We live in an age of globalisation and increasing gender parity. According to Pew Research, 27% of the board members of Fortune 500 companies in 2019 were women – a drastic increase from 9.6% in 1995. As of December 2019, 50.04% of the American workforce were women. However, India is showing a shocking inverse of the global trend, with less women entering the labour force every year. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of safety many women feel in their workplace due to incidents of harassment and mistreatment.
Prevention of Sexual Harassment training, or PoSH training, can go a long way in making the workplace safer. PoSH training is a way to prevent the formation of a hostile work environment and educates people on appropriate behaviour in the workplace. There is a lot of ignorance regarding sexual harassment, as people don’t come hard-wired with such knowledge. Many people may not know that dirty jokes can also constitute sexual harassment, or that an unintentional touch may be taken as harassment. PoSH training helps educate the employees on such matters.
There are some very clear advantages to having a mandatory and well-designed PoSH course:
- No one wants to work at a workplace that is filled with toxicity, harassment and bad behaviour. PoSH training prevents the development of a toxic work culture and keeps morale up, hence increasing the likelihood of employees remaining with the company.
- An employee retention is also intimately tied with employer reputation. How?? If there isn’t enough awareness about what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace, there will inevitably be cases of inappropriate behaviour, and the employer can be held liable for the employees’ actions. This can lead to a serious blow to the employer’s reputation, which drives talent away.
- Being culpable for your employees’ actions may also lead to lawsuits, further tarnishing your company’s reputation. These lawsuits can also have very severe penalties and damages attached to them. For example: the Madras High Court had ordered a company to pay Rs. 1.68 Cr, as damages, to an ex-employee who was a victim of harassment.
- According to section 19(c) of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013, it is mandatory for employers to have regular PoSH training to understand and raise awareness on the law. If these workshops are not conducted, the employer may be severely fined
A good PoSH course should ideally be able to guide the employees to understand acceptable workplace conduct and identify a hostile work environment. The course must be able to inform what the legal repercussions are and the due process to address complaints. The key, however, lies in the content. The more engaging and interactive it is, the higher will be the employee retention.
Finally, with a more remote and mobile workforce, an effective course must also address sexual harassment not only in a face-to-face but also in the virtual space.
Our interactive e-learning courses focus on experiential learning. We involve the learners into an array of scenarios, through which the learners then navigate their way. This methodology helps employees visualise and make sense of more complex issues surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace. If you are looking to customize a course to help employees understand the complexity of sexual harassment specifically in your work environment, we may be able to help. Contact us to learn more about our course, and how it will help your organisation.