Interest in workplace harassment prevention training has surged by 146% in the last month as employers face mounting pressure and new regulations to demonstrate they’re doing enough to protect staff from sexual harassment.
Compliance training provider Skillcast has revealed a huge increase in views to its Preventing harassment in the workplace training package, with interest more than doubling in the last 28 days.
The rise comes ahead of 30 October, when new provisions under the Employment Rights Act 2025 are due to strengthen the legal framework around workplace harassment, including extending protections against third-party harassment. In the last year, Skillcast has reported a further eight-fold increase (829%) in interest for the course.
Catriona Razic, CRO of Skillcast, commented:
“Harassment prevention simply cannot begin and end with an employee clicking through a training course. If an employer is challenged on the steps it has taken to protect staff, it needs to be demonstrated that the approach has been far more embedded than a paper exercise.”
Catriona Razic, CRO, Skillcast
“Behind every workplace harassment policy is the very human consideration of whether or not people feel safe and respected, as well as confident that someone will take them seriously should something go wrong. This is what employers should ultimately be working towards, and it's a far bigger responsibility than getting staff to complete a training course.
“It’s great to see that there’s such an increase in interest for the course as people recognise its importance. Training has a unique and crucial role to play, but only if it gives people the confidence to recognise inappropriate behaviour, challenge it and speak up when they need to. Concerns have to be taken seriously, managers must know how to respond and employees need to be able to see that whistleblowing and reporting something leads to meaningful action. Otherwise, even the world’s best-written policy risks becoming nothing more than hollow words on a page.
“Employers also need to be really honest and reflective about the culture they’re created. Are there identifiable risks in their own workplaces? Are their people equipped with the tools and processes to deal with them? And, can they really demonstrate how their approach is making a difference? When it comes to showing that all reasonable steps have been taken, which is the legal requirement from 30 October, these are the sorts of questions that need answering.
“Legally defensible training isn’t having a certificate to produce if something goes wrong; it's being able to show that the risks were taken seriously, the workforce was equipped to prevent harassment and actions were taken from learnings.”
For more guidance from Skillcast on preventing harassment in the workplace, visit Skillcast’s Employment Rights Act compliance training guidance.
Methodology
Analysis was conducted using Skillcast’s internal GA4 data to track user engagement on the Preventing harassment in the workplace course page. Data correct as of October 2026.
