California sexual harassment training requirements

Sexual harassment and abuse training is more than just a legal responsibility for organizations. It’s an essential program for upholding safe and comfortable work environments where everyone can thrive.

For the state of California, there is a great deal to cover and accomplish to deem a business’s abuse prevention course effective. However, with this general guide, you can gain a good understanding of the California sexual harassment training requirements for promoting respect and accountability.

We’ll discuss key laws, responsibilities, and standards to secure compliance.

Why is sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training important?

California sexual harassment training is a state-required course that teaches employees about legislation, rights, procedures, and actions that prevent abusive behavior at work.

The knowledge and skills your team learns from training empower them to remain vigilant to potential and ongoing harassment. They’re well-equipped to address and report abuses effectively, protecting themselves and those around them against mistreatment.

Since the state mandates this workplace harassment training, properly delivering the course minimizes the risk of costly penalties and tough government intervention. It also signals your organization’s commitment to meeting business standards and cultivating trust from employees and the public.

All the more, sexual harassment and abusive conduct training is a valuable tool for strengthening relationships amongst your workforce. Teams can learn to respect and support one another, regardless of sexuality, identity, or background. This results in better morale, higher retention, and stronger work engagement.

For such an important training program, a flexible and reliable training management system can significantly boost outcomes. With SC Training, you can get all you need to deliver courses that keep workplaces safe and productive.

What are the requirements for California harassment training?

California’s sexual harassment prevention training requirements are composed of the bylaws and policies from laws, including:

• Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)
• California Assembly Bill 1825
• California Assembly Bill 2053
• Senate Bill 1343
• Senate Bill 396

This training compliance guide summarizes the standards and expectations of the laws mentioned above as a general reference.

Please note that this is a general summary. For detailed specifications, provisions, and industry-specific rulings, we recommend consulting the appropriate legal services.

Required takers

All employees in organizations with five or more workers must receive sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training. This includes every supervisory and non-supervisory team member, regardless of whether they’re full-time, contractual, or seasonal.

Here are some other important points: 

• Employees living or working outside California must be included in the “five or more” workers headcount. However, training is only required to be completed by those in the state.
• This training is not mandatory for independent contractors, volunteers, and unpaid interns, but it is strongly recommended that they participate.

Duration and timing

• Managers and leaders: Employees with supervisory roles must complete a total of two hours of training.
• Non-leadership employees: Any team member without the authority to manage, evaluate, and hire workers should take courses for a total of one hour.
• New employees: Newly hired employees must receive harassment prevention training within their first six months of employment. However, this requirement can be waived if they have completed the course with their previous employer within the last two years.
• Newly promoted managers: Workers who have advanced into supervisory roles should take their two-hour new manager training within six months of their promotion.
• Temporary or seasonal workers: Contracted team members working for less than six months should receive abusive conduct training before the end of their first 30 days or first 100 hours with the company, whichever comes first.

Keep in mind also that these required durations don’t need to be completed at once. Training can be divided into several sessions as long as the total number of hours meets the standard.

Quality and delivery

California sexual harassment training requirements state that organizations must implement “effective interactive methods” in their courses. This refers to various learning methods that encourage learners to participate throughout the lessons.

Interactive learning keeps your team members engaged rather than passive listeners. It fosters skill practice, encourages feedback, promotes sharing of insights, and invites questions.

Training provisions recommend the following techniques for effective learning:

• Classroom learning with small group discussions, Q&As, and simulations
• Team webinars that offer transcripts of questions asked and answers given, a trainer contact list, and post-training guidance
• Personalized eLearning courses for each employee. Guidelines specify that these digital lessons should be delivered individually, rather than in groups.
• Adding supplemental materials like videos, audio, images, and other media files. 
• Including quizzes and assessments to test your team's content learning

The most effective training enhances knowledge retention and accelerates skill adoption, but it requires the use of diverse teaching methods and resources. SC Training offers blended learning tools that allow you to facilitate, assess, and track workplace courses, whether in-person, online, or both.

Employer responsibilities

Employers are expected to fulfill these guidelines for sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training in California: 

• Deliver the course free of charge to their employees
• Facilitate training within working hours and not during team members’ personal time
• Harassment training is counted as part of employment
• Document learning sessions, including names of participants, dates of lessons, and completion certificates
• Publish written policies for preventing harassment, abuse, and discrimination. These must be available in printed copies, digital files, and on the company intranet

Authorized trainer

The state expects that your organization’s training will only be led by trainers who fall under the following descriptions:

• A proven expert in harassment, discrimination, and retaliation prevention techniques and concepts
• A leader who has earned a formal education in the laws against harassment
• Professionals with practical experience in harassment prevention

What does sexual harassment training need to cover?

Workplace violence statistics reveal that 30% of American employees have reported experiences of abusive conduct in the workplace. Because of this, your teams must be well-equipped to stop and address misconduct through comprehensive training.

For California sexual harassment training to be complete, the course you deliver should discuss all concepts, legislation, definitions, and skill sets related to the issue. This includes: 

• The definition of sexual harassment, according to California and federal laws
• The types of sexual harassment, regardless of gender dynamics and intention
• Other forms of abusive conduct based on sexual orientation and gender
• Individual responsibility to report harassment and abuse 
• Bystander intervention
• Organizational reporting process
• Retaliation protection 
• Respectful actions in the workplace

How often should sexual harassment training be in California?

Training guidelines from the state require employees to take harassment prevention training every two years. Every refresher course given must once again satisfy the standards discussed above.

Turn compliance into a routine with SC Training!

Compliance training should be viewed not as a burden, but as an essential aspect of daily work that enhances safety, boosts morale, and fosters engagement. Thankfully, there’s SC Training, the top employee training platform with powerful and reliable compliance training solutions.

With SC Training’s practical assessment feature, your teams can easily apply compliance course content in the workplace. It’s an in-person assessment tool that uses checkboxes and ratings to verify knowledge on policies, standards, and requirements.

Meanwhile, the platform’s file briefcase is an in-app storage where you can keep training notes, course outlines, and seminar transcripts. Your team members can access these files at a moment's notice, promoting good workplace behavior.

Plus, SC Training makes sure you’ll never run out of resources to support compliance training. Their course library houses many expertly vetted lessons, like California Harassment Prevention for employees and supervisors. These modules are designed for accuracy and high knowledge retention, improving safety awareness.