There are three major updates that should be included in any AB1825 training program.

Update 1: Expanding definitions
We tend to think of sexual harassment as being strictly about sex. However, trends in litigation have shown that harassing employees because of their gender can also be considered sexual harassment. Supervisors now have a wider range of inappropriate behavior to watch out for.

Update 2: New definition of retaliation
Several recent Supreme Court rulings have shown that illegal retaliation doesn’t have to be intentional and even third parties may be protected. Supervisors need to understand how to prevent illegal retaliation in the event they receive a sexual harassment complaint.

Update 3: Claims by men on the rise
The percentage of claims filed by men has risen steadily over the past ten years. Additional research is required to fully understand the reasons why, but supervisors should know how to protect male and female employees alike.

Selecting the Right Program
Choosing the right sexual harassment prevention training program can be tricky.  Here are three things to look for when making your selection.

Is it compliant?
Training programs must meet a list of requirements covering content, the trainer’s qualifications, and even the delivery format (classroom, e-learning, etc.) to be compliant with state regulations. You can view these regulations online.

Is it relevant?
Your program should contain scenarios and discussion topics that reflect the workplace issues your supervisors are likely to encounter.

Is it engaging?
California regulations require the training to be interactive. Make sure you choose a program that will capture your participants’ interest through relevant examples, appropriate humor, and interactive activities.

Need more help?
Compliance training doesn't have to be boring! Our AB1825 sexual harassment prevention training program is compliant, relevant, and engaging.

Who can participate?
Participating organizations should meet the following criteria to participate.

• Have a clearly defined performance challenge. 
• The challenge should be small in scope, such as one particular process. 
• The appropriate stakeholders (executives, department members, etc.) should be on-board.

A good example might be a critical process that employees frequently fail to follow. Another example might be customers consistently rating your organization poorly in one particularly area.

What are the benefits?
Participating organizations will receive several key benefits.

• Free consulting. Participating organizations will receive free consulting services.
• Exposure. Success stories will be published in our blog.
• Results. Isn't performance improvement the whole point?

How to sign up
Please contact Jeff Toister if you are interested in learning more about how your organization can participate.

This year, we also helped several clients and colleagues celebrate Employee Learning Week and earn their own 'Champion of Learning' recognition:

• H.G. Fenton Company
• ResMed
• Welk Resorts
• Nonprofit Management Solutions

Resorting to social media
I am currently chronicling the challenges I’m having with the Avis rental car company on my blog (read it here).  It started when I signed up for the Avis Preferred program but I wasn’t receiving the Preferred benefits.  I had a face to face conversation with four Avis employees and none of them resolved the issue.  I even called their 1-800 number for help, but that led nowhere either.  I finally decided to blog about it as a last resort.  Lo and behold, I was soon contacted by an Avis customer service supervisor who had been referred to my blog. The message from Avis was loud and clear: we won't help you unless you besmirch our reputation online for others to see.

For many companies, their traditional service delivery mechanisms are just plain broken.  Two years ago, BusinessWeek ran a terrific article, "Consumer Vigilantes" that detailed how many customers were going on the offensive after companies failed to resolve their problems. A famous example is Dave Carroll's "United Breaks Guitars" video that has now been viewed over 9 million times.  

Despair.com’s customer service page is a more accurate representation of how a lot of companies really approach customer service. I especially like their slogan:

We're not satisfied until you're not satisfied.

Using social media, badly
Last Spring, I ran an experiment to see how companies were really using social media to engage their customers.  The results were surprisingly poor.  The primary challenge was their social media efforts were heavy on the media, but light on the social. (You can read about the experiment here.)

That’s not to say your business shouldn’t be using social media.  Just do it right or don’t do it at all.  I recently discovered a great blog post, “Twitter should not be a last resort for your customer service department” (thanks, @trainingtsar) that makes a good case for proactively using Twitter for service.  Inc. also ran a great article earlier this year (“You’ve been Yelped”) that tackled the good, bad, and ugly of having your company rated in a public forum. You can also check out the BestBuy Facebook page for a terrific example of using Facebook for customer service.

So, what's really changing?
Is there anything really new about service, or is social media just another tool that some companies are using well and some are not? I put that question back to you, dear reader. Post your comments or send me an email. I'll also post this question online so we can all rely on the wisdom of strangers. Let's meet back here next month and see if we have some answers.

Three places to get immediate results

Adding a little direction to meetings, emails, and your daily plan are examples of three places where you can get immediate results.

Meetings

Why do we have so many meetings in the corporate world?  I visit a lot of companies and it is amazing to see people hurriedly moving from meeting to meeting without actually getting much done.  The common thread is often a lack of clear purpose.

I have three requirements for any meeting I organize:

1. Goals. What do we want to accomplish at this meeting?  More importantly, why do we need a meeting to accomplish it?
2. Roles. Who is invited and why?  Each attendee should be expected to have something to contribute.  If it’s just an FYI then I can read the minutes.
3. Agenda. A good meeting should have an agenda that spells out what we are trying to achieve, who is participating, and a rough outline of how we will accomplish our goals.

I double dog dare you to immediately cancel any meetings that don’t meet these requirements!

Email

If you haven’t complained recently about the amount of emails you receive, then you know someone who has.  Our volume of messages is getting over the top, but much of it is avoidable if we email with a purpose.

I follow three simple rules when I email:

1. Think. Think about why you are sending the email before you write it.  It’s amazing how a quick moment of reflection will change what you write and even eliminate some emails to begin with.
2. Clarify. Make it easy for the reader to know what you really want.  This includes writing clear, direct subject lines and putting any requested actions in the first paragraph. 
3. Anticipate. Poorly written emails often result in long email conversations.  Try to anticipate any questions the recipient may have and answer them too. 

Your daily plan

There will always be more work than time, so it’s a good idea to start each day by knowing what’s most important.  For example, this article will be referenced in the email newsletter I am finalizing today for distribution tomorrow, so I know I have to get it done.  That’s why it’s my first item of business. 

Without a clear plan we tend to react to whatever work comes to us.  This starts a viscous cycle of falling behind, arriving late and unprepared to meetings, and sending incomplete emails that generate more useless emails.  The way out of it is to stop, take a deep breath, and focus on what’s most important. 

Jeff Toister has been selected to chair this year's PEAK Awards Committee. The committee is responsible for reviewing award applications, selecting the award recipients, and organizing the awards ceremony.

Learn more about ASTD San Diego's PEAK Awards or download an application

Many organizations struggle to maintain compliance with a slew of federal and state employment laws. This leaves little time for HR's true focus: getting the most out of your employees!

The certificate program will be delivered via five weekly half-day sessions at Nonprofit Management Solutions. Participants will be encouraged to immediately apply lessons learned back at work and continue dialogue with each other outside of class. The content is based on the HR competencies identified by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM).

Learn more...

• Use Visuals
• Keep it Simple
• Make it Two-way

Use Visuals

There are three primary ways we take in information: by listening, by seeing, and by doing.  People tend to have a dominant, or preferred, learning style even though we typically rely on all three. 

According to Lou Russell’s Accelerated Learning Fieldbook, the most preferred learning style is learning by seeing.

Do these percentages align with how you typically explain expectations to employees (or volunteers)? 

How can you make your employee communication more effective by adding visual elements?

One of the strategies I used to manage volunteers at the ASTD conference was to do as much showing as I did telling.  (I also mixed in a healthy dose of having them do stuff to ensure they got it.)  The payoff was volunteers quickly got the message with minimal effort.

Keep it Simple 

The most important part of our message can get lost if we surround it with two much fluff.  Consider these two examples – which one is easier to understand?

• Why is the sign on the right so much more effective? 
• How much faster could you communicate if you concentrated on what you want your employees to know, understand, and do? 
• How can you simplify the messages you give to your team?

In Chicago, I realized it was essential to keep my messages simple.  I focused on telling people exactly what they needed to know and then I encouraged them to figure out the rest using the tools and resources that were available to them.  I was amazed at how many times volunteers came up with innovative ideas that I never would have thought of on my own.

Make it Two-way

Short-term retention dramatically increases when communication flows in both directions.  The graph below shows the average short-term retention rates for various types of communication (Source - Bob Pike's Creative Training Techniques Handbook):

How to make sure they get it, and get it quickly:

• Require interaction whenever you set expectations.
• Spend less time telling and more time asking open-ended questions.
• Observe employees in action so you can give them feedback on their performance.

It's easy for supervisors to use the "fire and forget" method of management when things get hectic. They fire off an email and then forget about the assignment. The downside is employees often misunderstand what's expected or don't fully buy-in. I followed my own advice a lot at the ASTD conference in Chicago and was rewarded with a group of motivated volunteers who cheerfully did whatever was required to get the job done.

There are many factors, but my research and experience points to three big ones:

• Set goals and measure results
• Facilitate continuous learning
• Help managers reinforce learning

Set Goals and Measure Results
A training program succeeds or fails based on how well it achieves its goals.  You must understand what the program’s sponsor expects from the training and then provide evidence that shows the goals have been achieved.  Your training program will be a success if you can prove your program achieved the results your sponsor was looking for.  Unsuccessful training programs lack clear goals or measure results that aren’t clearly aligned with expected outcomes.  

Facilitate Continuous Learning
Training has no value until new knowledge, skills, or abilities are applied on the job.  A successful training program helps participants apply what they’ve learned after the primary learning event.  An unsuccessful training program makes no effort to help learning transfer back to the workplace.

Help Managers Reinforce Learning
An employee’s direct supervisor is the most important person in the training process.  Successful training programs help the supervisor guide their employee’s development.  Unsuccessful training programs place responsibility for future performance on the trainer, not the leader. 

I encourage you to take stock of your own training programs, even if these factors seem like common sense.  There’s a difference between knowing and doing.  Actually implementing these success factors can take courage and determination but the payoff is a training program that succeeds.

  Download the whitepaper and how-to guide 

 Read about the experiment on our blog