A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds that the Department of Defense (DoD) and several other Federal agencies need to take steps to make their sexual harassment training more effective.
According to the Federal watchdog, sexual harassment remains an issue in the Federal sector, and while DoD and other Federal agencies have taken steps to address the problem, data from a U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board 2021 report shows that sexual harassment persists and is underreported.
In 2023, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness identified sexual harassment and sexual assault as persistent and corrosive problems across the military that require cultural and organizational change to improve accountability, prevention, and victim care and support.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also reported that harassment has been the number one issue alleged in Federal agency employment discrimination complaints since at least fiscal year 2011.
“Safety from sexual harassment and other harmful behaviors in the workplace is key to helping ensure the effectiveness, retention, and morale of the Federal workforce,” the report states.
GAO and the EEOC rolled out several management practices to enhance agencies’ sexual harassment prevention training content. However, in its new report, GAO found that several DoD components and Federal agencies have not fully incorporated these management practices.
“All seven DoD components and six other Federal agencies in this review require their employees to complete some sexual harassment prevention training. However, none of them have fully incorporated GAO and [EEOC] management practices to enhance the effectiveness of their training content and the implementation of such training,” reads the report.
The six civilian agencies covered in GAO’s review are the departments of Interior and State, the General Services Administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Securities and Exchange Commission, and Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition, the agencies do not know if their training programs need improvement because they have not developed and implemented plans to evaluate their effectiveness. According to GAO, without training evaluation plans to identify needed improvements, agencies may miss opportunities to foster a climate free from harassment.
The report also found that DoD specifically conducts limited oversight of required sexual harassment prevention training for Federal civilian employees.
“[DoD] does not routinely review civilian sexual harassment prevention training” which is a requirement of DoD policy, and the department has no plan in place to do so. Developing and implementing “a plan to oversee sexual harassment prevention training could help DoD to better ensure that it is consistent with requirements,” the watchdog agency said.
GAO made 14 recommendations, including that selected DoD components and Federal agencies develop and implement training evaluation plans, and that DoD develop and implement a plan to conduct oversight of training.
DoD and other Federal agencies concurred with the recommendations and noted actions that they planned to take.
