Sexual Harassment Awareness & Prevention Training
Practical sexual harassment training for organisations, managers and teams. Understand the law, prevent harassment, respond effectively and build safer workplaces.
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Practical sexual harassment training for organisations, managers and teams. Understand the law, prevent harassment, respond effectively and build safer workplaces.
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Sexual harassment can have a profound impact on individuals, teams and organisations. This practical training helps employees and managers recognise sexual harassment, understand workplace boundaries and responsibilities, challenge inappropriate behaviour and contribute to a culture in which dignity and respect are actively protected.
Sexual harassment is not simply an issue to address once somebody makes a complaint. Organisations need to think proactively about where risks may arise, the behaviours that can become normalised and whether employees feel confident to speak up when something is wrong.
Sexual harassment can include obvious behaviour, but it can also arise through comments, jokes, messages, images, unwanted attention, physical behaviour or conduct that some people dismiss as workplace banter. What one person regards as harmless may have a very different impact on somebody else.
This course gives delegates the opportunity to explore those difficult areas in a safe, professionally facilitated environment. Rather than relying solely on definitions and policies, we use realistic workplace situations to examine boundaries, power, intention, impact and responsibility.
The aim is not simply to tell people what they must not do. It is to help employees understand how respectful workplace cultures are created and the part that everyone can play in preventing sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is not always recognised immediately. Our training uses realistic scenarios to help delegates explore behaviour, impact and appropriate responses.
A colleague repeatedly makes sexualised jokes and comments about people's appearance. Some colleagues laugh, while another feels increasingly uncomfortable.
We explore:
An employee receives unwanted personal and sexual messages from a colleague outside normal working hours. They have tried not to encourage the attention, but it continues.
We explore:
A member of staff witnesses behaviour that appears to make a colleague uncomfortable but is unsure whether to intervene, speak to the colleague afterwards or report what they have seen.
We explore:
Under the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, employers have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment.
This is an anticipatory duty. Employers should not wait until sexual harassment has occurred or a complaint has been made before considering what action is needed.
Organisations should consider the particular risks within their workplace and take appropriate preventative action. Training can form an important part of that wider approach alongside effective policies, risk assessment, reporting arrangements, leadership, appropriate responses to concerns and ongoing review.
From 30 October 2026, the preventative duty is due to strengthen from taking “reasonable steps” to taking “all reasonable steps”. Changes relating to harassment by third parties are also due to take effect.
Our training can be tailored to reflect your organisation's sector, workforce, policies, areas of risk and responsibilities.
Under the Equality Act 2010, sexual harassment involves unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them.
During the course we explore what this can mean in everyday workplace situations, including:
Sexual harassment can affect people of any sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age or background. The course encourages delegates to consider different experiences and perspectives without relying on assumptions or stereotypes about who may experience or perpetrate harassment.
One of the most important areas we explore is the relationship between intention and impact.
People may defend inappropriate behaviour by saying that they were joking, flirting, being friendly or did not intend to cause offence. Understanding intention may be relevant when exploring what happened, but good intentions do not automatically make behaviour appropriate.
Delegates consider how behaviour may be experienced by somebody else, how workplace power can affect people's ability to object and why a person may laugh along, remain silent or avoid confronting behaviour that makes them uncomfortable.
Policies are important, but employees also need confidence that concerns will be listened to and handled appropriately.
Workplace culture can influence whether inappropriate behaviour is challenged, ignored or normalised. Delegates explore how leadership behaviour, team dynamics, workplace banter, power relationships and previous organisational responses can affect people's willingness to report concerns.
The course encourages participants to consider how they can contribute to an environment where boundaries are understood, inappropriate behaviour is challenged early and people are treated with dignity and respect.
People who witness inappropriate behaviour can play an important role in shaping workplace culture. However, challenging behaviour directly is not always appropriate or safe.
This course introduces practical ways in which colleagues can respond, from direct intervention to distraction, checking in with the person affected, seeking support or reporting concerns through appropriate channels.
If developing confident and effective bystander skills is a particular priority for your organisation, see our Bystander Intervention Training.
By the end of the course, delegates should be better able to:
This course can be tailored for employees at all levels and is particularly useful for:
The emphasis, scenarios and level of detail can be adapted depending on the audience. For example, a session for managers may place greater emphasis on receiving concerns and organisational responsibilities, while an all-staff session may focus more heavily on recognising behaviour, boundaries, workplace culture and speaking up.
The most appropriate option depends on whether you are looking for preventative training for your workforce or tailored development for an individual following a workplace concern.
For organisations, managers and teams
Choose this course when you want to raise awareness, prevent sexual harassment, strengthen workplace culture and help employees and managers understand appropriate behaviour and their responsibilities.
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For an individual following a concern, complaint or organisational intervention
Choose this confidential one-to-one option when an individual needs tailored learning around sexualised behaviour, workplace boundaries, intention and impact, professional conduct and future behaviour.
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All our courses are tailored to ensure the training reflects your organisation's goals and priorities.
The course can be delivered face-to-face or online via Zoom or Teams.
To support participation, discussion and interaction, we recommend the following group sizes per session:
Need to train a larger workforce? No problem. We regularly work with organisations that need to train larger numbers of employees. Where appropriate, training can be delivered across multiple sessions to ensure everyone receives the same high-quality, interactive learning experience. We can develop a delivery programme to suit your workforce size, locations and timescales.
Please note: the half-day rate is not always available for face-to-face sessions.
Over 25 years' experience delivering equality, diversity and inclusion training, consultancy and professional development.
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