A leading Isle of Man employment law specialist has launched the first product of its kind to train Isle of Man workers in equality legislation. The introduction of substantive equality legislation in the Isle of Man has been a long time coming and, once in force, the Equality Bill will replace the current limited and patchwork legal position, bringing with it a new era of change. Island businesses and employers would be well advised to start getting ready for the impact of this comprehensive piece of legislation on their own organisation sooner rather later and this initiative is aimed at assisting them in doing just that.
Leanne McKeown, Director of DQ Advocates, has launched the online module 'Equality and Diversity in the Isle of Man Workplace' in association with multi-award winning employment law training and information company, Legal-Island. Leanne, an employment law specialist, and head of DQ's top ranked employment team, has seen a very clear gap in the local market in terms of training initiatives for employers based on the island, which prompted her to launch this. Leanne has identified a need for local employers to be able to train their staff specifically on Isle of Man (as opposed to UK) legislation. This initiative will allow local employers to offer Isle of Man specific equality training from the comfort of their own desks to ensure that the entire workforce is fully informed of the new rights and obligations once the Equality Bill comes into force. Royal Assent is expected to be received Summer 2017.
Leanne commented: "Equality and diversity training in the workplace has become increasingly important over recent years and will become vital for all employers with the introduction of the Equality Bill 2016. Training reduces the risk of work place issues (such as harassment) and considerably strengthens an employers' defences to tribunal claims. I was aware of the work that Legal-Island has done in terms of eLearning from my practice as a solicitor in Northern Ireland and was keen to work with them to develop a quality product designed specifically for the Isle of Man market. I anticipate that a great many local employers will take up this opportunity to provide bespoke equality training to all of their staff on the new legislation".
The online module is an easy to use eLearning tool, which can be completed at the user's convenience, anytime day or night. The course takes about 40-50 minutes in total. A designated member of staff can access the secure and easy to use Learning Management System to check which employees have completed the training and which have not. At the end of the course, assessment is included to ensure the users have understood the key components of the training and successful users will receive a certificate indicating they have passed the course. This allows employers and employees to maintain a record, should it be necessary to refer to this in the future.
Legal-Island has a proven track record of delivering quality HR training and resources. Their leading edge eLearning software has been delivering training to top public, private and third sector organisations across Ireland for a number of years. Barry Philips, chief executive of Legal-Island commented "We were very keen to work with Leanne and her top ranked employment team at DQ to develop an Isle of Man specific Equality and Diversity eLearning module. Compliance training delivered through the medium of eLearning is easy to administer, inexpensive and delivers records in real time. Our 30,000+ users consistently tell us that our eLearning modules are different and better than the rest. They are interactive, they feature scenarios based on real life situations and are frequently updated. We very much hope that Isle of Man employers will take advantage of this opportunity to receive Manx specific equality training through the easy and cost effective medium of eLearning. It has been a real pleasure working with the team at DQ and we hope to work with them again in the future developing more Isle of Man specific training".
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