, but we’re going to take a look at one case in particular in Australia where an employee had his contract terminated by his employer, only to have it reinstated by Fair Work Australia due to insufficient policy on the company’s behalf.

Mr Daniel Starr was dismissed from his employment with the Department of Human Services as a frontline Centrelink officer where he had worked for 21 years. He was dismissed for alleged “serious misconduct”, arising on a number of comments which he made on two social media sites over a period of some years. The Fair Work Commission Ordered Mr Starr’s reinstatement.

Daniel made comments on a public forum berating another user around incorrect processing times at Centrelink.

“Yes, it’s utterly disgraceful … I have never seen it this bad (not even close). I encourage every single person to complain to your local MP. Maybe that way they will get the hint that more help is required. Despite Flick’s ridiculous assertions in this thread that most claims are processed within 21 days to a month, I can tell you that they aren’t even close to the end of February processing at the moment.

It makes me embarrassed to work there, my heart genuinely goes out to all these kids who are simply struggling (to put it mildly) and there isn’t a damn thing those of us in the offices can do about it”