POSH Awareness Training: What and Why
Dr. Aparna Sethi
HR | POSH Trainer and Consultant | Corporate Trainer and Coach| Founder Protouch | Thearter Artist ??
"Everyone here is educated in our company, and they know where to draw the line exactly, then why do we need such kind of training?" Now, this was the question asked by one of the learning and development head.
It's so evident that if we have an educated workforce, then why do; we need to have training programs on Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH). But unfortunately, education is nothing to do with sexual harassment. Let's try to understand about POSH training.
What is POSH training?
POSH training helps employees identify and differentiate between appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. It also educates participants on the legal aspect under the PoSH Act. Training gives a clear understanding of employees what kind of behaviour falls under sexual harassment.
Why POSH training?
Understanding of the Act: Many employees are not aware of the fundamental definition of sexual harassment, and every employee needs to understand this Act. Most of the time employees think that if one person touches to another person, then it is sexual harassment. Indeed, this behaviour falls under sexual harassment, but this is not the only behaviour.
Organisation Culture vs Social impact: Organisations have their set of values, but one cannot ignore the effects of social culture on corporate culture. It is observed that employs carry social learning to the workplace unconsciously sometimes there is specific behaviour which is acceptable in the society, but it is not acceptable at the workplace
Brand image: Prevention is better than cure; this is the perfect line that expresses the need for POSH training. Whenever any Sexual-harassment incidents happened the next day or within a few hours, the companies name gets tarnish in media/ or social media. Now media is also not restricted to only print but also TV channels magazines and social media, which damage the brand of the company and hence conducting awareness sessions have become very important.
Legal mandate: As per section 19(c) Sexual-harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013 every employer is required to conduct awareness workshops for all the employees to understand the law as well as sensitise them on the subject. If the employers failed to do t the penalty up to 50,000 can be levied on the employer
The training programs conducted by Protouch always focus on the mindset shift than only talking about the POSH law. POSH talks about the fundamental do and don'ts at the workplace. But to create a dignified workplace, it is imperative to work on individual owners to bring a change during training programs. POSH training is designed keeping the Indian context.
Author: Dr. Aparna Sethi conducts insightful sessions on Women Leadership, Diversity, and Inclusion in the workplace. You can reach her on 8800003366/77. She has authored a book ' Where to Draw The Line - Complicated relationships at workplace' which is completely focused on POSH. This book is available on Amazon. https://amzn.to/2Zl73WB
Senior Team Leader at Protouch
4 年Thank you so much Dr. Aparna Sethi ma'am for such a insightful article.
Writer | Editor | Voiceover Artist | Keynote Speaker | Event Host & Moderator ??Cambridge MSt in Creative Writing??
4 年I agree with you that training is important, but creating a safe culture is as well. I've worked in multinationals that have the most elaborate POSH, but sexual harassment still occurs there despite it. The irony is that female employees are often afraid of complaining because some senior managers themselves are guilty of this behaviour. Moreover, gay men were also harassed. So if one were to complain, where would they go? Safe work-cultures, providing training and implementing a " sexual harassment whistleblower" policy should be implemented in conjunction, in my opinion.