Workplace Culture Consulting & Training

Primary contacts

Grace E. Speights, Chai R. Feldblum, Sharon Perley Masling, David G. Bowman, Sarah E. Bouchard

Workplace culture impacts everything from employee morale, productivity, and retention, to a company’s reputation with business partners, clients, and the public, to the level of workplace harassment and discrimination. In this #MeToo moment, policies prohibiting workplace harassment and discrimination are simply not sufficient. The most effective way to reduce the potential for litigation and business risk is to improve workplace culture.

Because employers best address workplace culture issues with proactive training and consultation, we work alongside our clients to assess their culture, identify risks, and develop concrete solutions that promote a positive, inclusive workplace, mitigate the possibility of litigation, and preserve a company’s brand and image.

Our comprehensive approach to assessing workplace culture is tailored to our client’s particular circumstances and based on our experience in litigating harassment and discrimination claims; advising on workplace policies; conducting workplace harassment training programs for executives, managers, and employees; and applying years of government service studying and implementing the most effective harassment prevention strategies.

Workplace Cultural Assessments and Strategic Planning

Our experience ranges from conducting large-scale workplace assessments and investigations to addressing specific complaints and concerns. Our capabilities in assessing clients’ work environments and organizational cultures include the following:

Reviewing and making recommendations regarding policies related to antiharassment, antidiscrimination, and diversity and inclusion (D&I) programs, as well as codes of conduct and codes of ethics
Conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses from multiple angles by using interviews, focus groups, surveys, and other tools
Developing strategic action plans on how to remediate existing problems and prevent future ones
Assisting in effectively communicating policies and programs to chief executives, general counsel, senior management, boards of directors, employees, and the media

A thorough workplace cultural assessment is also a crucial component in developing and implementing effective workplace culture training across an organization.

Workplace Harassment Prevention Training

We provide workplace culture training to executives, managers, and employees covering the various forms that workplace harassment can take, and offer guidance on how to report and handle complaints when they occur. We also offer training on how to create a respectful and inclusive workplace culture, and ways to empower employees to intervene when they observe harassment or other forms of discrimination. In addition to courses customized for a client’s specific workforce and policies, we provide new learning opportunities through advanced modules that build on the knowledge foundation from previous courses.

We offer harassment training programs in four delivery methods that take into account a client’s target audience, the audience’s location, the training budget, and workplace harassment compliance requirements:

eLearning: Online, on-demand, self-paced programs featuring videos and interactive activities
Classroom: Delivered in person with participants and the trainer at the same location, creating a dynamic learning environment
Webcast: Real-time, trainer-led sessions allowing participants to interact virtually with the trainer and one another
Train-the-Trainer: Courses that prepare in-house personnel to train other employees

Diversity & Inclusion Consulting

Beyond our extensive background in workplace culture training, we partner with companies to develop and enhance D&I initiatives by providing essential policy planning and implementation advice as well as counsel on litigation risk management. Our experience in this area includes the following:

Handling all critical aspects of D&I program assessment, development, and implementation—from assessing workplace culture from a D&I perspective to discussing such programs with business partners and other constituencies
Developing effective communication and implementation strategies to reduce the potential of litigation while accomplishing achievable goals benefiting employees
Leveraging our experience in defending against discrimination and reverse discrimination claims, including actions where D&I programs were challenged, to counsel clients in real time as issues arise