Delaware Anti-Sexual Harassment Law Includes Notice Distribution and Training Requirements

The new Delaware law specifically addresses the prohibition against sexual harassment under the Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act (DDEA), sets an affirmative defense for employers, imposes mandatory notice distribution on employers with at least four employees within the state, and provides anti-sexual harassment training requirements for employers with at least 50 employees in the state. The new law became effective on January 1, 2019.

What’s Next:

• Delaware employers should review their policies to ensure their sexual harassment prevention policies are consistent with the new law.
• Employers must distribute the Department of Labor’s Notice no later than July 1, 2019. A copy of the Information Sheet is available on www.hrstrategies.org.

This is a great time for employers to update their training programs to meet the new Delaware law’s interactive training requirements and to schedule training to ensure they are meeting the law’s training compliance dates. HR Strategies, LLC is available to assist in customizing and presenting interactive training programs consistent with Delaware’s training requirements. Since the new regulation became effective, we have trained over 2000 employees and managers in harassment prevention. We further are able to review and update workplace policies, including an employer’s sexual harassment prevention policy.

Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training Required:

Employers with at least 50 employees in Delaware must provide “interactive training and education to employees regarding the prevention of sexual harassment.” Training must be provided on the following schedule:

• New Staff Employees: Must be trained within 1 year of commencement of employment and then every 2 years thereafter; training not required until employee employed for 6 months.
• Existing Staff Employees: Must be trained within 1 year of January 1, 2019, and then every 2 years thereafter.
• New Supervisors: Must be trained within 1 year of commencement of employment as a supervisor and then every 2 years thereafter .
• Existing Supervisors: Must be trained within 1 year of January 1, 2019, and then every 2 years thereafter .
• Current staff employees and supervisors who received training prior to 1/1/19 will need to receive the interactive training again prior to January, 1, 2020

The training for staff must include all of the following elements:

1. The illegality of sexual harassment;
2. The definition of sexual harassment using examples;
3. The legal remedies and complaint process available to the employee;
4. Directions on how to contact the Department of Labor; and
5. The legal prohibition against retaliation.

In addition, the interactive training for the supervisors must further include the specific responsibilities of a supervisor regarding the prevention and correction of sexual harassment; and the legal prohibition against retaliation.

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Retention is Key

The competition for talent has never been more difficult. The unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in forty years resulting in an outright war for talent. Employers are finding harder to attract the right talent because people have more choices and options than ever before. Often times people are using job offers to negotiate a better deal with their current employer or simply leaving without thinking twice about loyalty or commitment to their present employer.

Turnover is an important metric that significantly impacts an employer’s bottom line. A company’s turnover rate is usually an indicator about an organizations leadership, culture, processes, procedures, and compensation practices. When is the last time your organization took a hard look at your turnover rates?

Employers often conduct exit interviews when an employee has given their notice to leave. Once the exit interview is completed, what do you do with the information? Do you investigate further and/or try to make changes based on the information that was uncovered? A good business practice for consideration would be to conduct stay interviews in addition to exit interviews. Some suggestions employers may want to consider are:

Climate Survey: it provides a picture of your organization's needs. These surveys often contain a series of multiple-choice items grouped along one or more dimensions of the organization.

Employee Engagement Survey: will provide an overview of how employees feel valued and involved in their everyday work. Conducting an employee engagement survey doesn't just measure how happy employees are - it measures how dedicated they are to the mission and outcome of your company.

Employee Satisfaction Survey: is used by an organization or a business to measure the liking and approval of a particular group of stakeholders for its services, work environment, culture, or employment. An employee satisfaction survey is the survey most frequently used.

The most important part of conducting surveys is what happens afterwards. It is critical to communicate the findings along with a plan for moving forward. Of course, employers can’t always fix everything that is uncovered but they can communicate why they can’t. Getting employees involved in working on solutions is a great way to gain buy-in and they become ambassadors for the changes that may be forthcoming.

Five suggestions on retention and how to keep your top performers:

• Make sure you are paying them fairly based on the market value for the job.
• Provide them with flexibility. According to a recent survey millennials rank compensation, workplace balance and workplace flexibility among the top three factors when evaluating a job offer. Flexibility is also important to working parents of any age.
• Provide an environment of respect. Employees want to be heard and not ignored.
• Ensure your employees have interesting and meaningful work.
• Give employees the capacity to make informed and uncoerced decisions. Autonomy can provide employees with opportunities to achieve goals in a way that feels most comfortable for them

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Talent Acquisition Support

If your organization has job openings and needs assistance in filling those open positions, contact HR Strategies’ staff for support. We can focus on your recruiting needs so that you can focus on your business needs.

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HR Strategies’ staff attended the annual SHRM Conference in Las Vegas last month which offered over 200 concurrent learning sessions. This is the staff’s opportunity to continue their professional development, stay abreast of new regulations and best practices and be better positioned to support their clients. Some of the sessions the staff attended included: How Artificial Intelligence and Technology Change Everything; Become a Best Employer: Master the Six-Step Process to Build Your Unique Employment Brand; Cultural Transformation at Microsoft; Hiring the Formerly Incarcerated; He Said, She Said – Now What? Tips for Effectively Assessing Credibility; When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Legal Issues and Hiring Strategies in Era of Legalized Marijuana; Hindsight is Insight: Real Observations of OFCCP Enforcement Under the Latest Directives. The staff was motivated and inspired and brought back some key take-a-ways from the keynote speakers: Martha Stewart, Brené Brown, Vineet Nayar and Blake Mycoskie

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Contact HR Strategies staff at 302.376.8595 or info@hrstrategies.org if you would like support or would like to learn more about the items in this newsletter. Please contact us if you would like to be removed from our Monthly Strategies mailing list or if you would like for us to add someone to our mailing list.