Why Buy Sexual Harassment Training from Illinois Required Training Solutions rather than any other?
Here are eight reasons why you want to purchase sexual harassment prevention training from a reputable third-party provider like
Illinois Required Training Solutions.
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Background
The Illinois Department of Human Rights recently released its Model Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Program in support of Public Act 101-0221 / Illinois SB 75 (commonly referred to as the Workplace Transparency Act).
As of January 1, 2020 all employers with employees working in Illinois must provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees by December 31, 2020, and annually thereafter. The training must meet or exceed statutory standards as specified in Section 2-109(B) and as applied by the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR).
The law signed by Governor Pritzker specifically says that employers must either develop their own sexual harassment prevention training program that equals or exceeds the minimum standards for sexual harassment prevention training outlined in Section 2-109(B) of the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), or they may use the model training provided by the IDHR. In either case, employers are responsible for keeping all required records of compliance.
Unfortunately, we have seen this result in some confusion among employers who think the State’s Model Training Program is a turn-key training solution.
In response, we offer below a list of reasons why an Illinois company might want to use a low-cost, compliant online provider of sexual harassment prevention training like Illinois Required Training Solutions to achieve compliance with this state requirement:
1. Any Model Training Program is just that: the MODEL for a program, not a training itself.
The program available for download at www.illinois.gov/dhr/ is just a PowerPoint (unless you download it in Adobe format, in which case it’s a PDF). The slides do a good job of summarizing what should be contained in a compliant training, but do not present the content in a format that’s easy to use for teaching and learning. There are no exercises, quizzes or exams in the State’s model training, and no way to assess explicit learning outcomes. So, the State’s model training doesn’t really help business owners get compliant. You’ll likely still need a curriculum developer and trainer to build and deliver your company’s training.
2. The goal of sexual harassment prevention training is to show the workforce how to treat each other Professionally and with Respect.
Only self-aware behavior on the part of all employees will protect employers from liability and workplace disruptions. Human behavior is complex, and learners need tailored activities in order to conceptualize and integrate changes into their daily habits. Illinois Required Training Solutions applies our extensive experience with training across a wide variety of businesses to craft scenarios and exercises that engage and stretch workplace learners. Self-awareness is just too hard to achieve from a handout.
The actual certificate from the State’s Model Training Program. Would you want to rely on this in court?
3. Because business risk is too important to rely on an "honor system" self-certification.
If your company ended up in court, or in front of the EEOC defending a sexual harassment complaint, what would you want to produce to show that your company took all reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring? A piece of paper filled out by the student by hand, or a rigorous third-party training certificate, complete with validation ability and backed by topic-level content confirmations?
In contrast to the “honor system” of training delivery, Illinois Required Training Solutions delivers sexual harassment training with full logging and time-stamps every time a student accesses a course, starts a lesson, marks a lesson as a complete, starts or submits a quiz, as well as questions answered correctly or incorrectly. A typical Illinois course produces over 100 time-stamps! Every confirmation increases employee responsibility for professional behavior and mitigates employer risk of failure to comply with state law training requirements.
Illinois Required Training Solutions captures topic-level confirmation time/date stamps for every student in every course.
4. You can validate our certificates, anytime and from anywhere.
Our certificates are automatically generated immediately upon successful completion of the course, and come with certificate numbers that can be validated for employee name, course title and completion date. We make the validation tool available on our web site for access 24/7/365.
5. We support your employee learners including answering their questions, while keeping YOU apprised of where they are at every point in the training process.
Not an expert on the details of sexual harassment prevention in Illinois?? No problem. Students training with Illinois Required Training Solutions have access to a qualified trainer for questions as well as technical support, seven days a week. They can ask questions by phone on our 800#, email, web Contact Us Form or the training platform’s private messaging function. In the meantime, employers and administrators have access to a real-time control panel, showing who started the training when, who has finished, and also the ability to download certificates of completion.
6. The Model Training Program available now DOESN'T meet the requirements for any business that serves alcohol or food that is ready-to-eat.
Restaurants and bars have additional, unique requirements beyond the Section 2-109(B) requirements mentioned above. They must use a specific sexual harassment prevention training tailored to the bar and restaurant industry, and must provide training that meets or exceeds supplemental training standards specified in Section 2-110(C). The training offered by restaurants and bars must be offered in both English and Spanish language options.
The Illinois Department of Human Rights has not yet issued a model training program for restaurants and bars. The IDHR web site describes this model as “forthcoming” with nearly half the remaining time to the first deadline passed. And as above, any model the state produces isn’t likely to be immediately useable as a turn-key training solution.
For a superior option, Illinois Required Training Solutions has customized, compliant restaurant and bar prevention training in both English and Spanish ready-to-go. We’ve even called out some of the recent changes applicable to hotels and casinos within the training, because many food service workers cross over between these industries and the differences in the laws can result in confused expectations. Our training is tailored, complete, compliant, clear, and ready today.
7. You'll have to do this all over again NEXT year.
The new law requires annual refresher training for all employees. There’s no guarantee the State will update the model training annually, if at all. But because sexual harassment prevention training is all we do, at Illinois Required Training Solutions we’re prepared to have a new, updated training ready to go by the time renewals are due. So if you’ll end up using a training partner anyway, why not choose an economical provider this year, and get back to business quickly with less hassle?
8. The state's model training doesn't help licensed Illinois professionals, who have to train with a CE Sponsor.
A different new state law requires most Illinois professionals renewing their licenses to include one hour of sexual harassment prevention training within their Continuing Education hours. Continuing Education training must be taken with an IDFPR-licensed CE Sponsor, so the State’s model training won’t suffice. Illinois Required Training Solutions is a licensed Illinois Professional Counselor CE Sponsor, qualified to offer sexual harassment prevention training to professionals in Any industry to meet this requirement.
