Equality and Human Rights Commission

If your workers are to understand what equality law means for them, they will need to be told about it. This is what is meant by ‘equality training’.

Equality training can be an important part of showing that you are preventing discrimination, harassment and victimisation in your organisation.

Your organisation might choose to do this:

• as part of an induction process, or
• during regular team meetings, or 
• by asking staff to attend specific whole or half day courses (even if they say they don’t need or want to go on them), or 
• by asking staff to complete an online training package.

Whatever the format you choose, you should also make sure that workers know about any changes and that anyone who joins the organisation (for example, who comes in after you have trained your workers) knows what is expected of them.

Training should include:

• The law covering all the protected characteristics and what behaviour is and is not acceptable.
• The risk of ignoring or seeming to approve inappropriate behaviour and personal liability.
• How discrimination can affect the way an employer functions and the impact that generalisations, stereotypes, bias, inappropriate language in day-to-day operations can have on people’s chances of obtaining work, promotion, recognition and respect.
• Monitoring.
• Your equality policy, if you have one, why it has been introduced and how it will be put into practice.