Posted on February 12, 2006 4:13 AM by
Shanti Atkins
Following up to my 2/10/06 post, employers need to be concerned with more than just sexual harassment in their training programs. According to the EEOC's most recent stats, charges from 2005 break down as follows:
- Sex discrimination - 30.6%
- Retaliation - 29.5%
- Age - 22%
- Disability - 19.7%
- National origin - 10.7%
- Religion - 3.1%
- Equal pay - 1.3%
(The total exceeds 100 percent because individuals may allege more than one kind of discrimination in a complaint.)
While AB 1825 has the country focused on sexual harassment, these numbers demonstrate the importance of addressing other protected categories. A great workplace harassment training program can focus on sex, but seamlessly address other areas.
Beware of training vendors who insist your training program must only include sexual harassment content. Most companies who spin this story need to, because they have erroneously developed programs that only contain sexual harassment content. (See how neatly that lines up?)
These training laws have created great incentives for employers to change workplace behavior, and reduce risk. At the same time, they have sparked a very competitive training market that frequently confuses lucrative sales and marketing messages with the truth.
Tags:
EEOC,
Federal Harassment Training,
protected categories,
racial discrimination,
sexual discrimination,
sexual harassment,
sexual harassment training,