California sexual harassment prevention training requirements

California Government Code section 12950.1 requires employers with five or more employees to provide sexual harassment prevention training. The California Civil Rights Department (CRD), which enforces the law, explains that the five are counted wherever they work, even if some are outside California or at different locations. The training duty itself applies to the employer’s California-based employees.

The CRD says training may be completed in segments, as long as the required total hours are met.

The training has to explain the federal and state laws that aim to prevent and correct sexual harassment. The CRD describes the required content as information about preventing and correcting illegal harassment, discrimination, retaliation and abusive conduct, including harassment based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.

Supervisors receive twice the minimum time. Use the extra hour on what supervisors actually face: noticing problems early, responding to a report, and escalating it inside your organization.

California requires the training to be effective and interactive. The CRD’s employer guidance lists the formats that can meet that standard:

• Classroom: in-person training.
• E-learning: computer-based training.
• Webinar: internet-based training.
• Other formats that use audio or video together with the formats above.

Employers must keep training records for at least two years. The CRD lists what the records include, without being limited to: the names of the employees trained, the date of training, the type of training and the certificates of completion.

Keep the records in a form you can produce quickly, such as an export from your training system with each employee’s name, course, date and certificate ID.

The CRD offers a free online training option for employers, currently available in English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Tagalog. Many small employers use it.

Employers choose another course when they want deeper scenarios, their own branding and policy steps, completion tracking for many people, or training that also covers other states where they have staff. Whatever you use, compare it against the content, length and format rules above. Our harassment prevention course earns a certificate of completion; it is not approved by the CRD or any state agency, so review its outline with your HR lead or counsel before you rely on it for California compliance.

• Counting only California staff when deciding whether the five-employee threshold applies.
• Missing the seasonal deadline: temporary and seasonal staff must be trained within 30 calendar days or 100 hours, not six months.
• Forgetting promotions: a newly promoted supervisor needs the 2-hour training within six months of the promotion.
• No records: a training session you cannot prove is hard to defend. Keep names, dates, the type of training and certificates for at least two years.