Importance of PoSH training for employees and management in a company for every size.

The PoSH (Prevention of Sexual harassment Act) law seeks to empower women to fight against sexual harassment at the workplace.

Over the years, the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act has helped many women in getting justice for the cases of sexual harassment they have faced in the workplace.

However, it has also become a threatening tool for some women to extort money from their organization’s management through malicious PoSH complaints. There is sometimes a lack of awareness among employees which can lead to unwanted cases of sexual misconduct. Also, many organizations do not know how to set up a proper POSH complaint redressal system or constitute an internal complaints committee.

Hiring an external member for the internal complaints committee is also an issue that organizations frequently face.

The solution to all these problems lies in PoSH training of employees and management of the organization through a professional legal firm.

What is importance of PoSH Training? why it is needed?

Many business owners often ask this query that what is the need for PoSH awareness training for a company.

The answer to the question lies in the meaning of sexual harassment as per the law. Most of the men fail to realize that the act they are committing in the office nonchalantly, might come under the purview of PoSH law.

This is the same with women employees as even they fail to recognize that many activities or comments that make them feel uncomfortable are covered in the PoSH Act and are punishable. Thus, PoSH training of employees is a must at any corporation.

PoSH training is also essential to make all employees understand all the norms of the Act. This will ensure that the cases of sexual harassment are eliminated as men will be more aware of their behavior.

This could also give rise to the no. of complaints for a few months as the female workforce might report some incidents which they were not reporting earlier due to lack of knowledge regarding the Act. Also, there are many compliance norms for companies mentioned in the act, failing which, the license of the could be revoked or they could be charged with heavy penalties.

PoSH training (India) is needed the most for the management and HR department of the organizations.

These are the policy enforcement bodies of the company and hence, are the major factor to impact the handling of the sexual harassment complaint.

The management needs the training to create a harassment Prevention policy for the organization and the formation of the mandatory internal complaints committee mentioned in the act.

They also need to be trained on appointment procedures of the external member to the complaints committee.

Even the HR department needs to be aware of proper handling of the complaints that come to them and screening false complaints before sending them to ICC.

The companies also need to submit details of complaints resolved by their ICC on an annual basis to the Regional Office of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.

How PoSH Training Helps?

• Conducting PoSH training of employees helps them to get aware of their rights under the PoSH Act.
• This helps women to come out and report any sexual misconduct from a college or a senior in the workplace and so, ensures a safe working environment.
• PoSH Training also enables employees to learn about fake PoSH complaints or what can be categorized as malicious complaints. This can reduce no. of false or fake complaints in the organization.
• Proper PoSH training for management makes them aware of the process to create a robust and effective complaint redressal system.
• It also helps the management to set up an internal complaints committee.

How to Get PoSH Training for Employees

• Contact a Legal firm which has experts with complete knowledge of the PoSH Act and have experience of conducting training sessions for employees in prestigious organizations.
• These firms mostly have professionals who have worked in the internal complaints committee of other organizations and can help in creating ICC in the new company.
• The experts can easily make employees understand the most technical terms of the Act clearly with their effective communication skills.

Conducting PoSH training sessions for employees must be made mandatory so that the employees understand the consequences of sexual misconduct and what acts constitute sexual harassment. This will help in creating a more secure and tension-free environment for women at the workplace.