California Employers Must Respond to Supervisor Questions Within 2 Business Days
California's FEHC (Fair Employment and Housing Commission) has now settled on final language for the much awaited Sexual Harassment Training and Education regulations. The final regulations, the first of their kind in the nation, not only set a standard that should guide all employers (even those outside of California) but they also answer age-old questions such as:
- What is effective training?
- How often should we train?
- Who is qualified to develop and deliver the training?
Now more than ever, employers must ensure that their harassment training can stand up to scrutiny and evaluation, and that a qualified trainer has been part of the course development process all along. Under the new regulations a qualified trainer must:
- Develop the training
- Deliver the training
- Be available to answer supervisor questions about training and harassment within two business days
The final obligation – granting learners access to a qualified sexual harassment trainer who can respond to supervisor questions within 2 business days – is a challenge for many employers. Employers of all sizes struggle with the budget, staffing, and timing implications of this obligation.
Outsourcing Supervisor Questions Can Leave Your Organization Exposed to Legal Risk
Some vendors in the training industry offer clients costly "Ask-the-Expert" services. For a fee the vendor will "answer" supervisor questions – based on your policy and the law. Simple, right? Not so fast. As any HR professional or senior manager knows, there is a lot more that goes into answering supervisor questions than a quick look at the policy. And only someone who knows your organization should be tasked with handling the most critical and highest risk situations. A training vendor is simply not equipped for this job.
If you are struck by the apparent ease of a fully outsourced option, you should take a step back and carefully consider the pros and cons of such an approach. (Click here for a detailed comparison chart). While outsourcing supervisor questions to a trusted attorney (one who regularly deals with your organization and who is fully aware of your unique culture and history) can be a viable solution, outsourcing to a training vendor can be an expensive and risky proposition because:
- You cannot control costs or usage.
- You are charged for redundant and frequently asked questions.
- You cannot control what advice the vendor gives or if it is followed.
- You cannot control how supervisors use or misuse the system.
- The vendor will not consider culture, context or past practice – the vendor relies exclusively on the law and your policy.
- The process creates an unprivileged record that can be used against your organization in litigation.
- You are putting the vendor in control of risk management for your organization.
ELT's WPH II Course:
Answers Supervisor Questions Without Adding Risk or Cost
At ELT we believe that clients should approach the supervisor question obligation in a fundamentally different and more effective way. A true solution should not increase risk or cost for the client. Rather, we believe that the course itself should be intelligently designed to do much of the work for you. We also believe that there are some questions that you want to handle on your own.
This is exactly what ELT delivers for its clients – with intelligent design and targeted supervisor resources. ELT's Workplace Harassment II (WPH II) course offers clients a variety of resources that are designed to help answer the most common supervisor questions – at no additional cost.
All clients who subscribe to WPH II have access to:
- Informative Decision Screen issue analysis.
- Optional HR Mentor screens that contain valuable topic specific information designed to build manager skills and explain key concepts in greater depth.
- Manager and HR Resource Guides that provide information about legal standards, best practices, and manager obligations.
- NEW – ELT's Interactive Supervisor Q&A Solution is a fully searchable collection of more than 350 of the most frequently asked supervisor questions.
The ELT suite of WPH II products helps engage organizational resources in a very effective and efficient manner. As a result of ELT's careful instructional design and Legal Engineering™, learners are given the most important and relevant information up front, and are empowered to find answers to the most common questions quickly and easily. If the question demands special attention the learner is directed to an internal resource. The net result – efficient use of everyone's time and only the most appropriate questions hit your desk.
ELT's Interactive Q&A Solution Efficiently and Effectively Answers Supervisor Questions
One of the most exciting additions to the ELT suite of products is the ELT's Supervisor Q&A Solution. This invaluable tool was developed by a team of lawyers and experts in the field of training and employment law.
Each question was drawn from years of experience answering thousands of manager and employee questions about sexual harassment and prohibited harassment policies. The Q&A Solution is arranged by key topic and is fully searchable with extensive key–term linking. This intelligent design means that supervisors can quickly find answers and easily link to additional content if necessary.
What is unique about the Q&A Solution is that it is designed to help your organization manage risk and resources. It achieves this by:
- Providing answers to the most common supervisor questions (more than 350 of them!), eliminating the need for special handling by your organization.
- Directing learners with questions that either need the attention of an internal expert or have the potential for creating risk for the organization to HR and senior management. This smart design enables you to take your organization's unique culture, context and past practice into consideration. It puts you in control.
- Leaving no question in the learner's mind about when to contact an internal resource.
ELT's WPH II is the Smart Solution for All Your Training Needs
When you select ELT as your online training vendor you rest assured that the course you have selected meets the rigorous standards established by AB 1825 and its regulations. In fact, all ELT courses and resource materials are created by attorneys and experts in the field with credentials and expertise that far exceed the minimum standards established by AB 1825.
ELT and its internal experts, work closely with Littler Mendelson, the nation's leading labor and employment law firm to develop the best products in the EEO online training industry. This is not a mere marketing relationship. Rather, Littler attorneys are actively engaged in product design, development and ongoing updates. This active partnership combined with ELT's rigorous process of Legal Engineering™ ensures that ELT's programs provide the most effective protection, and can withstand the most intense jury scrutiny. This depth of expertise and acute attention to detail provides an entirely different level of sophistication, quality and support for our clients.
Keeping your finger on the pulse and staying in touch with your business is critical if you want to protect your organization. Controlling how your organization manages risk and how it addresses difficult situations is the key to getting the best result. When you select ELT as your online training partner you remain in control and you ensure that your employees get the very best that the industry has to offer.
We have no doubt that at some point you will need access to an attorney – whether internal or external – to answer some of the most challenging supervisor questions but with ELT, you're the one who makes that decision.