The main reasons for providing training should be proactive and positive in nature. You should provide technical training to help your employees and your organization be more efficient, flexible, and innovative. And, you should provide diversity training to promote a more respectful, progressive, and responsive culture.

With that said, providing technical and diversity training serves defensive and protective functions as well. Both types of training can reduce an organization’s liability by countering claims of either negligence or harassment. Safety and health represents one of the major categories of employee training. Workplace safety and health is governed by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).

In order to safeguard worker safety and health, numerous standards have been developed. If employers do not provide training that is required by an OSHA standard, they can be found in violation of OSHA. If a certain work activity or environment creates a foreseeable threat to employee safety or health, employers are required to take steps to protect their workers, including proper training.

Employers can also be found liable for damages caused by their employees if they did not take the necessary steps to ensure that their employees were properly trained to do a specific task. While providing training is important to reduce the potential for injury or damages, nothing is absolute. This unfortunately includes the case of employee harassment. Employers that want to support and promote workplace diversity typically have taken steps to prevent harassment. These steps typically include providing training to employees so they know how to avoid harassing their coworkers.