Are Your POSH Training and Awareness Activities Truly Effective?
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) or the POSH Act was implemented to provide active systems of redressal and preventive measures within the workplace. However, a lack of awareness on the part of decision makers as well as employees makes it difficult for workplaces to comply to the same. POSH training services offer a holistic approach to educating all employees within the workplace about their rights under the POSH Act. These trainings are also facilitated to be easy to understand.
Advisories like Ungender, offer POSH training services to not just educate and raise awareness but also create an environment that is conducive for employees to feel safe in. Through POSH training services, organisations are able to build a workplace culture that is safe as well as compliant with the legal requirements of the act. Under the POSH training services, advisories offer trainings and workshops that focus on employee trainings to create awareness about POSH law, rights of the employees, appropriate workplace conduct, duties of the employer when it comes to creating a POSH compliant workplace and about the redressal mechanism provided by the Act.
Why are POSH Trainings Important?
An organisation that is compliant with the POSH Act only on paper is unable to provide an environment that is truly safe to its employees. With POSH training services, organisations are able to build awareness and knowledge as to what exactly the mechanism of redressal is within the Act. This includes knowing basic information that pertains to knowing what employees should rightfully complain about, mitigating unnecessary fear about false accusations, clearing out apprehensions that organisations have about building workforces with more women and so on. POSH trainings also inform employees about fears that pertain to harm to career if they were to report a case and apprehensions about their future within the workplace.
Inefficient workplace policies can have several implications on the redressal mechanism and if people approach it when faced with an incident of sexual harassment. 🛑[THREAD] pic.twitter.com/Dyb5tZA9o6
— Ungender (@UngenderTalks) September 8, 2021
Advisories make sure to hold proper conversations that are able to build trust within the organisation. Workplaces must invest in these trainings to not only make sure their policies are compliant but also to ensure that there is no mysticism attached to the legalities of the Act. Moreover, the lack of information about the POSH Act can also lead to employees turning to unreliable sources like online platforms to post their experiences. This in turn creates a circle of bad reputation for the company while disrupting the employee’s mental health. With POSH trainings employees are fully able to understand where they can go to report their complaint as well as how the processes will be handled. Advisories aim to establish a workplace environment where the committee looking after the processes of a case under the POSH Act ensure that the organisation and the complainant go through a smooth process that is not harmful to either.
Consequently, POSH trainings ensure that organisations continue to thrive in a safe environment. With POSH trainings, organisations are able to hold on to productive employees as they feel comfortable in their space of work. Moreover, these trainings bridge the gap between legal paperwork and actual preventive measures that make a workplace safe, in turn ensuring that the organisational cost behind legalities is curtailed.
What Make POSH Trainings Effective?
When it comes to POSH trainings, effectiveness of the same comes from finding POSH partners that create an environment that is conducive for doubt clearance. Advisories must offer a proper facilitator who can curate sessions that are specific to the organisation and hence make the conversation relevant. Efficient POSH training sessions involve asking and sharing experiences. Hence for an effective POSH training session finding a POSH partner who will curate customised sessions for your team’s needs keeping in mind unique demography and requirement is needed.
View this post on Instagram
Most organisations shy away from POSH trainings as they think it would be a cost that would not translate to constructive results for the well-being of the company. However, with effective online tools that ensure employee and organisational safety is a great investment for a better workplace culture. POSH trainings within organisations are made ineffective by many biases such as these training sessions are only for the women employees in the company. However, a POSH training becomes effective when the organisations firstly ensure to maintain a gender-neutral POSH policy as well as ensures that not only women but also the leadership join in for these trainings.
And effective POSH training lives up to claims that are being made in the workshop or trainings by finding avenues to measure progress for team members. Effective POSH trainings do not just focus on learning but also on the data and analytics aspect of team behaviour contributing to more effective interventions for future culture building.
How to Choose the Correct POSH Partner?
The first criteria for choosing a POSH partner is to ensure they have an experienced and niche expertise. This means having expertise in tackling and interacting with a variety of different verticals within the corporate sector as well with a variety of different team strengths. Niche expertise in specific areas of law, as well as business and gender provide an added advantage. Firms like Ungender, have professionals who have worked in the Internal Complaints Committee and can help in creating ICC in the new company. They bring with them practical experience of handling investigations, putting processes in place along with practical and hands-on exposure.
Moreover, organisations must acknowledge that awareness activities are a continuous journey that cannot stop with one workshop. Partnering with experiences advisories not only helps organisations understand the technicalities of the Act with ease but also eases out an effective communication mechanism for doubts and questions as well.
Conclusion
POSH trainings are an important way to ensure that employees feel safe in the workplace. These trainings make effective use of awareness workshops to create an informed culture wherein employees are aware of their rights. Moreover, these trainings are also an essential way for POSH practitioners to stay up to date in a dynamic workplace environment while organisations can ensure to maintain their POSH compliance duties in an effective manner.
Written by: Anuska Roy
Ungender Insights is the product of our learning from advisory work at Ungender. Our team specializes in advising workplaces on workplace diversity and inclusion. Write to us at contact@ungender.in to understand how we can partner with your organization to build a more inclusive workplace.
Read our insights about diversity, legal updates and industry knowledge on workplace inclusion at Ungender Insights. Visit our Blog.
Sign up to stay up-to-date with our free e-mail newsletter.
The above insights are a product of our learning from our advisory work at Ungender. Our Team specialises in advising workplaces on gender centric laws.
or email us at contact@ungender.in
