Author, Alyssa Burley, Media Communications and Client Services Manager, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Lately, we've been getting a lot of questions about California's required anti-harassment training, who has to complete it, when it's due and how much it costs.

In September 2004, Assembly Bill 1825 set in motion the sexual harassment prevention training requirement for many California supervisors. In September 2018, former California Governor Jerry Brown approved Senate Bill 1343 (SB 1343) which expanded the requirement and launched a series of anti-harassment bills that now require those who employ “five or more employees, including temporary or seasonal employees, to provide at least two hours of anti-harassment training to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of anti-harassment training to all non-supervisory employees.”

History of the Requirement

Over the last several years, additional senate bills have been passed that modifies or clarifies the SB 1343 training requirements. Instead of giving you a play-by-play on how each bill has changed the requirements, I'm just going to tell you what is required as of today, November 2020.

You've probably noticed that we now refer to this new training as “anti-harassment training” instead of the old term, “sexual harassment prevention training.” The change came as a result of several bills that expanded the required content to include abusive conduct, unlawful employment practices of discrimination, and harassment of both a sexual and non-sexual nature. So, the anti-harassment training for California managers replaces previous versions of the sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training, developed prior to the passage of SB 1343 and Senate Bill 1300 (SB 1300).

For more information on the progression of the current requirements, read “California SB 1343 Expands Sexual Harassment Training Requirements,” published November 15, 2018, “California SB 1343 Expands Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention Training Requirements,” published on January 17, 2019, “Ensuring CA Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Training is SB 1343 Compliant,” published on February 7, 2019, “Rancho Mesa Offers Free CA-Required Supervisor and Employee Anti-Harassment Training” published on May 8, 2019, “Providing Anti-Harassment Training Is the Employer’s Responsibility,” published on August 22, 2019, and “Senate Bill 778 Extends Anti-Harassment Training Deadline,” published on September 12, 2019.

Training Requirements and Deadlines

To make a long story short, for employers with five or more employees, supervisory employees must take the two-hour anti-harassment training every two years and non-supervisory employees must take the one-hour anti-harassment training every two years. This sounds simple enough. However, since we had multiple bills that added content to the requirements and extended deadlines (Senate Bill 778), it's not necessarily straightforward.

For example, if you have a supervisory employee who completed the old sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training in 2019, their next anti-harassment training is due in 2021. However, if they took any similar trainings prior to 2019, they must complete the new anti-harassment training by January 1, 2021. This also applies to non-supervisory employees. If a non-supervisory employee took the training in 2019, their next due date will be in 2021. However, if the non-supervisory employee has not taken the training or took a similar training prior to 2019, they are required to complete the anti-harassment training no later than January 1, 2021.

New employees must be trained within six months of hire and temporary employees must be trained within 30 days of hire.

Online Training

Rancho Mesa offers its clients free 100% online anti-harassment training for both supervisory employees and non-supervisory employees.

“It’s amazing Alyssa and her team have trained nearly 7,000 of our clients’ employees over the last 24 months and have been able to do that at no cost to them,” says Dave Garcia, President of Rancho Mesa. “Yes, it’s expensive, but we just feel it’s doing the right thing for our clients.”

The online training can be accessed from a computer, tablet or smartphone. This means our clients can get their required trainings from anywhere with an internet connection.

“It’s not only the cost savings for our clients that’s important, it’s also the way we are able to do the training utilizing any internet connected device,” says Garcia.  “Our clients’ productivity isn’t impacted by having to bring their workforce into a training area and out of the field, creating a loss of productivity. Additionally, with COVID-19, large training meetings would not be permitted.”

Since the anti-harassment training is completed online through the Risk Management Center, it provides automated recordkeeping and offers rescheduling to ensure as soon as an employee completes the training, they can be automatically rescheduled to complete the training again in two years. It also allows administrators to archive employee training records when an employee leaves the company and reactivate the records if they are rehired. 

Recordkeeping

Recordkeeping for anti-harassment training is important when there is an allegation of harassment or if an employee reports the employer for non-compliance. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) “accepts complaints from employees that their employers have not complied with the law." So, make sure you are providing the training and keeping records. It is also a best practices to train all employees, regardless if they have a certificate of completion from another employer, since it's the current employer's responsibility to make sure the employee is trained.

We offer an on-demand webinar that explains how to setup your employees in the Risk Management Center and assign the anti-harassment training.

For questions about the anti-harassment training requirements or to enroll your supervisors and employees, contact Rancho Mesa’s Client Services Department at (619) 438-6869 or send an email to aburley@ranchomesa.com.