On September 25, 2020, Janine Yancey, CEO of Emtrain, presented to California’s Fair Employment and Housing Council (FEHC) and advocated for a change in the regulations to allow California employers the opportunity to meet the sexual harassment prevention training requirements by training managers and employees every year, but with shorter training courses.
The FEHC amended their regulation to provide that flexibility and the amendment will go into effect on January 1, 2021.
You can find more information on the amended regulation from FEHC:
- Employment Regulation Harassment Prevention Training (see page 8 on Duration of Training)
- Meeting notes that reflect the September 2020 discussion with the FEHC
- Watch the virtual discussion on YouTube with the FEHC (the discussion with Kim Stone, Emtrain's Advocate, and I can be heard at minutes 38 to 45)
- Watch Janine’s discussion with Branden Bulter of the DFEH on YouTube, explaining the new amendment that provides employers the opportunity to train annually.
Janine Yancey was also the expert witness for and helped draft California’s SB 1343 (extending harassment training to all employees) back in 2018. Watch the video of Janine’s testimony on SB 1343.
How Should Employers Operationalize This New Change?
- Employers can “split” their time requirement over the two years, meaning they train managers 60 minutes each year and they train non-managers 30 minutes each year (with different content each year).
- New hires and new promotions in 2021 can be put on the same cadence as the rest of the workforce.
- New hires and new promotions in 2022 should be asked to complete a 120-minute program and a 60-minute program (respectively) to get them “caught up” to the rest of the workforce so that they are in synch in 2023 when everyone takes another 60 minutes/30 minutes of fresh content.
- For your employees in Connecticut, as of right now, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights still requires a 2-hour program every 10 years! We are lobbying the Connecticut Commission right now in order for that government agency to clarify that the 2 hours of content can be spread over 2 years. We believe we can effectuate that clarification and when we do, multi-state employers will have the flexibility in all states to sponsor an annual respect program (60 minutes/30 minutes) to satisfy all state compliance mandates, while monitoring and improving workplace culture.
What does this new amendment mean for you?
This amendment means that employers can now satisfy their 2-hour manager training and 1-hour employee training by training 60 minutes every year for managers and 30 minutes every year for employees. You don’t have to do it that way -- but you now have that option.