Harassment Prevention Training

Harassment prevention training is often bought as a single module covering every type at once. Some of it genuinely belongs together and some does not.

Worth teaching jointly. The reporting routes, the protection against victimisation, bystander options, and how a manager should respond to a disclosure. These are identical whatever the conduct was, and repeating them across five modules wastes everyone’s time.

Worth separating. The legal tests, because they genuinely differ. Sexual harassment needs no repetition and carries the positive duty. Bullying requires repeated behaviour and can be answered by reasonable management action. Discriminatory harassment turns on a protected attribute.

A programme that merges the tests produces staff who think everything requires a pattern, which is the single most consequential misunderstanding in this area.

The Australian Human Rights Commission sets out the standards. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s respect at work training and workplace compliance courses.