Harassment Prevention Training FAQs: State of Illinois

Effective January 1, 2020, All Illinois employers must provide harassment prevention training to ALL EMPLOYEES, EVERY YEAR pursuant to the Workplace Transparency Act. There is no requirement that an employer hold the training during a specific month.

HR Source is pleased to provide compliant harassment prevention training to help Illinois businesses meet these requirements!

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions.

Q: When should employees be trained?

All employees, managers and non-managers, must receive training each calendar year.  

Q: Which session should my employees attend?

If your employees have authority to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, discipline, and handle grievances of other employees, by exercising independent judgment, they would likely be considered supervisors under Illinois law. You should also consider whether they are supervisors if they have authority to recommend these actions. If so, they should attend the supervisor session.

If they do not exercise any of these functions, they should attend the employee session.

Q: Do I need to keep records that my employees were trained?

It is the employer’s responsibility to document that employees are trained each year. This requirement can be fulfilled by a certificate or a signed acknowledgement (or sign-in sheet) from the employee or training provider.

HR Source will retain this information for employees who receive training through an HR Source live program or webinar. Streaming, on-demand training, accomplished through our partner Traliant, is tracked for the employer on the Traliant portal but is not accessible to HR Source due to privacy requirements.  

Q: What about employees who work for the organization, but are located out of state?

For employees based outside of Illinois, whether the training requirement will apply may be fact-specific. If an employee is based outside of Illinois but will be supervising employees or regularly interacting with employees in Illinois, the employee should be trained. If the out-of-state employee already receives training as part of another state’s training law, that may fulfill the Illinois requirement.

Q: What about employees who come to work for us who already received their annual training from another employer?

If an employer hires an employee who has already received training at another employer, the employer can accept that training if 1) the employee has documentation that they were trained and 2) the employee’s previous training meets legal standards. It is ultimately the current employer’s responsibility to ensure that all employees are trained.

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