The Six Elements Of Effective PoSH Training

Written By: Karan Arora

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, commonly known as the ‘POSH’ Act, was enacted on 9th December 2013 to prevent, prohibit and redress acts of sexual harassment against women in workplaces.

The Act places a duty upon every employer to organize workshops, training sessions and awareness programs to sensitize employees with its provisions.

Despite this clear direction, reported instances of sexual harassment in the workplace have steadily increased since the enactment of the legislation. According to official statistics published by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, reported instances of sexual harassment increased by 54% between 2014 and 2017 and further increased by 82% in 2018. Moreover, close to 70% of working women still do not report workplace sexual harassment. PoSH training has largely been ineffective in changing attitudes towards sexual harassment in the workplace. 

This ineffectiveness of PoSH training in reducing instances of harassment conduct and to create a change in sexist attitudes at the workplace can be attributed to the reduction of PoSH training to merely a compliance exercise. To be effective, PoSH training must go beyond legal compliance to create a culture of safety. 

Here are the six elements that any organisation can incorporate into your PoSH training sessions to make them more effective:

Setting Ground Rules 

Talking about sexual harassment is an uncomfortable conversation for most people. It can be especially uncomfortable when such a  conversation is conducted around fellow-employees in an environment that they might not consider to be safe.

PoSH training can be rendered ineffective if it is conducted in an environment that the trainees perceive to be unsafe.  In these circumstances, it becomes important to create a safe and supportive learning environment and to mitigate all factors that might interfere with learning. Creating a safe space is also important to have an honest and sincere conversation about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Here are a few good practices that can contribute to making the learning environment a safe space:

1. Ensuring Training Sessions Are Not Recorded: Training sessions are not formal hearings. They should not be recorded or documented in a way that would allow retributive action by the organization against a trainee for raising a concern or asking a question that puts the organization in a bad light. 

2. Maintaining Anonymity: Maintaining anonymity of individuals is essential in ensuring that the training environment is civil. Trainees must not be allowed to raise fingers against specific individuals when they are raising concerns or asking questions. Trainees should be given the option of asking questions anonymously through the use of small notes that can be deposited with the trainer. This maintains the anonymity of the question seeker. 

3. Having A Professional Moderate: Anti-sexual harassment training sessions must be moderated by a professional who understands training pedagogy and methods. Trainees must feel comfortable and trust the moderator else they will not be honest and sincere during the session. The moderator cannot be a highly placed employee of the organization as trainees might fear retributive action for expressing themselves. 

Use of Case Studies and Examples

Case studies are stories (mostly hypothetical, but sometimes real too) that are used as a teaching tool to demonstrate the application of a theory or a concept to real situations.

Most individuals are more inductive than deductive in their reasoning which means that they learn better through case studies and examples than through theoretical principles. Any effective anti-sexual harassment training program must employ case studies and examples as important teaching aids.

The benefits of this are well documented –  the use of case studies increases student interest in the topic and motivation for learning and encourages better retention of the points being taught. The use of case studies and examples makes the material more relatable and creates relevance for trainees. Good examples range from clips from popular Indian and foreign movies to comic strips and common anecdotes, which resonate culturally and serve as good attention-hooks too. 

Case studies and examples can prove to be ineffective if a ‘one-size-fits-all approach is followed, that is if the same case studies and examples are used for different organizations. Case-studies and examples employed in a PoSH training must be customized and personalized depending on the organization’s workplace situation. Case studies and examples that could be effective to train personnel in a conventional office environment would be very different from those used to train people in a work-from-home environment.

Usage of wrong and unrelatable case studies may lead to poor learning outcomes. Case-studies and examples employed must also be in-line with the organization’s PoSH policy and complaint mechanisms to maximize learning outcomes.  The use of case-studies may also prove to be ineffective if they are too obvious or general.

Most trainees know that they shouldn’t be asking for sexual favours in the workplace. What they need to be made aware of are the kinds of subtle behaviours that could be problematic, such as complimenting a co-worker’s appearance. 

Multiple Microlearning Sessions

Longer training sessions are associated with poor learning and lower retention.

Most studies estimate that the average adult has an attention span of 20 minutes after which they are very likely to get distracted. This, combined with the fact that PoSH training involves uncomfortable topics and conversations results in most sessions being rendered ineffective, especially if they go on for too long at once.

Moreover, unless a PoSH training session is scheduled for the weekend, it is bound to clash with the work commitments of attendees. A longer session will keep trainees from work for a longer time and some might step out to take work calls or attend meetings. This can lead to poor learning outcomes. 

Longer sessions can be broken down into multiple microlearning sessions interspaced with interactive activities,  question-answer sessions, and assessments. While this may increase the overall length of a training session, trainees are more likely to pay attention, stay focussed even during uncomfortable conversations and take away more from the training. 

Making Training Sessions Interactive

Interactive sessions provide an immersive learning experience since they allow for audience engagement. Trainers can and should use interactive elements like pop-quizzes, discussion sessions, Q&As and games.

Competitive elements such as a  scoreboard or leaderboard can also make the audience more receptive to the content. Participation in interactive activities also gives the trainer real-time feedback and allows them to adjust their training methods depending on attendees’ interest level and ability to understand the content.

Pre-recorded training material can also be made interactive by having a live facilitator moderate pre-recorded audio-visuals. A moderator can gauge the audience’s interest levels and play clips in a customised different order, conduct interactive activities between two clips and answer questions. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that it might not always be possible to have in-person training sessions. Inspite of the limitations of conducting training sessions virtually, online PoSH training sessions can be made just as interactive through the use of apps and web-based services. Modern video communication services like Zoom allow for both text-based and audio-visual based interaction between trainees and trainers, and learning platforms like ‘Kahoot!’ allow trainers to create pop-quizzes that trainees can answer in real-time using their devices in real-time. 

Refresher Trainings And Periodic Assessments 

Humans learn more effectively when they study the material in several sessions spread out over a long period, rather than study it repeatedly in a short period. Repetitive training over several sessions helps form a long-term memory and is associated with better learning outcomes.

Such training that includes long intervals between training sessions is termed spaced training and has been found to significantly enhance long-term knowledge retention of any work-based training. This extends to PoSH training as well. 

Spaced learning can be incorporated into PoSH training through periodic assessments, wherein trainees are made to recall their learnings, and refresher sessions, which build on existing knowledge from previous sessions. Refresher training is also helpful in keeping trainees up-to-date with new developments in PoSH and their organization’s PoSH policies. 

While there is no fixed recommended period for conducting refresher PoSH sessions, Ungender recommends that an organization conduct periodic tests and refresher training every 4-6 months.  

Going Beyond Compliance

PoSH training that is centered solely around compliance might reduce liability for an organization but will not be effective in changing behaviours and creating a safer working environment. As such, it does little to actually, reduce sexual harassment at workplace. 

For PoSH training to be effective, it must be geared towards bringing behavioral changes rather than mere legal compliance. The impact of sexual harassment goes beyond mere legal liability. Effective PoSH training focuses on making attendees understand the subtleties and nuances of sexual harassment that might not be covered by the law. 

Going beyond legal compliance also means going beyond the purview of the PoSH Act. While the PoSH Act explicitly protects women from acts of sexual harassment at the workplace, men in the workplace are also victims of sexual harassment. PoSH training should aim to treat all genders equitably. PoSH training is effective when it leads to an overall reduction in harassment in the workplace and not just harassment against female employees.

Often, HR departments of organizations do not have the resources to incorporate all these six elements and provide effective PoSH training. Given that PoSH training needs to center around behavioural change, organisations could also consider looking at PoSH or D&I complaince that offers built-in training as  package with these principles at the core.

One such option is Conduct, which combins data, technology and law to provide effective PoSH training and focuses on behavioural nudges. Conduct helps your organization understand its diversity profile (often the root cause of harassment related behaviours), provides customized, targeted & effective learning for your employees, facilitates anonymous doubt clarification, structures your misconduct filing and redressal process and address sexual misconduct in a legally compliant & secure manner. This SAAS product allows teams to grow individually and collectively in their journey towards a safe workplace.

Ask for access at Get Conduct

About Author: Karan Arora is a final year law student with a keen interest in labour laws and labour compliance.

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.