New York State and Sexual Harassment
The Importance Of New York State and City Compliance Training
Try A Free Course Trial Today
With training that appeals to both New York State requirements and the Stop Sexual Harassment in New York City Act, Impact Compliance is a team of sexual harassment training providers driven to make workplaces in New York State safer for all employees. We create our courses with as much accessibility as we possibly can, allowing employees without a computer or email to be included through access codes and self-registration initiatives.
The birth of the New York sexual harassment training mandates was just back in October 2019. With the hopes of making these mandates easy to oblige to, Impact Compliance offers an online learning environment with the utmost flexibility and affordability for New York companies and employees.
You may be wondering, what brought on these mandates for this state in the first place? The 1,500 NYC-based harassment complaints reported from the past five years, paired with the rising popularity and buzz of the #MeToo movement, was just the push that New York State needed to pass these important prevention mandates. These annual mandates required all organizations to provide training on harassment and discrimination by October 9, 2019.
Impact Compliance knows just how challenging it can be to find a training course that is both entertaining and meets the strict requirements of New York State simultaneously. Our team offers a streamlined compliance training process that serves employees from all walks of life. To get a gist of what your employees will benefit from, sign up for a free trial today!
What Are The New York State Compliance Requirements?
In October 2018, the compliance requirements were put into place for the very first time in the state of New York, requiring employers to facilitate annual training sessions for every employee, including interns, supervisors, and managers alike.
To follow through with this important shift, the New York State Division of Human Rights was tasked with guiding and creating a prevention policy. Furthermore, in January of 2019, New York State government contract bidders were required to submit affirmations legitimizing these new policies and training methods.
Some of the key requirements asked from the training includes:
An interactive training environment
Clear definitions and examples of harassment
A list of remedies available to victims of harassment or discrimination
Federal, state, and local law information
Statements of employees rights of redress
Information related to responsibilities and steps that supervisors should take
Get A Taste Of Our Impressive Training Content
Video caption: New York State’s Mandatory Training Video
Overall, these shifts in legislation have forever changed the ways that workplaces run in New York. Not only do these mandates give employers the means to protect their employees from unwanted harassment, but they also grant security for vendors and contractors that conduct business on their property as well.
One of the key elements of the harassment guidelines is that all training is created to be interactive for individuals embarking on the course. The more interactive the employees are taking the course, the more ingrained the subject matter becomes. In summary, some of the requirements that a training course must possess to be deemed “interactive” include:
Questions that must be answered correctly before moving onto the next lesson (web-based training)
A chat box where employees can ask questions and receive real-time answers (web-based training)
Presenters that carve out time for posing and answering course-related questions (in-person and live training)
Post-training feedback survey opportunities (for all formats of training)
To put it simply, these interactive requirements say goodbye to passive participation and hello to encouraging audiences to be active and engaged in the subject matter!
As discussed earlier, here are the bid provisions that apply for New York State Contract Bidders:
Subpart A amends the state finance law to add a new section 139-1
Every bid hereafter made to the state or any public department or agency thereof, where competitive bidding is required, shall contain the following statement subscribed by the bidder and affirmed by such bidder as true under the penalty of perjury: “By submission of this bid, each bidder and each person signing on behalf of any bidder certifies, and in the case of a joint bid each party thereto certifies as to its own organization, under penalty of perjury, that the bidder has and has implemented a written policy addressing sexual harassment prevention in the workplace and provides annual sexual harassment prevention training to all of its employees. Such policy shall, at a minimum, meet the requirements of section two hundred one-g of the labor law.”
Any bid hereafter made to the state, by a corporate bidder, where such bid contains the statement required by subdivision one of this section, shall be deemed to have been authorized by the board of directors of such bidder, and such authorization shall be deemed to include the signing and submission of such bid and the inclusion therein of such statement as the act and deed of the corporation.
Where competitive bidding is not required, state departments and agencies may, at their discretion, require the above certification.
With the help of our online courses and harassment prevention checklist, your organization is well on its way to meeting the sexual harassment training mandate without any problems! More specifically, our New York harassment prevention checklist is in place to assist companies with the compliance training evaluation process. For harassment compliance training California and New York can both accept, check out our services at Impact Compliance Training today.
New York City Specific Compliance Needs
April 2018 brought about the “Stop Sexual Harassment in New York City Act,” a mandate Mayor Bill de Blasio signed urging sexual harassment prevention training to be enacted in the city. Although the majority of legal requirements overlap with one another, New York City and New York State have slightly different compliance rules that are important to be mindful of.
One key difference includes New York City’s commitment to prioritizing the completion of all sexual harassment training by April 2019 within 90 days of employment. This is only for companies with 15 or more employees.
A few of the many pertinent elements of the city-specific training includes:
Defining sexual harassment as a form of unlawful discrimination
Statements of sexual harassment as a form of unlawful discrimination under both state and federal law
An internal complaint process for addressing and reporting sexual harassment claims
A definition, description, and helpful examples of what sexual harassment entails
How employers can complain through the City Commissions
Details and contact information on the complaint process available through the City Commission, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Denouncing sexual harassment retaliation and providing examples of what it looks like
Information, resources, and examples that show how and why to engage in bystander intervention
Outlining the role of supervisory and managerial employees in preventing harassment in retaliation as well as the measures needed to address complaints
If you’re still confused on what interactive training means, the law defines it as “participatory teaching whereby the trainee is engaged in a trainer-trainee interaction, use of audio-visuals, computer or online training program or other participatory forms of training as determined by the commission.” This means that courses can take place both in-person and online.
In order to effortlessly track our participants' training records, we’ve honed in on an innovative Learning Management System to track signed acknowledgment forms and evidence of who attended training events. Then, when the course is fully completed, employers can store this information on their employees for three years with ease.
Create A Safer Work Environment Today
At the end of the day, enrolling in a compliance training course is so much more than just a mandatory legal obligation. With decades of experience in compliance training, Impact Compliance understands the positive impact it can make in fostering an inclusive and mutually respectful workplace environment.
With both in-person and online options to choose from, our program is tailored to fit the unique needs and goals of every company in New York. To build a stronger company culture free of harassment and discrimination, sign up for a sexual harassment prevention training course or free trial today! Rest assured you’ll gain the skills and training mandates your company desires.
Comments
Post a Comment