We need to teach people how to make harassment stop

The article in the Atlantic by Caitlin Flanagan on the problem with HR and why it's ineffective at stopping bullying and harassment misses the mark. It didn't tell us anything new.  It explains the problem, but does not provide a solution.  Why?  Because - no one working in the field of HR or labor law seems to actually know what works to make unwanted behavior like harassment stop.  

Here is a link to the article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/hr-workplace-harrassment-metoo/590644/

My response to this article? (submitted as a letter to the editor)

The basic problem? No one has ever taught HR how to make harassment stop.

I know this because - I teach how to make unwanted behavior like harassment stop using established behavioral science techniques and I get told by HR veterans all the time that the have been attending harassment training for decades and no one has ever taught them how to make it stop.  I'm the first one. They are shocked because - it should be basic training.

(Note: If you want to learn this - here are links to my online courses. I am HRCI & SHRM approved and do groups as well - https://humanistlearning.com/category/continuing-education-2/hrcredit/) 

What HR and the rest of us get taught - isn't' how to make it stop. We are taught: what the law is. How to file reports. How to comply with the law. But no one ever teaches us - how to actually make it stop.

The sexual harassment training we are all subjected to - is designed by lawyers - who also - have never been taught how to make unwanted behavior stop.  To top it all off the training we all get is based on a flawed assumption that all we have to do is tell men to stop doing it and they will stop. The result is that every 2 years we are forced to sit through a training that tells us - it's illegal - don't do it, for 2 solid hours!!!!  No one ever thinks to include a unit on how to  - oh  I dunno - MAKE IT STOP!

Blaming HR is unfair. Yes, they work for their bosses. Yes, the tools they have at their disposal are limited. But I've never met an HR professional who doesn't want it to stop. They all want it to stop. They are often victims of it themselves. The problem is - they have never been taught how to make it stop. They've only been taught how to comply with the law.  

Instead of asking, what the problem is with HR. Let's ask the all important question. What needs to happen to actually make sexual harassment stop.  Behavioral scientists have known the answer to that question for 70 years so we have no excuse. Let's start teaching everyone how to do it using established science and maybe then, we can make some progress instead of continually being shocked that asking a sexual predator to stop - doesn't work and is never going to work.

What will work? Teaching people how to behaviorally train their abusers to leave them alone.  Teaching HR how to tweak their processes so that they facilitate behavioral extinction instead of making things worse.  Helping upper management understand the negative cascading impact that bullying and harassment has on problem solving in the workplace so that they stop rewarding bad behavior. 

I talk to people all over the world about this issue. Everyone wants it fixed. The reason we haven't succeeded, is because all our interventions are based on flawed assumptions instead of established behavioral science. My videos are available at Humanist Learning Systems or with amazon prime membership in case anyone wants to educate themselves.  And yes -  I have free programs for kids as well - 

https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/

Protection for Gender, Gender Identity and Gender Expression

CA SB 396 went into effect in January. This law requires sexual harassment training to now include specific information on discrimination as a result of gender, gender identity, and gender expression.

My courses, are of course, compliant.

I want to share my supplemental video here for a few reasons.

1) This area is contentious and it shouldn't be.
2) Lots of people don't seem to understand the science of gender
3) Even well meaning people are confused by the terms and issues surrounding this topic and how to talk about it.
4) I'm really proud of this video.

I broke my SB 396 information into two videos.  One is about the law, the other is about the science of gender, identity, and expression and why they are protected by law.




This video is included as an optional supplemental lesson for people who take any of my sexual harassment training courses. https://humanistlearning.com/programsoffered/

If you are looking for a training that is comprehensive and that will actually help your staff learn how to stop harassment using science - please consider using me.  https://humanistlearning.com/sexual-harassment-compliance-training/

Compliance related issues when it comes to harassment in the workplace

If you are a business owner or a manager, you are responsible for keeping your employee safe. And yes, that also means safe from harassment.

Harassment & discrimination and bullying are all about the same thing. Power and social exclusion. Social exclusion is about getting and wielding power. In the workplace it results in high turnover, the loss of good employees, lawsuits, bad decision making and more. Oh – by the way – bad decision making leads to errors. Errors are always bad for business and in some industries – can be fatal (think Deep Sea Horizon which if anyone thinks wasn’t caused by a culture of harassment that negatively impacted decision making – they are deluding themselves.)

There is a reason why companies with over 50 employees should be giving employees regular training on harassment. Notice I said employees. Some just train the managers, as if that will do any good. Train everyone.

Here's why.  Judges like it. IF you are ever accused of not protecting an employee from harassment – you can at least claim that you tried.

That isn’t enough of course and that’s not why you should conduct trainings. Ideally you should teach people not just that harassment is bad so don’t do it. But also – if it happens, here’s how to get it to stop. Not just – report it, but step by step, here is how you help us create a corporate culture of respect.

A good harassment training can actually change your corporate culture for the better. And don’t tell me – oh – we don’t have any problems. You do. You know you do. Even if no one is “breaking the law” in terms of harassment, you still have nasty interpersonal politics going on. All companies do. They are collections of people with different skills and experiences and they are all trying to get their work done. Arguments happen. Office politics happen.

Compliance training done right is a beautiful thing

Want to fix it. Use your harassment training to teach your staff how to not feed the beast and at least be part of the solution. I gave this training to a lawfirm and they reported dramatic improvements in the interpersonal dynamics. They didn’t have any bullies, but they did have inter office politics.


What a good behavioral based training did for them is it gave everyone on the staff the tools to do and be better. And they did. This wasn’t about telling people not to do things wrong. It was about telling them how to do things right. They took it from there.


If you want help and a harassment training that will actually positively impact social relationships in your workplace – contact me!  Compliance training done right is a beautiful thing.

https://humanistlearning.com/category/businesscourses/compliance/ 

Workplace Bullying in the Construction Industry

It's bullying awareness month. Workplace bullying effects every industry. Nurses, academics and construction workers. Learning how to stop it is good for you and good for business.

I was contacted recently from the folks at Worksafe British Columbia.  They help companies across the province keep their employees safe from workplace injuries. One of the things they do – is help protect people from bullying, because bullying isn’t just an interpersonal annoyance. It’s a health and safety risk as well.

Worksafe BC has a great set of videos for workers in the construction industry in particular – talking about bullying. It is rare that I see content that is actually useful – so I am including links to it here.

Even if you aren’t in construction – I want you to watch this video.  It is about the work impact and the safety impact of bullying. It’s about what it means to be a good manager getting good work out of your people. Bullying is NOT a valid management technique.

To see all their videos and content on bullying go to: https://www.worksafebc.com/en/resources/health-safety/videos/bullying-and-harassment-in-construction/builders-not-bullies?lang=en&ReportID=37706

If you don’t currently offer harassment training that teaches your employees how to get this behavior to stop – start. Don’t just offer them a training that says harassment is against the law. Give them a training that gives them the positive skills to stop bullying for real.

If you are in Canada – be aware that Ontario employees now have to provide sexual harassment training (see: https://www.littler.com/publication-press/publication/canada-ontario-employers-have-new-workplace-sexual-harassment) And all Canadian employers have a legal obligation to make sure employees are not harassed. If you aren’t already providing this training – it’s time you start.
I can provide this training for you – in a way that covers the law AND how to make it stop. I have generic versions and state & province specific training (CA, ME & CT in the USA all require harassment training).

 Employers who have used my training report dramatic improvements in the moral and working environment.  You owe it to your staff and to your company to provide a training that can really help.

Details and information at: https://humanistlearning.com/sexual-harassment-compliance-training/

Online Compliance Education

My company, Humanist Learning Systems offers online professional and personal development programs from a Humanistic perspective. The core courses I teach have to do with how to stop bullies using operant conditioning techniques. As a result, I offer compliance training, specifically sexual harassment training.


Sexual harassment compliance training is normally done in person because CA law requires instructor interaction for this sort of training.  What most compliance instructors don’t realize is that you can now get instructor interaction through an online learning system. In person trainings are no longer a requirement and even California allows for online learning provided participants have the ability to ask questions and receive feedback from the instructor.    

Instructor Interaction

Most online learning management systems now allow instructor interaction with asynchronous learning. This means participants can log in when it’s convenient to them but still talk to an instructor via email or discussion forum or even scheduled conference calls. This is good news because the logistics of getting everyone into the same room at the same time for a training is expensive and a hassle.  With online training, employees can log in and participate whenever it is convenient to them.

Even companies that provide harassment training in house can benefit from having an online option. Inevitable, someone is going to miss the scheduled group training. Perhaps the employee was traveling or sick that day. With an online option, they can make up the training remotely when it is convenient to them.

Documentation

One of the big for compliance managers regarding online training is verifying that the employee actually took the course. And this is valid. A lot of online learning is in the form of a webinar or video lesson.  Verifying that they actually logged in and participated in the course is a real concern.

In my system, I am able to document whether participants actually accessed the required content, whether they were online for the required amount of time and whether they understood the material presented through the use of online quizzes.  The HR teams I work with have all the documentation they need should they be required to prove they provided the training in court and that any particular individual did indeed take the course.

New Hire Onboarding and Orientation

The other thing that is nice about this sort of online learning for compliance requirements is that companies can make this training part of their orientation program for new hires, even if they hire one person at a time. They don’t have to have a big group to hire in an instructor to make this worthwhile. All they have to do is purchase 1 seat. And from day one they can sit their employee down in front of a computer and provide them with the compliance training they have to have and perhaps a new manager orientation program and they are done. No worrying about when you are going to schedule them for a training in the future and then forgetting to do it in the time crunch that is ever present in the HR office.

While new managers and supervisors are supposed to receive harassment training within 6 months of hire and every 2 years after, it’s very easy to let it slip once an employee is working. Knowing that your compliance requirements are taken care of before the employee starts working is valuable. and ensures that you don’t forget to provide the required training. It’s all done as part of your onboarding.

Contact me if you are in need of harassment compliance training for your company and would like to explore online options. Or visit https://humanistlearning.com/sexual-harassment-compliance-training/ to learn more about my harassment training options.

Harassment Compliance Training Done Right

If you have more than 50 employees, chances are you offer sexual harassment training to your supervisors. Such training is mandated by law in CA, ME and CT and is strongly encouraged everywhere else as a way to reduce liability if a harassment situation were to occur.

Most companies offer a legal compliance training that covers the law and basically tells supervisors – it’s against the law so don’t do it. Legal compliance satisfied. If you are ever hit with a lawsuit, you can now argue – well – we told them not to do it, it’s not our fault if it happened.

This is a REALLY cynical way of viewing harassment training.

My feeling is that since you have to offer harassment training, why not use it is an opportunity to teach your staff something useful. Like – how to deal with obnoxious people using behavioral techniques.

Bullying and harassment are normal human behaviors. They happen to be really destructive behaviors, but they work and benefit the bully, which is why they do them.  The good news is that we have decades of research on how to get unwanted behaviors to stop.

Teaching your supervisors and staff how to help shape and train your employees to behave better while at the same time teaching them how to stop harassment behavior in the workplace is a win win win!

Don’t just give your employees a boring legal training and consider your job done. Teach them how to stop harassment by teaching them useful behavioral skills that they can apply immediately to all aspects of their work.  You will be glad you did.

Check out my harassment training options at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/businesscourses/compliance/

If you are an employment lawyer or know one - consider taking this course to learn more about what specifically we should be teaching people. https://humanistlearning.com/stop-bullying-in-the-workplace-for-lawyers/

Motivated Learners

Are you teaching the right people the right thing?

I teach how to stop bullies using operant conditioning. In addition to teaching parents of kids who are being bullied how to help their kids, I also offer sexual harassment training to companies. The law requires this training occur in several states and for the rest of the states, this sort of regular training is highly encouraged.

Here is the problem. These laws general require that supervisors be trained on the law. A lot of bullying in the workplace is done by supervisors so it makes sense. If you want to stop harassment, teach the people doing the harassing not to do it. Right?

Wrong. People who bully have no incentive to stop. In fact, bullying benefits them. Telling them they could get in trouble or that it’s against the law isn’t enough to change their behavior. They haven’t had a negative consequence yet, so they aren’t worried about getting one in the future.

Most larger companies offer sexual harassment training. The supervisors or staff sit in a class for 1 to 2 hours learning about how it’s against the law. Pretty much everyone already knows this already. Most people consider these trainings a joke and are bored during them. And then once it’s over, everyone goes back to work and back to the status quo. Nothing changes. And yet year after year companies across America, Canada and Australia submit their employees to the same ineffective training. Why?

We are training the wrong people on the wrong material. 

The reason the training is ineffective at changing behavior is because we are training the wrong people on the wrong material. Someone who is not personally affected by harassment might have a professional interest in it. But since they aren’t being negatively affected by it, it’s abstract knowledge. They aren’t motivated to learn it.

Who is motivated to learn? Victims.  People who are being negatively affected have high motivation to learn how to get bullying/harassment to stop. But instead of teaching them the behavioral skills required to fix the situation, we generally teach them the same things we teach the supervisors. It’s against the law so don’t do it. And if it does happen to you, you should report it.

This doesn’t really do a victim any good. They already know it’s illegal. They also know if they report it, they are going to face retaliation. Yes, retaliation is against the law, but it still happens and everyone knows it. What victims want to learn is how exactly they get it to stop. This is why I teach what I teach and why people LOVE my trainings.

Motivated Learners make the difference

When I speak to prospective clients about my online training, they often want to know what sort of interactive elements I have in the training to keep people’s attention. In their experience, people are unmotivated to learn during your typical sexual harassment training so an effort has to be made to put some lipstick on that pig to keep people engaged.

What I tell them is that my courses don’t need all that window dressing. If you have a motivated learner and you are teaching them something they desperately want to learn, they are going to learn it. It doesn’t matter the format. A motivated learner will learn from a book, a video or through a live lesson. If they are motivated to learn and the material is helpful, they will learn it.

Teach the right people what they want to learn and they will learn it. If you really want to create change, you have to find people who are motivated to change and then teach them what they want and need to learn. In my case, I teach the victims how to get their harassers to stop using behavioral psychology techniques that are based in science and really work.

If your training program is ineffective, perhaps you aren’t teaching the right material to the right people.

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If you want to learn how to create a sexual harassment training that actually works – consider taking my free 2 hour class - https://humanistlearning.com/sexualharassment101/ which is approved for 2 ours ce through HRCI and 2 hrs pdc through SHRM.

Or check out our compliance training programs at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/businesscourses/compliance/