California Harassment Policy Requirements for Employers

California harassment policy requirements for employers kick in at five employees: any business of that size must adopt a written policy against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation that satisfies eleven specific content rules, distribute it in a way that produces a verifiable acknowledgment from each worker, translate it where the workforce demands, post separate state notices, and provide recurring interactive training.¹ A smaller employer is not off the hook, though. The underlying prohibition on harassment reaches any business with at least one worker, so even a two-person shop can be liable if harassment occurs and nothing is done.²

Who Must Have a Written Policy, and Who Is Still on the Hook Without One

The formal written-policy mandate in California Code of Regulations title 2, section 11023 applies to employers with five or more employees. The harassment prohibition in Government Code section 12940(j)(4)(A) defines “employer” more broadly, covering any person who regularly employs one or more workers.² A business under the five-employee threshold does not have to maintain the formal section 11023 policy, but it is still exposed if harassment occurs and it fails to respond. Individual harassers are personally liable too, whether or not the employer knew.

The Eleven Required Contents of the Policy

Section 11023 lists eleven items the written policy must address. Omit one, and the policy is noncompliant.¹

List every protected category under FEHA: race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, age (40 and over), physical and mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, reproductive health decision-making, and military or veteran status.³
State that the law prohibits harassment by coworkers, supervisors, managers, and third parties. The policy cannot limit its scope to supervisor conduct.
Describe a complaint process that guarantees confidentiality to the extent possible, a timely response, impartial investigations conducted by qualified personnel, documentation and progress tracking, appropriate remedial options, and timely closure.
Offer multiple reporting channels so no employee is forced to complain directly to their own supervisor. Acceptable channels include a designated HR representative, an EEO officer, another supervisor, a complaint hotline, or an ombudsperson.
Identify the Civil Rights Department (CRD) and the federal EEOC as additional places employees can file complaints. This is a commonly missed item.
Direct supervisors to report every complaint they receive to a designated company representative so the employer can begin an internal investigation.
Commit to fair, thorough investigations that give all parties due process and reach conclusions based on the evidence.
Promise confidentiality to the extent possible, without claiming the investigation will be completely confidential. Overpromising on confidentiality can undermine the investigation later.
State that the employer will take appropriate remedial measures if misconduct is confirmed. “Remedial measures” is broader than discipline and can include reassignment, policy changes, or additional training.
Include an anti-retaliation statement making clear that employees will not face consequences for filing a complaint or participating in an investigation.
Provide a link to, or the web address of, the CRD’s free online harassment training courses.

Who the Policy Must Protect

The protections reach beyond regular employees. Under FEHA, harassment protections cover applicants, unpaid interns, volunteers, and independent contractors performing services for the company.² The CRD’s official poster reinforces this scope, stating that the law prohibits harassment of all these categories of workers “by any person.”⁴

The policy must also account for harassment by third parties such as clients, customers, vendors, and business visitors. An employer can be held responsible for a nonemployee’s harassing behavior if it knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take immediate corrective action.²

Distribution, Translation, and Required Postings

A compliant policy that no one has seen is not compliant. Section 11023 requires employers to distribute the policy using at least one method that produces proof of receipt:

Print the policy and have each employee sign and return an acknowledgment.
Email the policy with a return acknowledgment form.
Post the current policy on a company intranet with a system that confirms each employee has read and acknowledged it.

The goal in each case is a verifiable record that every employee received the policy.¹

Translation

If 10 percent or more of the workforce at any facility speaks a language other than English as their primary spoken language, the employer must translate the entire policy into that language. The threshold applies separately at each facility, so a multi-site employer may need different translations at different locations.¹

Posters and the Information Sheet

Separate from the policy itself, Government Code section 12950 requires every employer to post the CRD’s workplace discrimination poster in a prominent, accessible location and to post a separate poster on transgender rights. Employers must also distribute the CRD’s sexual harassment information sheet to all employees, or an equivalent document that at minimum covers the illegality of sexual harassment, a definition with examples, the employer’s internal complaint process, the legal remedies and complaint process through the CRD, directions on how to contact the CRD, anti-retaliation protections, and a link to the CRD’s online training.⁵ Facilities where more than 10 percent of the workforce does not speak English must post the poster in the appropriate languages as well.⁴

Training Requirements

Every employer with five or more employees must provide interactive harassment prevention training on a recurring schedule. The required length depends on role: at least two hours for supervisory employees, at least one hour for non-supervisory employees. After the initial training, employees must be retrained once every two years.⁶ Training can run live, online, or in any other effective interactive format, and it can be broken into shorter segments provided the total hours are met.⁷

Content must include practical examples of harassment based on protected characteristics, prevention of abusive conduct, harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and the remedies available to victims. Trainers must have knowledge and expertise in preventing harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.⁶ Independent contractors, volunteers, and unpaid interns are not required to complete the training, even though they are protected by the policy itself.⁷

Deadlines for New Hires and Short-Term Workers

New non-supervisory employees must receive training within six months of hire. New supervisors must be trained within six months of assuming a supervisory role.⁸ A promotion in July means training must happen by January. Waiting for the next annual session does not satisfy the rule if that session falls outside the six-month window.

Seasonal, temporary, and other employees hired for less than six months must be trained within 30 calendar days of hire or within 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.⁶

Tracking the Two-Year Cycle

Two tracking methods are acceptable. Individual tracking measures two years from each employee’s last completion date. Training-year tracking designates a training year and requires retraining of everyone by the end of the next designated year, two years later. Either works, but the method must be applied consistently.

How Compliance Affects Liability

California applies different liability standards depending on who harassed the worker, and this is where the written policy, distribution, and training all pay off.

When a supervisor’s harassment produces a concrete job consequence for the victim, such as firing, demotion, or reassignment to significantly different duties, the employer is automatically liable. When a supervisor creates a hostile work environment without a tangible job action, the employer can defend itself by showing it took reasonable steps to prevent and correct harassment and that the employee unreasonably failed to use the available complaint procedures.⁹ A documented, distributed policy with real reporting channels is the backbone of that defense.

When a non-supervisory coworker commits the harassment, the employer is liable if it knew or should have known about the conduct and failed to take immediate corrective action. The same standard applies to harassment by nonemployees, with the added consideration of how much control the employer had over the harasser’s behavior.² A policy sitting in a drawer, with a complaint process no one uses, will not satisfy the “reasonable steps” test. The law looks at what was actually done, not what was written down.

Recordkeeping

California’s harassment regulations do not set a standalone retention period for policy acknowledgments or training records, but practical considerations push toward long retention. An employer could face a complaint about conduct that occurred years earlier, so proof that every employee received the policy, completed training on schedule, and signed acknowledgments is often the most important evidence in defending a failure-to-prevent claim. Many employment attorneys recommend keeping harassment-related records for at least four years after an employee’s separation. At the federal level, the EEOC requires employers to keep all personnel records for at least one year, and longer if a charge has been filed.¹⁰

1
Legal Information Institute. California Code of Regulations Title 2 Section 11023 – Harassment and Discrimination Prevention and Correction
2
California Legislative Information. California Government Code Section 12940
3
California Civil Rights Department. Employment Discrimination
4
California Civil Rights Department. Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Poster
5
California Legislative Information. California Government Code Section 12950
6
California Legislative Information. California Government Code Section 12950.1
7
California Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training For Employees FAQ
8
California Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training For Employers FAQ
9
California Civil Rights Department. Harassment Prevention Guide for California Employers
10
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Recordkeeping Requirements