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In a hurry?  Recommendation   

Did you know that the federal government can sometimes provide no-cost speakers, including small business specialists, to explain the laws related to sexual harassment and other forms of workplace discrimination? Did you know that the federal government has an organization entirely devoted to fee-based training on sexual harassment prevention, including on-site engagements? All of this information and much more is available on the website of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Often accused of sluggishness and lack of innovation, government at all levels was quick to see the potential of the web and built websites to increase public access to information and services.

The fit between what the web can do best and what government has trouble delivering is very tight. Government is a giant warehouse of rules, procedures, documents, and services. The sheer volume and diversity of the content makes it very hard to present in a coherent and efficient way to the public. The web is well suited to deliver huge quantities of information that can be rapidly searched, sifted, and sorted—as long as the site is organized in a way to facilitate working with the information in these ways.

Because the laws the EEOC enforces affect all U.S. workplaces except the smallest, the laws, their meaning, and the resources designed to help organizations comply with them should be readily available. The EEOC website does an overall good job of making information accessible.

The homepage is the key to the whole site. The page is organized into 11 categories such as the types of legally prohibited discrimination with multiple links arranged under the headings plus a news column with links to recent stories related to the commission’s work. The categories are comprehensive and arranged with enough space around them to make them easy to read.

The site’s search tool works well enough, and the results are displayed by relevance, with icons indicating the type of document (e.g., HTML or PDF) the search text occurs in. But there are some annoying interface flaws. The search results page has no navigational links or a search box. If you want to search again, you have to use the browser back button. If you want to leave the search results page and not use a link in one of the search items, you have to use the back button again and then navigate from the homepage. Moreover, the search box is only available on the homepage of the site.

For anyone engaged in training on workplace discrimination, I recommend a browse of the site’s Litigation section. The case documents describe in fascinating (and sometimes appalling) detail how companies find their way into trouble. They can provide real world motivation for anyone responsible for training, and they can also serve as raw material for case or scenario exercises during training.

The EEOC Training Institute has a separate site. The Institute runs seminars in various parts of the country and provides on-site training, including training for supervisors and managers and weeklong basic training for complaint investigators.

The Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) database could help your managers, by the way. It answers specific questions about job interviews and workplace conditions related to discrimination—in clear and concise language. Unfortunately, it isn’t on the homepage where it belongs, but instead is buried on the Contact Us page.

Recommendation
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website can be a valuable resource for individuals and organizations with questions about the laws governing workplace discrimination, the federal process for complaints, and even training, some of it free. The site won’t win any design awards, but you can generally find information without too much work. And all of it is free to the end user.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website Rating