| News
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The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) voted to approve the implementation of AB 1825, California’s mandatory harassment training law. New regulations mean that training that once complied with the law will no longer be enough.
The new law was expected to be in effect as early as February 2007. The new regulations include three provisions that will be of particular concern to employers: training must be interactive, training must take two hours to complete, and trainers must have the necessary qualifications and level of expertise.
- Interactivity: Many California employers use online training modules to meet the harassment training requirement for supervisors. Programs that require learners to read along, and press the “next” button will no longer meet requirements. One way to meet the interactivity requirement is to provide a link that permits employees to ask questions of trainers. These questions must be answered within two days.
- Length of training: Most e-learning programs are not in compliance with this goal. Employers could use timers to track how long trainees are spending on the material and incorporate a method to let a trainee know if he or she needs to slow down and spend more time on a certain part of the program.
- Level of trainer expertise: The new regulations require trainers to be experts in their field. In order to be considered a subject matter expert, trainers should have practical knowledge of California law as well as experience with harassment and discrimination issues.
Another concern raised by the regulations is the broad definition of a “supervisor.” Any employee who has the authority to “hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees” is considered a supervisor under the regulations and must receive the training.
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| Questions |
| 1. |
If California already had a law that says all businesses must provide harassment training to supervisors, why did the FEHC need to implement the new regulations which included provisions for interactivity, length of training, and trainer expertise? |
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Many employers who use online training to meet the requirements are concerned that their training is not interactive. In the article, it is suggested that one way to make online training interactive would be to add a button so that trainees could ask trainers questions. What are some other ways to make e-learning interactive? List at least three ideas.
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| 3. |
California is notorious for having more stringent workplace laws than the rest of the country. Do you think that other states should follow its lead? In your opinion, if all states required that supervisors receive harassment training, would the number of harassment instances in the workplace decline? Why or why not? Be prepared to discuss your answers in class.
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