Why Is It Important For Companies To Conduct POSH ACT Training for their Employees?
Importance of POSH Act Training for Employees in Companies
POSH Act Training for Employees: With the number of women entering the mainstream work field the crimes against them have also increased rapidly. Women tend to face huge amount of gender discrimination in their workplace. They are being assaulted, harassed, molested, abused sexually, mentally and physically in their work place. This in broad daylight violates the basic fundamental rights and freedom of a women that has been given in the constitution of India with respect to Article 14 (The Right to equality before the law), Article 15 (The Right to not be discriminated on grounds of religion, caste, gender, race or the place of birth) and Article 21 (Right to live).
The issue of facing harassment at work place not only instills fear and insecurity among women but also makes them vulnerable and prevents them from being able to deliver the desired outcome in such a competitive work force world.Therefore, to handle this very important issue the legislation of India drafted and Legislated the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and redressal) Act of 2013 otherwise in simple terms known as the POSH Act of 2013. This was put forth by the Ministry of women and children in our country. The main aim and objective of this POSH Act of 2013 is to protect women from sexual abuse and to prevent the sexual harassment at work place. The applicability of POSH Act extends to all of India and it has been mentioned in Section 1 of the POSH Act of 2013.
The Laws drafted are very consistent and is perfect in paper however the application of it practically remains a challenge as this is relatively a new Act and many people are still not aware of it. Therefore, it has to be made sure that everyone working in any company is aware of this POSH Act of 2013. This can be done by conducting seminars and conferences which talks about this Act and now during the work from home scenario it is equally necessary for the companies to train their employees about this Act online.Adv. Bindu Dubey is one of the finest lawyers in Mumbai who can help the employees comprehend and understand the POSH Act in a clear and better way.
Benefits of POSH Act Training for Employees in Your Company:
1) Conducting an Online training on POSH for employees can be seen as the perfect method to recreate real time examples and situations. The topic of sexual abuse, bullying, harassment of women’s at workplace act 2010 is a very sensitive topic yet needs various scenarios as examples to understand better for awareness. Through this online training the conductor and the employees can indulge in recreating scenarios with the help of animated cartoon characters online. This also prevents the discomfort that can be caused during live classroom training.
2) The concept of sexual harassment is a very delicate and sensitive topic and has to be handled very carefully. While recreating actions for understanding in training such as touching, patting etc might make the employees feel uncomfortable and awkward during the real live classroom trainings, many will even find it disturbing and will not actively participate. With respect to online training this is handled well as even though it teaches employees about the POSH Act including harassment act 2019 it equally provides privacy for them and enhances their learning experience.
3) Trainings related to women harassment act must be held often to create more and more awareness among employees. However, offline classroom training on posh act India might not happen often due to the costs it incurs. Therefore, online training is less expensive and easy to organised. The company can obtain any annual pack and can conduct these seminars any time they want. One more disadvantage in offline seminar is the absence of the uniformity and regularity. When different trainers cover the workplace harassment act topic but they will have difference of ideas, opinions which will confuse everyone. In the online method since it happens in a continuity there will be a uniformity and will give a clear idea to the employees.
4) There are three different types of learners – Auditory graspers; Visual readers and Kinesthetics learner. It has to be made sure that all these types of learners benefit and enhance knowledge from these seminars. However, during offline learning it becomes hard for the kinesthetics learners to comprehend the lessons. Therefore, effective online training classes with polished and intensified visuals will cater to the needs of visual learners, Clear voice over audios for auditory graspers and most importantly very creative and interactive session for the kinesthetics type of learners.
5) The main effect and disadvantage of the COVID – 19 lockdown and pandemic is that is has caused a huge gap between people physically i.e., people are spread out remotely and not under one roof for work because of the concept of work from home. However, the improvement in technology has made it possible for everyone to stay connected. Online learning becomes bit easy for people as they can choose their time and slot regardless of wherever they are from.
6) For trainings like POSH everyone from the company must attend irrespective of the number of employees or number or branches the company has. Offline training for large companies proves to be very expensive. Organising, arranging and coordinating proves to be very tiresome and tedious. Through online trainings this can be reduced highly. The hassle of offline seminars can be avoided with the online trainings. Therefore, it can be seen that online POSH trainings can be highly Cost – effective.
7) For a nation like India people tend to come from various parts of the nation to work in a company. Therefore, in spite of speaking English as a common language many will be comfortable conversing and comprehending things better in their own mother tongue. Through offline training it is not possible for the company to conduct such seminars in all the regional languages of the employees. However, in online mode people can choose their language.
POSH Act being a new law in India has not reached many people and still employees are unaware about the provisions in this Act. Therefore, some kind of awareness must be given to employees by the employers as this will create a better workplace for women and they can work without fear or insecurity.