PERU – For the first time, every Miami County employee will be required to take sexual harassment training as part of new policy that sets out how the county will deal with incidents of harassment.
Miami County commissioners Monday approved the new policy after Peru-based Custom Training Solutions approached officials about implementing sexual harassment training for employees.
Commissioner Josh Francis said the county’s sexual harassment policy had not been updated for at least a decade. He said the new policy not only ensures the county is complying with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but explicitly sets out the steps on how to report harassment.
“It’s one of those things where anyone watching the news over the last six months has seen that this is a major issue,” Francis said. “We’ve not had anything serious, but we had a few little incidents, so we thought let’s get out in front of this and make sure everyone understood what sexual harassment is and what we will and won’t tolerate.”
Commissioners also approved $5,000 to hire Custom Training Solutions to provide training to every county employee over the next two years.
Jason Gornto, who started the training business three years ago, said the training most employees will complete is a 10-minute video that covers employee rights, sexual harassment definitions and steps to take if an employee believes they have been sexually harassed at work.
Supervisors and department heads must complete a more comprehensive, two-hour training every two years. That training includes workplace scenarios, supervisory responsibilities and sexual harassment investigations.
“The training is designed to ensure companies and municipalities are up-to-date with state and federal regulations,” Gornto said in an email. “The intent is to bring awareness without making people suddenly afraid of crossing the line. Most people are not sexually harassing their coworkers and shouldn't have to walk on eggshells at work.”
Francis said the updated policy came about in part from a growing public awareness about sexual harassment and a shift in employees’ attitudes about it.
“It’s a change in culture,” he said. “People used to joke about this stuff all the time at work, but you can’t do that anymore. It’s just not tolerated.”
Miami County Auditor Mary Brown agreed. She said in the past, sexual advances or suggestive language weren’t taken as seriously as they are today.
“I don’t think you can be too cautious these days,” she said. “I think the new policy we implemented makes sense. It’s an update on the old policy, which was pretty vague.”
The new policy defines sexual harassment as any unwelcome sexual advance, request for sexual favors, and/or physical or verbal conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the condition of employment, employment decisions or that interferes with an individual’s work performance.
The policy also states incidents of sexual harassment could result in counseling, formal apologies, mediation and disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of employment.