Live Training
Questions to ask yourself are: is your training method memorable? Is it interactive? Do employees know the purpose for their attendance? Do they retain the training message? Is the training practical, current and relevant to the organizations specific needs? Does the training cover all legal updates? Do participants learn how to employ the skills in the workplace after the training?
Statistics relating to the number of complaints filed by employees indicate that current forms and methods of anti-harassment and discrimination training are not working. Read any EEOC press release describing a settlement of a claim and you will see a component of mandatory training and EEOC monitoring for several years into the future.
Live training from ERS has been proven effective in lowering the number of claims filed and the costs associated with defending such claims, both by as much as 50%.
Court decisions from across the country repeat, over and over again, how companies can minimize liability, or even avoid it completely, if they adopt and implement anti-discrimination policies and train managers on the issues. Further, courts do not hesitate to analyze the effectiveness of an employer’s training as a key component of overall prevention efforts. In other words, inadequate training (or trainers) can be a liability. This means that savvy plaintiff’s attorneys will attack the effectiveness of the programs hoping to increase their potential claim for damages.
A major shortfall in many training programs today is that they don’t address the new forms of communication that employees use (actually, “misuse”), such as social media and handheld technologies. The amount of evidence produced by these means has increased the chances that a plaintiff will be successful in a lawsuit. Proper training and warning on the use of these various forms of communication is, therefore, essential.
A video and a few outdated hypotheticals with easy follow up questions doesn’t cut it anymore. Interviews conducted with various organizations that have chosen this option showed that most employees completed the training over dinner, on the telephone, while watching television, in the car, or worse - their children completed it for them. Additionally, this method does not allow for “live” interaction with the trainer, which would include question and answer sessions on current issues. Since the Me-Too campaign, many states, including New York, have passed laws that REQUIRE interactive training.
ERS training is effective, educational and entertaining. From management training sessions conducted for newly hired/promoted managers to anti-harassment training sessions and all day workshops, attendees are fully engaged throughout the entire presentation and are free to ask questions at any time. Real case examples, trial exhibits and clips from actual trials emphasize the consequences of non-compliance, and quite possibly, individual liability.
One lawsuit, regardless of success, can cripple your comp any financially and impact productivity if managers have not been properly trained on how to deal with employment issues before they become a liability.
As former plaintiff’s attorneys, we train not only on the relevant law, but also on the most common errors made by managers that have resulted in million dollar verdicts. Training sessions are live, interactive, relevant and provide invaluable lessons from a perspective not available elsewhere: that of the plaintiff’s attorney who knows where the next attack is likely to come from.