Many employers are saying that they will write sexual harassment policies and conduct the mandatory trainings themselves, but they
will quickly find that doing it themselves is a big mistake.
Beyond
the heavy burden of compliance with
Labor Law 201-g (NYS) and Local Law 96 (NYC), employers who do the
trainings themselves will have to repeatedly train their staff every
time they have a new hire (NYS requires as soon as possible from start
date whereas NYC requires training within 90 days).
Moreover, there are ramifications for employers who do not have their employees take the training (i.e., it's a misdemeanor and likely will trigger an EPLI insurance provider to disclaim coverage in a prospective sex discrimination lawsuit). With risk avoidance being the key to these new laws, a sexual harassment vendor should offer the following:
- A system to track that employees took the training in anticipation of a Department of Labor audit;
- A
system to track that the sexual harassment policy and complaint form
were distributed in writing and agreed to be followed (i.e., clickwrap)
by the employee - distribution of these documents is also required;
- A
branded policy and training, with both addressing all types of
discrimination, beyond just sexual harassment, because the employer may
face a discrimination suit on a different protected class and wouldn't
want to have to explain to a jury why they only cared about sex
discrimination, not the applicable protected class (e.g., race, marital
status, disability, etc.); and
- Most
importantly, a digital on-demand product because the training needs to
be instantly available to new employees
Lieb Compliance offer employers a web-based, on-demand interactive video training platform.
While we understand that there are many vendors who train on sexual
harassment, most of them don't offer online trainings in compliance with
both Labor Law 201-g and Local Law 96. Further, most don't offer to
digitally distribute a branded company policy and a tailored complaint
form, which are both required under laws. Still further, our competitors
rarely offer an opportunity for employers to require that their
employees affirmatively agree to be bound by their policy through a
digital clickwrap receipt. Please understand that our system goes above
and beyond to make compliance easy. We include security checkpoints,
randomized quiz questions, note-taking, and the ability for employees to
ask questions of the instructor. We even offer monthly user reports so
employers can monitor their team's compliance.
Many "lawyers" teach, but being licensed
isn't enough, being dynamic is everything when presenting
emotion-ridden topics to employees. Our courses are led by Andrew Lieb, Esq., who founded Lieb Compliance and is our Chief Compliance Officer. Andrew is a prolific author and
has trained tens of thousands of employees and independent contractors
nationally on compliance topics. He's taught on the college level (human
sexuality), he's taught corporate compliance and he even operates a New
York State licensed school. Simply stated, he's our secret sauce.
