How to Conduct Sexual Harassment Training

Sexual harassment continues to be one of the biggest workplace safety issues employees face today. As of 2024, nearly 40% of all women—from various demographics—have experienced sexual harassment at work. Most troubling, younger women who’ve only been in the workforce for a few years experience harassment at a similar rate to their older counterparts, indicating that sexual harassment persists in the modern workplace.

And while there’s a gender disparity in reports of harassment, the problem affects everyone: the most recent data from the EEOC shows that more than one in five sexual harassment complaints were filed by men.

HR is often on the front lines of preventing and addressing sexual harassment at work, and it all starts with sexual harassment training. Successfully implementing anti-harassment training isn’t easy: You have to find a good program, get buy-in from leadership, and win over resistant employees. Done well, sexual harassment training helps employees protect each other and the company, but without the proper execution, anti-harassment initiatives can devolve into “managerial snake oil.”

We talked with 10 HR professionals and people leaders to get answers on how sexual harassment training can go wrong—and how to get it right. Here’s what they had to say about choosing training programs, avoiding pitfalls, and fostering a workplace culture that’s safe for everyone.

Editor’s Note: Quotes have been lightly edited for concision and clarity.

Top 5 sexual harassment training mistakes to avoid

Sexual harassment training is essential to having a safe, inclusive workplace—but when it’s mishandled, it can harm employees and undermine trust. According to HR pros, these are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid when conducting anti-harassment training.

1. Not tracking engagement and efficacy

Tips for HR:

• Use anonymous surveys before and after trainings to measure the impact on employees’ understanding of sexual harassment and confidence in preventing harassment.
• Regularly gather feedback through wellbeing and satisfaction surveys to get an overall picture of employee wellness and workplace culture.

2. Being reactive

Tips for HR:

• Require all employees to complete annual sexual harassment training.
• Stay in compliance with local laws regarding workplace anti-harassment training.
• Make sexual harassment prevention resources readily available to employees throughout the year.

3. Having unclear or uneven policies

Tips for HR:

• Create a clear anti-harassment policy and include it in the employee handbook.
• Establish a consistent process for responding to complaints and conducting internal investigations, and communicate the process to all employees.
• Provide leadership with additional training on how to apply these policies.

4. Alienating employees

Tips for HR:

• Choose a sexual harassment training curriculum that meets employees where they are and addresses your workforce’s most pertinent needs.
• Encourage employees to provide feedback and ask questions during training.
• Emphasize having a safe, respectful work environment as part of your company culture and values.

5. Using inadequate trainings

Tips for HR:

• Advocate for leadership to invest in a comprehensive harassment prevention program, highlighting the ROI for compliance, worker safety, company culture, and employee retention.
• Choose interactive, relevant training modules that encourage employees to mindfully engage with the content.

6 strategies to make sexual harassment training effective

1. Look at reviews

Look for industry reviews and recommendations from other HR professionals, so you can make an informed decision about what anti-harassment training program is best for your company.

Here a few places to get started for reviews and recommendations:

• HR Heroes Community
• G2
• r/humanresources
• r/Training

There are a lot of options out there, so getting perspectives from people who’ve actually used the training can give you some much-needed insight on which software and courses are most effective.

Try to narrow your search to recommendations and reviews from HR pros who share your priorities.

For example, to get more useful advice on software pricing, look for recommendations from people who work at similarly sized companies with similar budgets. Likewise, an HR pro within your industry will probably give a more relevant product review than someone from outside your industry.

2. Use engaging media

Sexual harassment training is serious, but it doesn’t have to be boring. If a training module makes your employees’ eyes glaze over, it won’t be very effective in preventing workplace harassment.

Research suggests that anti-harassment trainings with rich media—dynamic, interactive media that efficiently convey information—increase perceived credibility and mitigate certain gender biases. Look for a program that uses multiple formats, with an emphasis on interactive elements like multiple-choice questions and other clickable content.

Alternating between videos, click-through presentations, and quizzes will keep employees more alert and give them opportunities to engage thoughtfully with the material.

Additionally, aim for polished, high-quality content. Here’s what to avoid:

• Monotone narrators
• Bad writing
• Underwhelming acting

Here’s what to look for instead:

• A lively host
• Creative, well-performed skits
• If suitable for your workplace culture, humor to connect with the audience

3. Prioritize workforce needs

The particular traits of your organization, like your industry, region, and employee demographics, can impact what type of anti-harassment resources will work best for your needs.

For example, a retail store may need guidelines on navigating misconduct with customers, while a school may need a specific training on handling inappropriate student behavior.

If your primary training module doesn’t address industry-specific dynamics, be sure to include an additional resource that covers those issues, such as an extra training video, a written guideline, or an internal presentation.

In addition to industry concerns, you’ll want to consider the following factors as you develop a training curriculum.

• Company size: Does your company feel more like a small town or a big city?
• Work environment: What environments do employees work in (offices, worksites, storefronts, etc.)? Do employees work remotely or in-person?
• Demographic makeup: What are the different identities and cultural backgrounds represented in your workforce? How can anti-harassment training effectively support all of your employees?
• Existing attitudes: What’s the general attitude around sexual harassment training? Will you need to persuade employees to get on board, or are you preaching to the choir?
• Knowledge levels: Is your workforce already familiar with sexual harassment prevention? What types of training have your employees received in the past?

4. Make it relevant

Nobody wants to sit through an outdated, unrealistic sexual harassment training‌ program. Not only will the content be less helpful, but it'll also damage your company’s credibility in the eyes of employees—after all, why would you trust your employer to protect you against harassment if they can’t even be bothered to update their training curriculum?

Ideally, any training software and courses you use should be made within the last few years. If you have a training video that looks like it came out of the early aughts, it’s time to ditch it. Your training should cover the most up-to-date policies and laws regarding sexual harassment, and the content should feel modern and relevant to employees.

Unrealistic or exaggerated content about sexual harassment will alienate employees and leave them unprepared to recognize and prevent harassment.

For instance, if an employee is part of an all-women team, but the video course only shows examples of harassment perpetrated by men, they may wrongly assume that the information doesn’t apply to them.

With all that in mind, as you develop your training curriculum, look closely at videos and other course materials to make sure the situations, characters, and even the costumes and sets will feel authentic to your employees.

5. Include training on “gray areas”

Real-life misconduct doesn’t always align with our preconceptions of what harassment looks like. For sexual harassment training to be effective, employees need resources on how to navigate situations that raise more challenging questions around professional relationships and personal boundaries at work.

Prevention training can’t cover every single possible scenario, but training can provide insights and advice on practicing good judgment in any workplace interaction. By discussing so-called “gray areas” during anti-harassment training, employees will be better prepared to self-advocate, notice red flags early, and avoid risky behaviors.

Make sure your sexual harassment prevention training includes guidance on nuanced topics such as:

• Boundaries and expectations for workplace romances
• The impact of harassment on bystanders and witnesses
• Misconduct involving external parties like clients or vendors
• Off-duty employee misconduct
• Uncomfortable behavior that can escalate to harassment

6. Get leadership involved

Effective sexual harassment prevention training starts at the top. Leaders need to understand and believe in their company’s anti-harassment policy and demonstrate their commitment to a safe and respectful workplace. By taking a strong, visible stance against workplace harassment, leaders set the tone for the rest of their employees.

HR can increase leadership awareness and buy-in by requiring leaders at every level of the organization to take additional sexual harassment training courses. Executives and people managers should have a strong familiarity with workers’ legal rights, your company’s policies and procedures, and how to identify and respond to harassment within their team.

Executives can further support anti-harassment initiatives by taking an active role in sharing resources with employees and promoting the importance of the training program.

Consider having your leadership team create video introductions for training modules, give a brief talk about the training program during a company-wide meeting, or participate in a Q&A session.

Is online or in-person sexual harassment training better?

There’s no one right answer to choosing a format for harassment prevention training—while an online training module allows for more scheduling flexibility and can ensure a standardized experience, in-person training might engage employees better and can enable a more customized curriculum.

Using an online training module might make the most sense for your team if you have remote workers, especially if your employees are working across multiple time zones. Moreover, since sexual harassment training covers sensitive topics, employees may benefit from reviewing the material at their own pace and in an environment of their choosing.

Virtual learning certainly plays a big role in anti-harassment training: according to the Training Magazine 2024 industry report, the majority of company compliance training (78%) takes place mostly or completely online. However, 22% of companies report switching from remote to in-person compliance training in 2024, suggesting that some organizations’ RTO policies could be impacting their approach to harassment prevention and other compliance programs.

That said, in-person training opens up a lot more opportunities to engage employees. In-person trainings tend to be more interactive, and employees’ questions and feedback in real time can greatly enhance the learning experience.

If you’re unable to conduct a fully in-person or hybrid anti-harassment training, try to incorporate elements of personal communication into the online training, such as a video message from leadership and an employee feedback form.

Is sexual harassment training legally required?

The EEOC recommends harassment prevention training, but there’s no federal law requiring private organizations to conduct training. However, there are several states that do require private companies to provide sexual harassment training, including requirements for the length of the training, intervals between trainings, and the content of trainings.

Which states require sexual harassment training?

The following states mandate sexual harassment training for private employers:

• California
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Illinois
• Maine
• New York
• Washington (for certain isolated workers, such as security guards and hotel housekeepers)
• Washington, D.C. (for employers with tipped employees)

County and municipal laws around sexual harassment may also apply to your company. Consult with your legal counsel to ensure you’re in compliance with all applicable laws.

Creating a better company culture

Done right, sexual harassment training can be a great asset for strengthening your company culture. Beyond its most direct and crucial goal of preventing harassment in the workplace, anti-harassment training can also support company culture overall, improving respect, trust, and safety at work.

By ensuring employees are safe from harassment, and emphasizing values of mutual respect and honest feedback, your company fosters a culture of psychological safety. When employees feel psychologically safe, they’re comfortable speaking up about concerns and confident that they’re coworkers will support them.

Psychological safety is good for employee wellbeing, and it’s also good for business: a psychologically safe workplace makes employees feel happier, more motivated, and more capable of reaching their full potential.