Harassment Prevention and Responses for DoD Civilian Employees/Section 5: Prevention and Response Training and Education

by Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

Section 5: Prevention and Response Training and Education

5.1. PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TRAINING AND EDUCATION.

DoD Component heads will ensure harassment prevention and response training and education are incorporated into professional development programs. DoD Components must:

a. Post component harassment prevention and response guidance on internal websites.

b. Allocate funding and personnel to meet the requirements in this section.

5.2. REQUIREMENTS FOR ORGANIZATIONAL PREVENTION AND RESPONSE TRAINING AND EDUCATION PROGRAMS.

a. Training and Education Schedule.

(1) DoD Components will disseminate harassment prevention and response guidance to all new DoD civilian employees and Service members during the onboarding process.

(2) DoD Components will provide training concerning this issuance to new and current DoD civilian employees.

(3) DoD Components will train supervisors and managers on harassment prevention and response policies and procedures within one year of the supervisor or manager assuming a supervisory or managerial position or role for the first time. This includes military personnel in both direct supervisory and indirect managerial positions over DoD civilian employees.

(4) DoD Components will provide refresher training for DoD civilian employees, supervisors, and managers at least once every 3 years.

(5) Harassment prevention and response training may be combined with other training (e.g., EEO, sexual harassment, Public Law 107-174), provided it covers all of the required elements identified in Paragraph 5.2.b.

b. Training and Education Elements.

DoD Component training will cover the information in Section 4 of this issuance, to include:

(1) Venues to report harassment that detracts from an efficient workplace, EEO unlawful discriminatory harassment, harassment involving sexual assault, and other harassment of a criminal nature.

(2) The roles and responsibilities of DoD civilian employees, supervisors, and managers, including Service members who supervise or manage DoD civilian employees, to include fostering a culture free from harassment.

(3) Information regarding reporting options, procedures, and applicable timelines to submit allegations of harassment, including anonymous allegations and allegations involving a DoD civilian employee’s commander or supervisor. This includes the assurance that DoD civilian employees have the right to make allegations of harassment outside their chain of command.

(4) Notification of when a report may be made anonymously and specify that formal complaints, such as those filed via the EEO process or allegations of sexual harassment made to a commanding officer, cannot be anonymous.

(5) Procedures for commanders, managers, and supervisors to receive, respond to, and resolve allegations of harassment.

(6) Examples of the types of conduct that would constitute harassment, including unlawful discriminatory harassment based on disability.

(7) Information regarding how to identify and report retaliation and reprisal.

(8) Information regarding bystander intervention to ensure DoD civilian employees understand third-party reporting, have the skills to recognize when to intervene, possess the tools necessary to implement the intervention, and emphasize that third-party allegations of harassment may not be made via the EEO process identified in Paragraph 4.3.

(9) Information regarding administrative or disciplinary actions that could be taken.

(10) Prevention strategies and risk and protective factors.

5.3. TRAINING AND EDUCATION TRACKING.

DoD Components will track training compliance.