Why Is Sexual Harassment Training Important for Gender Diversity?

As a business owner, one of your major responsibilities is to protect your employees. While you may spend most of your time managing and budgeting, your employees keep your business running.

Did you know that sexual harassment training can be important for gender diversity and overall office wellbeing?

If you haven’t yet invested in sexual harassment training and you’re not sure if it’s worthwhile, we’re here to explain. Keep reading to learn all about sexual harassment and why you should train your employees.

What Is Sexual Harassment in The Workplace?

If you’re going to train your employees on sexual harassment, it might be helpful to know the sexual harassment definition. Many people don’t know how to identify sexual harassment when they see it, especially if it’s subtle.

Sexual harassment is any kind of harassment, no matter how subtle, based on the target’s sex or gender. The harassment is sexual in nature and it may be accidental (though this isn’t an excuse).

Some sexual harassment examples are obvious (and are sometimes forms of sexual assault). These include things like:

• groping
• unwanted explicit messages
• catcalling
• requests for sexual favors in exchange for work advancements.

Less obvious forms of harassment include:

• an employee talking about their sex life in front of other employees
• unwanted romantic gifts
• unwanted touching
• making repeated sexual jokes

If something would make the average person uncomfortable, it’s harassment.

Who Experiences Sexual Harassment?

Anyone can experience sexual harassment, but it’s more common for women. While men tend to under-report sexual harassment and assault, the numbers are still clear. That said, make sure that all employees receive sexual harassment training.

People of any race can experience sexual harassment. It happens to people of all ages and genders.

The Connection Between Sexual Harassment and Gender Diversity

So what does this have to do with diversity in the workplace?

Did you know that in various fields, largely STEM fields, women represent less than one-third of all workers? While there are many factors that go into this gender imbalance, it’s often the result of bias and the way that women are treated in the workplace.

Women who experience sexual harassment in a certain field or even a specific workplace won’t want to continue working in a hostile environment. When a field or business has a reputation of allowing sexual harassment, women won’t apply for positions.

As our culture shifts and changes, more and more people are calling for greater diversity and inclusion in the workplace. Women are standing up against sexual harassment. If you include sexual harassment training in the workplace, you’re making yourself part of the solution rather than part of the problem.

Sexual Harassment Training Is Crucial for Gender Diversity in The Workplace

If you haven’t invested in sexual harassment training for your employees, you may be putting them at risk. No one deserves to suffer through a hostile work environment, and you may miss out on talented individuals if you don’t prevent or fix the problem.

Are you interested in sexual harassment training or diversity training for your employees? We want to help you. Get a course demo or enroll today.