Harassment, discrimination, and retaliatory conduct remain a concern and source of potential risk for employers. Sexual harassment also continues to be a serious area of liability with impacted employers seeing record settlements and damages awards.

The California employer’s duty to prevent harassment includes training all employees on preventing sexual harassment and abusive conduct in the workplace. Employers with five or more employees must provide:

• One hour of interactive training and education on sexual harassment to all non-supervisory personnel.
• Two hours of interactive training and education on sexual harassment to all supervisory personnel.

Other factors important to fulfilling mandated training obligations include:

• Providing training once every two years and within six months of assuming a supervisor or non-supervisory role.
• Providing training on preventing abusive conduct and practical examples of harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

Training may be virtual or in-person but must be conducted by qualified instructors. Online training is offered through the California Civil Rights Department (Formerly California Department of Fair Employment and Housing) as well as through Western Growers University.