Before and after: Why your sexual harassment training should look different post-pandemic

Workplace harassment didn’t stop when the office went virtual. Instead, it adapted, which is why employers’ training strategies should, too.

More than one in four employees say they have experienced unwelcome sexual behavior online since the start of COVID-19, whether via Zoom or Google Hangouts, text message, email or internal chat programs, according to a survey conducted by global learning tech company Epignosis and non-profit The Purple Campaign. Despite a quickly changing workforce, the discrepancies surrounding sexual harassment between men and women remain the same.

“Something we've realized is that sexual harassment has not gone away just because people are not as physically present in the workplace,“ says Shea Holman, director of law & policy at The Purple Campaign. “The line between work and home now has been blurred.”

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Even before the pandemic, sexual harassment training was inconsistent. Fifty-four percent of employees reported receiving it once a year, 25% once every six months — and 25% of workers invited to participate in the survey were ineligible because their employers have not provided them with any sexual harassment training. As a result, the survey found that only 69% of men believe suggestive remarks are considered sexual harassment, compared to 92% of women, and 47% of men believe making comments about someone’s gender identity counts as sexual harassment, compared to 73% of women.

As for how to bridge the gap, the old methods won’t work on a new workplace model, according to Holman. Which may be why the problem has not only persisted but worsened.

“It's really important to make it clear to employees that the same policies about sexual harassment applied in the physical workplace also apply in the remote workforce,” she says. “Showing people not only what sexual harassment looks like in the remote context, but tailoring your anti-harassment trainings to the specific remote context.”

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Sexual harassment training has proved to be successful in the past when deployed correctly, the survey found — 90% report that after receiving training they are more aware of how to report an incident of sexual harassment, 70% report training makes them more likely to stay with their company and 61% report training makes them feel more productive in their role. All that’s left for companies to do is make sure it’s applicable to their employees' current situation, or else they’re risking the emotional safety of their employees.

“As work environments continue to change with new ways of working, training materials need to adapt to remain relevant and effective,” Christina Gialleli, director of people operations at Epignosis says. “One of the best ways to figure out what your training might be missing is to simply ask employees for feedback.”

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The survey kept track of initiatives that participating employees wanted to see from their employers, which included addressing “grey areas” — such as situations involving alcohol use or relationships between employees at work — replacing outdated material, making training gender-inclusive and focusing on sexual harassment prevention rather than eaction.

“Harassment can happen in any environment, whether face-to-face or online,” Gialleli says. “What is most important is to create an anti-harassment culture — and companies should do everything in their power to prevent and combat it, in all forms and environments.”