Sexual Harassment Training Course

Lesson 1 • Types of Harassment Conduct

Categorizes verbal, physical, visual, and digital forms of harassing conduct. Helps learners recognize the full spectrum of prohibited behavior.

Lesson 2 • Regulatory Framework and Employer Duties

Outlines the civil rights and employment laws that prohibit sexual harassment and mandate employer action. Connects legal obligations to organizational policy design.

Lesson 3 • Severity and Pervasiveness Standards

Explains how courts and regulators assess whether conduct is severe or pervasive enough to constitute harassment. Grounds learners in the objective and subjective tests applied.

Lesson 1 • Power Dynamics and Vulnerability Factors

Examines how supervisory authority, economic dependence, and social hierarchies amplify harassment risk. Prepares learners to assess context when evaluating conduct.

Lesson 2 • Identifying Overt Harassment Behaviors

Covers explicit, easily recognizable forms of sexual harassment such as unwanted touching and explicit comments. Anchors recognition skills in clear-cut cases before addressing ambiguity.

Lesson 3 • Recognizing Subtle and Ambiguous Conduct

Addresses borderline behaviors including innuendo, exclusion, and microaggressions that may constitute harassment. Develops nuanced judgment beyond obvious violations.

Lesson 1 • Building a Respectful Workplace Culture

Introduces the cultural conditions and leadership behaviors that prevent harassment and promote inclusion. Sets the aspirational standard that subsequent chapters operationalize.

Lesson 2 • Organizational and Financial Consequences

Quantifies the costs of harassment through turnover, litigation, productivity loss, and reputational damage. Connects individual harm to measurable organizational risk.

Lesson 3 • Psychological Effects on Targets

Details the emotional and mental health consequences experienced by harassment targets, including anxiety, trauma, and diminished self-efficacy. Builds empathy essential for effective bystander and managerial response.

Lesson 1 • External Reporting and Regulatory Agencies

Explains the process for filing complaints with government enforcement agencies when internal remedies are inadequate. Clarifies timelines, filing requirements, and agency roles.

Lesson 2 • Internal Reporting Channels

Maps the formal and informal internal pathways available to employees who experience or witness harassment. Establishes the first line of organizational response.

Lesson 3 • Barriers to Reporting and How to Overcome Them

Addresses fear of retaliation, disbelief, and procedural confusion that deter reporting. Provides strategies organizations and individuals can use to lower these barriers.

Lesson 1 • Interviewing the Respondent

Guides investigators through a fair and thorough interview of the accused party while preserving due process. Balances complainant protection with respondent rights.

Lesson 2 • Interviewing Complainants and Witnesses

Provides structured techniques for conducting trauma-informed, unbiased interviews with all parties. Ensures evidence quality and protects witness credibility.

Lesson 3 • Findings, Conclusions, and Remediation

Explains how to translate investigative findings into written conclusions and proportionate corrective actions. Closes the investigation cycle with accountability and documentation.

Lesson 4 • Evidence Gathering and Analysis

Identifies the types of evidence relevant to harassment investigations and methods for collecting and evaluating them. Builds the evidentiary foundation for sound findings.

Lesson 1 • The Bystander Effect and Intervention Barriers

Explains the psychological mechanisms that inhibit bystander action, including diffusion of responsibility and pluralistic ignorance. Establishes the rationale for structured intervention training.

Lesson 2 • Verbal Intervention Techniques

Provides specific language and scripts for interrupting harassing behavior without escalating conflict. Builds verbal confidence through practice-ready phrasing.

Lesson 3 • The Four Ds of Intervention

Introduces the Direct, Distract, Delegate, and Delay intervention framework as a practical decision tool. Gives learners a memorable, actionable model for real-time response.

Lesson 4 • Supporting Targets After an Incident

Guides bystanders in providing effective post-incident support to harassment targets without overstepping. Reinforces the target's agency and connects them to resources.

Lesson 1 • Supervisory Liability and Accountability

Explains how supervisory status creates heightened legal exposure for employers and personal accountability for managers. Motivates proactive managerial engagement with harassment prevention.

Lesson 2 • Responding to a Disclosure or Complaint

Provides a step-by-step protocol for managers who receive a harassment disclosure, from initial response through escalation. Prevents common managerial errors that worsen outcomes.

Lesson 3 • Managing Difficult Post-Complaint Dynamics

Prepares managers to handle team tension, rumors, and performance issues that arise after a complaint is filed. Maintains team function while protecting all parties.

Lesson 1 • Compliance Auditing and Policy Review

Establishes a systematic process for auditing policy adherence, reviewing complaint data, and updating policy in response to legal or cultural changes. Closes the compliance loop.

Lesson 2 • Communicating Policy to All Employees

Covers strategies for distributing, explaining, and reinforcing the policy across diverse employee populations. Ensures awareness is documented and verifiable.

Lesson 3 • Core Elements of an Effective Policy

Identifies the mandatory and best-practice components of a sexual harassment prevention policy. Provides the structural blueprint for policy drafting.