By Joseph P. Kelly

On January 1, 2020, the Workplace Transparency Act went into effect, imposing new obligations on Illinois employers. Among those new obligations is a requirement that all Illinois employers—even those with as few as one employee—conduct annual sexual harassment training. Employers that fail to comply face the possibility of civil penalties.

All employees—full-time, part-time, seasonal, etc.—must be trained. Employers can offer to let employees take the training outside of work—whether on a laptop or cell phone—but would have to compensate non-exempt employees for their time spent outside of work on the training.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) released its model Sexual Harassment Prevention Training (link here) that employers can conveniently rely on to conduct the required training. Employers should document that they received the training. The IDHR’s model training contains a Certificate of Participation form that can be used for such documentation.

The IDHR also put out an FAQ (link here) that is helpful resource to answer any questions Illinois employers may have about the training.