Sexual Harassment Training For Board Members

It is a short online course an organisation assigns to its directors so they understand what sexual harassment is, what the positive duty asks of senior leaders, and how to respond when a concern reaches the board, with a record of completion for each person. Sexual harassment training for board members runs about fifteen minutes and is legally endorsed.

Yes. The content is kept current with the legislation of every Australian state and territory, and of New Zealand, including the Respect at Work amendments. It is written in collaboration with Mills Oakley Lawyers in Australia and Simpson Grierson Lawyers in New Zealand, so a board that governs across both countries trains once.

Most organisations brief the board at a meeting, send directors to a governance body’s seminar, circulate a slide deck from the general counsel, or do nothing. Sentrient gives the organisation online sexual harassment training for board members that every director completes in their own time, with the record kept. Two short reads to go with it: who needs sexual harassment training and the mandatory compliance training list.

It is a legally endorsed awareness course an organisation assigns to the people who govern it. It is not accredited or nationally recognised training, not a director qualification of the kind a governance body offers, not legal advice and not a facilitated workshop. Our Compliance Training For Board of Directors page covers a board’s wider program, and the base course page covers the whole workforce.

The Sex Discrimination Act places a positive duty on the organisation to take reasonable and proportionate steps to eliminate sexual harassment and related conduct. The Human Rights Commission’s guidelines treat senior leaders, including the board, as accountable for that duty and name leadership as the first of seven standards. The board remains responsible for the duty and for how its organisation acts on it.

Every director, including the chair, independent directors and any executive director, and the company secretary who supports them. Sexual harassment training for directors uses the sexual harassment training for managers and supervisors course, which names the board of directors in its audience. Executives and staff complete the workforce version.

Fair Work’s online learning centre offers free short courses for employers and managers, and governance bodies publish guides for directors. Those teach one person at a time and leave no organisational record. Sentrient gives the board one course across every director, kept current for each state and territory, with a dated completion record the company secretary can produce.

About fifteen minutes, in one sitting or several, on a laptop or a phone. Most boards assign it with the papers for the next meeting and have every director finished before the meeting opens. A director who joins mid-year completes it as part of their induction to the board.

Annually is standard in most Australian organisations, and again whenever legislation changes or a new director joins. At fifteen minutes, an annual refresh for the whole board is realistic. How often your board repeats it is the organisation’s decision, and the completion record shows the date each director last finished.

Yes. The course is legally endorsed and written in collaboration with Mills Oakley Lawyers in Australia and Simpson Grierson Lawyers in New Zealand, and it is aligned to Respect at Work guidance. That endorsement attaches to this course and its workforce companion, not to general guidance, and it does not make the course legal advice.

Sentrient maintains the content against the legislation of each Australian state and territory and of New Zealand, including the Respect at Work amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act, the Fair Work Act and the Australian Human Rights Commission Act. You do not track the changes. A board that completes the course each year trains on the current version.

A dated completion record for every director, the policy each director has signed off, and the reporting the board received on complaints and trends. Since December 2023 the Human Rights Commission can inquire into an organisation’s compliance with the positive duty. The course for managers and supervisors gives directors the understanding, and the record shows they had it.

Yes. Run the course through the Sentrient platform, or deliver it through the learning management system or HRIS you already use. Either way, each director’s completion is recorded against their name and date, so the company secretary keeps one record whichever system the board uses.

In the Sentrient learning management system you enrol each director, set a due date, and let automated notifications and alerts make it clear what needs to be done and by when. They act as a gentle reminder to anyone who has forgotten. The company secretary sees completion across the whole board without chasing anyone by email.

A report showing each director’s name, the course completed, the date, and the declaration they made at the end, together with the current version of the policy. That record supports a board’s account of the reasonable steps it took. It is evidence of training, not proof of compliance, and the organisation remains responsible for the duty.

It is one course in a board’s program. Our Compliance Training For Board of Directors page sets out the courses directors usually complete together, and the governance, risk and compliance training courses page covers the wider library. Pages for HR professionals and employers in this series will be linked here as they go live.

Yes. Training explains the duty and policy sets the organisation’s rules, so most boards complete the course and sign off the policy in the same sitting. Sentrient’s policy management software records each director’s sign-off against the policy version, so the board can show both the training and the policy it adopted.

Yes. The course runs in a browser on a laptop, tablet or phone, so a director completes it from home, an airport or another board’s office. Nothing has to be installed. Completion syncs to the same record whether the director is in Perth or Wellington, which suits boards that meet online as often as in person.

Yes. The content covers legislation for every Australian state and territory and for New Zealand, so a group with entities on both sides of the Tasman assigns one course to every director. Each entity still keeps its own obligations under local law, and the organisation remains responsible for meeting them.

Sentrient records a director’s name, completion date and learning check against their learner profile, and the organisation controls who can see that record. Handling of personal information is subject to the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles. Your organisation remains responsible for how it collects and uses director information.

Because board member sexual harassment training from Sentrient is legally endorsed, written with Mills Oakley and Simpson Grierson, kept current across both countries, and short enough that a whole board finishes it before one meeting. The record sits with the rest of your compliance training, and Sentrient has delivered online sexual harassment training for board members and staff across Australia and New Zealand.

Any organisation with a board or committee that governs staff: companies, member bodies, not-for-profits, community housing providers and statutory offices. Sentrient’s clients include Engineers Australia, the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria, Housing Trust and Jesuit Social Services. Read how Engineers Australia runs its compliance training through Sentrient.

The course is priced per user, and the quote depends on how many directors and staff you train and whether the board takes it alone or with the wider library. No figure is printed on this page because it moves with those numbers. Ask for a tailored quote for your board during the demo.

Book a free 20-minute demo. You will see the course as a director sees it, then the assignment, reminders and completion report the company secretary sees. Bring the chair or the secretary, whose questions are usually the practical ones. Request your free demo and we will time it around your next board meeting.