Harassment Prevention Training is Employee Safety Training in Business and at Work

When I conduct NYS-Mandated Sexual and Other Harassment Prevention Training for construction and manufacturing clients, my training is often scheduled the same day as Employee OSHA Safety Training.

Actually, both training subjects are conveniently related on several levels:

• Harassment Prevention and Safety Training have the same goal: keeping employees, supervisors / managers and their companies safe;
• Both Safety and Harassment Prevention Training lay out / reiterate the boundaries that define safety in both areas for all stakeholders mentioned above;
• If after the training, an employee or supervisor crosses the safety boundaries, such as:
  • Digging a trench 5 feet deep or greater and without a protection system to keep the trench walls from collapsing, risking employee injury or death;
  • Repeatedly asking a subordinate out on a date, not taking “no” as the answer the first time (unwanted advances / abuse of their organization power position);
• Since all team members have received training to prevent both harassment / unsafe working conditions (e.g., they are informed as to the compliant boundaries for safe conduct on both subjects), all employees regardless of their organizational level can intervene and reiterate compliance boundaries and take appropriate corrective action for non-compliant conduct to keep everyone safe.

Is Harassment Prevention Training a key component of your employee safety program, in business and at work?