How federal workplaces can better prevent harassment and avoid risk

On February 26, the Government Accountability Office issued a report stating that training efforts to prevent sexual harassment in the federal workplace have been ineffective, and new measures are underway to address the issue. As evidenced by a 2023 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report showing that sexual harassment has been the most common form of discrimination reported by federal agencies since 2011, the GAO made 14 recommendations to the Defense Department and other federal agencies to develop and implement evaluations of existing training protocols.

As a former EEOC lawyer and later a partner in a management law firm, I’m highly familiar with the need to establish and maintain a compliant work environment free from harassment and discrimination. I’m also familiar with the difficulties of developing effective training programs that establish the behaviors needed to achieve a non-discriminatory workplace.

A common challenge with mandated workforce training is that it’s often treated like a necessary evil. The GAO pointed out several deficiencies in the current training protocols and after reviewing the specific recommendations, I agree with the requested efforts. They’re all in line with industry best practices for effective training. However, after decades in the training industry, I’ve learned that focusing just on training initiatives isn’t enough to ensure long-term behavioral change.

When it comes to sexual harassment and other forms of illegal and improper workplace behavior, the issue is seldom that the offender isn’t aware of the standards or rules. It’s because they believe they’re immune from repercussions, or that victims or bystanders don’t speak up or follow the established processes. Or worse yet, they follow the proper processes to address the situation, and those responsible for responding fail to take the necessary corrective action.

This type of phenomenon often speaks to a bigger issue, which is that the organization’s culture isn’t fully aligned with its values.

Most organization’s values include respect, fairness, teamwork, accountability and others. Sexual harassment, discrimination and other EEO concerns, along with most forms of uncivil behavior — rudeness, bullying, dismissiveness and bias — are in direct conflict with those values. Instilling core behavioral standards aligned with the organization’s values, along with the appropriate consequences for failing to meet them, will help ensure EEO compliance as well as support a healthy, productive workplace.

An expanded focus on instilling core behaviors that can help prevent an array of improper behaviors like harassment should be the real goal of such initiatives. And just like any other training, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that works. There are some inherent best practices to include, as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

Navigating these factors is paramount to success, and as the GAO has discovered, some of these agencies have crucial work to do.

Dedicated content addressing your organization’s unique needs and tailored to your leaders is critical to establishing their unique role in establishing and reinforcing behavioral standards. Sessions should be highly interactive so that your leaders don’t just attend them; they experience the training. The material should be highly contextual to demonstrate the real-world implications, with examples that tie behaviors back to EEO compliance as well as your stated values.

Similarly, employee training should be highly engaging and instill the same core behavioral principles using relevant, real-world scenarios. To scale the efforts, sessions using in-person, virtual, and online presentations can be utilized, as long as the core materials are included, and interactivity is maintained. Content can be tailored to unique audiences to ensure applicability and impact.

To achieve the desired impact, “learning” shouldn’t end with once-a-year training sessions. Organizations should make an explicit effort to include practical tools that reinforce the core concepts of their training. Give your leaders tips on applying the learning in everyday situations and remind staff of their role in supporting these standards, directly and indirectly. If applicable, identify specific cohorts of stakeholders who are highly influential to performance (often middle managers) and provide additional learning experiences and tools they can use to optimize engagement with peers, direct reports and even upwards.

With all of these factors in play to reinforce the desired behaviors, they can become habits that others will soon recognize as the new normal.

Lastly, be sure to evaluate your training’s effectiveness to gauge how well it was received. Did participants find the content relevant to their daily jobs? Do they intend to apply what they learned? Would they recommend it to colleagues? If possible, commit to a long-term evaluation strategy going to Level 3 of the Kirkpatrick Measurement Model. Are leaders and team members actively applying the learning? Are they behaving differently as a result? Most importantly, do people understand and appreciate that they are supposed to report issues to leaders and others? Do they have confidence that when they report something, they will be listened to and not retaliated against in any way?

As the GAO report illustrates, sexual harassment is still a major issue, and without effective preventive measures, any organization — public or private — can be at risk for lawsuits, financial penalties and myriad other issues. For the named federal agencies and any others facing similar issues, training efforts and other purposeful measures that imprint the organization’s values into cultural norms should be viewed as strategic initiatives to support their success in the long run.

Stephen Paskoff is a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission attorney and CEO of workplace training company Employment Learning Innovations (ELI).

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