Businesses are now required to provide their employees with some form of sexual harassment prevention training, and to help in that effort, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is launching two such programs, which will be offered at discounted prices to chamber members.
In September 2018, former Gov. Jerry Brown approved a new state law that requires businesses with five or more employees to provide sexual harassment training to all employees and supervisors before Jan. 1, 2020, and once every two years after.
Since the law went into effect on Jan. 1, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber has been working to launch affordable, accessible, and compliant training programs for local businesses. Both courses launched in March, according to Molly Schiff, the chamber’s marketing and communications manager.
“Being an organization focused on serving our local business community,” Schiff wrote in an email to the Sun, “the chamber felt it was important to make businesses aware of this new regulation and also offer a variety of options for local businesses to make sure they get this training completed before the deadline.”
One course will be offered online, which Schiff said makes it easy for businesses to comply at their convenience. They’re available for about $25 per standard employee, and about $44 per supervisor. Chamber member businesses will get a 20 percent discount per employee, Schiff said.
The chamber’s in-person trainings meet the same requirements but offer a more hands-on learning experience, Schiff said. There are two sessions—training for standard employees and training for supervisors—offered throughout the year. They’re $40 per employee and $60 for supervisors, and $25 per employee and $45 per supervisor for chamber members.
There are nearly 850 member businesses in the Santa Maria Valley, and Schiff said that as of April 2, a few had already signed up to take the online courses, and about four had enrolled in the April 18 in-person training.
This article appears in Apr 4-11, 2019.