Online Training Protects Companies from Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Lawsuits

27 September 2005

Sexual harassment and discrimination complaints in the workplace are climbing higher nationwide than most other areas of civil rights violations and costing businesses billions of dollars yearly to fight off mounting litigation.

A premier provider of online training services, Chrome Zebra, Inc., today announced its easy access "anytime, anywhere" program fully meets state and federal terms of a new sexual harassment law that requires companies immediately provide ongoing employee training to address the problem.

CEO and instructional designer Rhonda Goetz draws on many of her own personal workplace experiences in developing the program, with over two decades of teaching supervisors and students within the heavily male dominated field of information technology.

"Our job is to prevent harassment and discrimination employee claims by providing cost-effective training that complies with the law," said Goetz, M.A. Educational Administration. "The State of California requires a harassment-free workplace. Starting now, employers need to conform to the law and to protect themselves and their assets."

A spotlight company for Legalzoom, a nationally known legal service provider, Chrome Zebra's e-learning simulations are specifically tailored for both large and small businesses in an interactive format that can reduce litigation, recover lost production time by allowing employees to work at their own pace, and get official documents in compliance.

Online video enactments are also taken from actual court cases. In one scene, three females walk past their supervisor as he innocently drops his pencil. Standing from behind, he gapes, jeers and glees as she picks it up. Is this sexual harassment?

In another scene, a worker tells her co-workers that she's going to report their relentless sexual harassment to the boss. She opens the drawer for a pen, but pulls out a handful of condoms instead while they laugh hysterically in the background. Is this sexual harassment?

Nearly 14,000 similarly not-so-funny sexual harassment claims were brought before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which forced employers to pay out over $37 billion in damages to harassed workers last year alone.

Signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004 after 16 women charged him with sexual harassment, Assembly Bill 1825 requires that all supervisors in California companies with 50 or more employees complete interactive training to deal with the growing social burden.

The law mandates supervisors or anyone else with the power to discipline, hire, fire, (or recommend these actions) participate in at least two hours of interactive training every two years, including continued training into the future.

Supervisors hired on or before July 1, 2005 must be trained no later than January 1, 2006. Also, any new supervisors hired after January 1, 2006 must receive sexual harassment training within the first six months on the job.

Companies that fail to fall in line with the new law could be hit with an internal audit/

Chrome Zebra offers unprecedented application functionality, and legal expertise in conjunction with Stan Grombchevsky, managing Partner of Spray, Gould & Bowers LLP of Orange County. Grombchevsky is a graduate of Chapman University School of Law and an employment and consumer law expert with over 80 years experience in employment law and litigation.

Through the animated course, employees follow a series of dynamic online presentations, quizzes, and case studies to discover how to prevent costly mistakes in the workplace. Participants also access and review materials at their own pace in the privacy of their own home, or the courses can be easily integrated into an existing company work environment.

"We're very serious about addressing what this feels like and what happens," said Goetz. "The course dispels the assumptions that workers walk in with. I can't tell you how many times people say, 'Well if she didn't dress that way -- it's not a big deal -- just flirting.' When they're done with our material, they get it."