The Business Case for Shifting from Attorney-Led Harassment Awareness Training to a Technology-Driven Solution
Historically, major law firms have leaned on their in-house Labor and Employment (L&E) attorneys to conduct harassment awareness training sessions across the firm. At first glance, utilizing internal resources for such training seems logical since the expertise is readily-available within the firm. Yet, an increasing number of firms are recognizing that the costs of delivering training in this manner might exceed its merits.
Pivoting towards a tech-centric training methodology offers a myriad of undeniable benefits. These include enhanced participation and compliance rates, diminished risks, precision in record management, significant operational streamlining, uniformity in content dissemination across the firm, and a marked decrease in lost opportunities.
The argument in favor of adopting a technology-driven training approach grows more compelling by the day. Let's explore an actual success story that underscores the advantages of such a transition.
The Challenges of Live Attorney-Led Training
Consider the recent experience of a leading AmLaw 100 law firm:
With multiple offices throughout the United States, the firm grappled with the task of consistently and effectively offering harassment awareness training tailored to the unique regulatory requirements of each respective location. California, for example, requires two-hours of supervisor training every two years while Chicago demands two hours of supervisor training once every year – as well as an additional hour of training focused on “bystander intervention.” New York has its annual training stipulations without designating specific duration requirements, while many other firm personnel are located in states with no specific guidelines at all.
In the past, the firm would organize live training sessions led by their own Labor & Employment attorneys. Despite the competence and expertise of these firm professionals, several obstacles emerged. The balancing act of aligning busy schedules, dealing with logistical hurdles, accommodating regional variations, addressing the immediate training requirements of new hires, and ensuring uniformity across training events all became increasingly taxing and extremely inefficient.
A significant hurdle was ensuring that all firm members not only attended these live sessions but also had their participation documented for potential audits or, in graver situations, genuine harassment inquiries. The annual process of delivering harassment awareness training across a range of jurisdictions and addressing their respective requirements was becoming both expensive and complex to manage.
Picture this scenario (sound familiar?):
A colossal task lay ahead for the firm: training a few thousand legal professionals and support staff located within multiple offices across the country.
The HR team, in collaboration with L&E attorneys, orchestrated training sessions specific to each jurisdiction. They meticulously curated attendee lists, sent session invitations and reminders to ensure the appropriate people attended on the assigned day and time. They manually tracked all personnel on a series of spreadsheets, recording which session each was invited to, whether they actually attended the session, whether they completed the training, and if so, the date the training was completed.
On the day of each session, attendees entered their designated session and (hopefully) signed the attendance sheet, while latecomers occasionally disrupted ongoing discussions. After the session, the HR team then faced the tedious task of manually inputting attendance data from the sign-in sheets into the firm's systems. And for all those individuals who had been registered for a specific course but didn’t attend, their absence warranted action, often leading to manually crafted reminders and/or individual invitations for upcoming sessions.
Then there were those who attended their assigned session but departed before the course concluded. Were HR representatives to monitor the comings-and-goings of all course participants to ensure they received the complete mandated training? What legal risks loomed for the firm if these incompletely trained attendees were later implicated in a harassment case?
For this firm and many others, it became a nearly full-time job just to ensure that everyone across the firm completed the annual training. And yet, the compliance rate still hovered somewhere around 70%. It was nearly impossible to get everyone to attend and complete the training.
Furthermore, the firm realized this approach introduced a significant opportunity cost. Every hour L&E attorneys devoted to in-house training of firm personnel translated to lost client engagement and consequently, forfeited revenue. With multiple partners and associates involved in preparing and delivering different presentations for different jurisdictions, the firm faced an estimated opportunity cost of at least $30K per year in terms of billable hours – plus an extra $40K spent managing attendance, reconciling attendance data, and manually updating compliance records.
When the firm assessed the costs associated with their current processes, coupled with the suboptimal rate of compliance, they realized there was an urgency to adopt a new approach.
Recognizing the need for a more efficient and impactful solution, the firm made a strategic decision. They pivoted from a traditional live attorney-led approach to leveraging an industry-leading on-demand interactive training program and platform designed just for law firms: the Respectful Workplace series by SkillBurst Interactive. This transition promised a holistic, technologically advanced approach to harassment awareness training.
The Technology-Based Solution
An effective technology-driven harassment awareness training solution is comprised of two major components:
1. The course. More than a passive video, the course should be interactive and include the ability to automatically track user progress. It should indicate to the user in real-time how they are progressing and where they are in the course at any given moment. The course should prevent the user from skipping ahead or bypassing required content. And, finally, the course should be adaptive and accessible on multiple devices (laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) allowing the user to start the course on one device, save their progress, and then pick up the course where they left off on another at another point.
2. The platform. To truly benefit from this technology-driven approach, the platform where the course resides and is managed is as important as the course itself. Such a platform should, at a minimum, include the ability to:
record and track course progress/completion status by individual user and course
issue certificates of completion to users upon successful completion of assigned courses
run user completion reports using a combination of available filters (by office, by role, by assigned course, by completion status, by user, etc.)
have customized reports delivered automatically at specified time intervals
assign due dates to different user populations based on role, location, or hire date
send automated reminder email messages to users who have not completed their assigned course(s) within a certain timeframe
add users individually or in bulk or interface with your existing HR system
send automated customizable welcome messages to users as they are added to the system
allow different user groups to be managed by administrators at the local level reducing the administrative burden on HR and other firm-wide departments
offer a modern graphical interface that is intuitive and easy to navigate
The Transformation: A New Era of Training
By implementing the on-demand training program and tracking platform, the firm experienced a variety of benefits as follows:
Increased Compliance & Reduced Risk. The 24/7 online availability of the programs meant that everyone across the firm could take the course when it worked best for them. Automated reminders about pending deadlines meant that everyone was aware of their deadline and that they would be held accountable for meeting it. The firm experienced a noteworthy increase in compliance rates – and thus a reduction in risk.
Consistency Across Offices. With the on-demand training's standardized content, all lawyers and staff, regardless of location, received the same level and quality of education. This uniformity was a stark departure from the potential variations that can arise in live training sessions. Further, the embedded introductory video of the firm’s managing partner, featured in the customized courses, delivered a clear message that this topic is of the utmost importance to the leaders of the firm.
Reduced Administrative Burden & More Accurate Records: The firm's HR and administrative teams saw a considerable reduction in workload and had more time available to spend on other firm initiatives. The automated tracking and reporting capabilities of the on-demand platform eliminated the need for manual record-keeping and reporting, freeing up valuable resources.
Cost-Efficiency. By eliminating the costs associated with organizing and conducting live sessions across various offices, the firm saw significant savings. The on-demand solution proved to be a financially prudent alternative.
Engaging Learning Experience. The interactive elements of the on-demand program, such as interactive scenarios, videos, and opportunities to practice new skills, fostered engagement and active participation. Personnel were more engaged and found the learning experience to be both informative and enjoyable.
Conclusion: Embracing Change for a More Inclusive Future
This case serves as a testament to the transformative impact of switching from traditional in-person harassment awareness training to a specialized on-demand training solution created specifically for law firms. Firms are waking up to the realization that such solutions bring with them flexibility, consistency, scalability, engagement, and cost-effectiveness, areas where conventional approaches often falter.
As the legal landscape evolves, so too should the strategies employed to foster safe, respectful, inclusive – and compliant – work environments. The success story of this firm illustrates the potential rewards and positive outcomes that can be achieved when a law firm proactively opts for a proven, industry-specific on-demand training solution.
Interested in learning more? Request preview access to Respectful Workplace for Law Firms today or reach out for additional information.