Preventing Sexual Harassment

Prevent Sexual Harassment with Parallax Education Training:

By now, we have all seen some pretty boring, boring, boring sexual harassment training. Time for sexual harassment re-training rolls around and your employees roll their eyes and drag into the process muttering to themselves “oh no, not again!”    Yes, again!

Our favorite quote and if you have had an attorney deliver your training you can relate. Some people talk in their sleep. Lecturers talk while others sleep. – Camus

Isn’t it time that you updated your programs, and used a course that is designed with Concepts of Adult Learning at its core? Here is the difference between “Training” and our programs which we or you can deliver, “Facilitation.” What would the conversation reveal if you started the course with the question, “So what do you already know is sexual harassment?”  Facilitation is:

• Telling vs. Asking
• Facilitator is Open Minded and Willing to Hear Other’s Perspectives
• Facilitators Can See Issues from Other’s Perspectives
• Facilitators Allow Participants to Express Any View Whatever
• They Talk, You Listen!

The current model of sexual harassment training is delivered from the perspective that “I” (at the front of the room) have the information, and it will now float across the air into your ears and now you will have the information. This is not how adults learn! Here are ways that adults learn, and your program should have all modes and invite the participants to interact together in discovery so that they all learn through discovery, not lecture or “training.”

• Audio Learners – Discussions, and the auditory part of the videos contribute to their learning.
• Writing – most people learn better if they write than if they just listen. Hence, the workbooks.
• Visual Learners – The models in the program, the graphs, reading, and video contribute to their learning.
• Kinesthetic Learners – They learn through skills practices and role play, having the chance to build kinesthetic awareness.
• Most adults learn optimally in twelve-minute segments. The Parallax programs have been designed such that participants change learning mode every 12 minutes.

Some Human Resources professionals have all the program attendees “sign in” to prove that they have completed the annual or semi-annual required training. We at Parallax Education are not interested in the fact that the participants warmed their seats for an hour or two. We evaluate every participant at the beginning of the course and then at the end. If the participant scores below 80%, we suggest that they re-take the course.  We keep the tests on file for two years should any question arise about whether the participant understood the content and the company policies.

This has come in handy several times over the years.  We had one participant state that the men and women were separated, and only the men had to take the training.   We delivered the entire bundle of tests for the course and lo and behold, women mixed in with the men.

Then there was the young man who claimed that he didn’t know that what he did was sexual harassment.  Yes, of course, he scored 100% on his post test, indicating that he understood clearly what was sexual harassment and decided to act out anyway.

This is what adult learners want from their experience:

• They want to enjoy learning – They want to have FUN!!
• They want to be able to apply it to their lives.
• They want to be able to describe it to someone else, share it with friends.
• They want to have confidence in the trainer.
• They want to be treated with respect by the trainer.

How many of your employees had FUN in your sexual harassment training?

Why Parallax Education?

Parallax Education has dedicated experts who customize sexual harassment training for employees. We customize the course with a client logo and harassment policies, as well as case studies that are company specific. Our multimedia programs involve participant textbooks, DVDs with video examples, job aids, and pre- and post-training tests. All learning materials of the training program and course are available in English and Spanish.

How Adults Learn:

The How Adults Learn graphic displays why SO many sexual harassment training programs fail.  It displays why they are boring, tedious and uninteresting!

The Parallax Education programs are designed around concepts of adult learning.  Your workbooks are tailored with REAL situations that your supervisors or employees would really encounter in YOUR workplace.  The multi-media nature of the programs engage learners no matter what their learning style is.  The mode of learning changes every 12 minutes to keep the learners engaged and learning!

If instructor-led training is not what you are looking for, know that our web-based anti-harassment training is also built around adult learning and is as interesting and fun as the instructor led training.

Learners also learn to identify hostile work environments, bullying, or abusive conduct. In our course, participants engage and actively discuss the process for dealing with harassment, from start to finish. Contact us to register for our informational course on sexual harassment prevention in the United States.