SB 396 California: What HR Teams Need to Know and Do

SB 396 is a California law, effective January 1, 2018, that amended the state's existing harassment training requirements to mandate coverage of harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. Senator Ricardo Lara authored the bill, formally known as the Transgender Work Opportunity Act, during the 2017 California legislative session.

By expanding what employer-provided training must cover, SB 396 strengthened workplace protections for LGBTQ+ employees across the state, but the law simply layered new content requirements onto the training framework employers were already required to provide under existing statutes like AB 1825.

This guide walks you through what SB 396 now requires, how it fits with California's other training laws, and what your team needs to do to stay compliant.

(Note that other legislative sessions may reuse the "SB 396" bill number for unrelated topics, so always confirm you're referencing the 2017 session bill.)

How SB 396 and California's harassment training laws fit together

California's harassment training requirements are a layered framework built across multiple legislative sessions, with each new law adding requirements on top of what came before. If you try to understand SB 396 in isolation, you'll almost certainly end up with compliance gaps.

Before SB 396 took effect, California's training mandates were shaped primarily by AB 1825 and AB 2053. Each subsequent bill expanded the scope, the audience, or the content that employer-provided training must address. The table below shows how California's requirements evolved:

For HR teams, the practical takeaway is that all of these requirements are cumulative. Your training program today must satisfy AB 1825, AB 2053, SB 396, and SB 1343 simultaneously.

What this means for your training program right now

Here's a quick compliance checklist:

• Content coverage: Training must address sexual harassment, abusive conduct, and harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.
• Employer threshold: All employers with 5 or more employees are covered (not 50+, thanks to SB 1343).
• Duration requirements: Supervisors need 2 hours of training; non-supervisory employees need 1 hour.
• Timing rules: Training must be completed within 6 months of hire or promotion and repeated every 2 years.

Consolidating these overlapping requirements into a single training program is the most efficient path to compliance. EasyLlama's California Sexual Harassment Prevention Course is designed by HR experts to satisfy AB 1825, AB 2053, SB 396, SB 1343, SB 778, and FEHA regulations in one program.

What SB 396 specifically requires employers to do

SB 396 requires employers to include, as a component of their education for supervisors, training on harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

The law specifically requires that sexual harassment training include practical examples of harassment based on these categories, not just abstract definitions. SB 396 compliance breaks down into three areas: training content, workplace posters, and policy reviews.

Training requirements

Compliant training must go beyond surface-level definitions. Training should specifically cover:

• Definitions: Gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation in a workplace context.
• Examples of harassing conduct: Specific scenarios related to these categories.
• Preferred names and pronouns: How to use them respectfully.
• Complaint procedures: What's available to employees who experience harassment.
• Retaliation protections: How employees are protected when they report.
• Bystander intervention strategies: If applicable under current CRD guidance.

Non-supervisory employees must receive at least 1 hour of training, while supervisors must complete a minimum of 2 hours.

Training frequency

• New hires: Within 6 months of hire date or start of employment.
• New supervisors: Within 6 months of assuming the supervisory role.
• All employees: Retrained every 2 years thereafter.

Tracking these deadlines manually across a growing workforce is one of the most common compliance failures. EasyLlama automates California timing rules by assigning training to new hires within 6 months of their start date and scheduling biennial retraining automatically.

Workplace poster requirements

SB 396 also mandates that employers prominently display a CRD-issued poster informing employees of their transgender rights at work. Here's what the poster requirements include:

• CRD transgender rights poster: Employers must display the CRD's updated workplace poster on transgender rights (this was formerly the DFEH poster before the agency's 2022 name change).
• Placement: The poster must be in a conspicuous location accessible to all employees.
• Where to find it: The current poster can be downloaded from the California Civil Rights Department website (search for "CRD workplace posters" on the official site).
• Branding: Posters should reflect the current CRD branding, not the outdated DFEH branding.

While the poster requirement may seem like a small administrative detail, it's often one of the first things CRD investigators look for during workplace audits — and missing or outdated posters can signal broader compliance gaps.

Policy review requirements

Employers should treat SB 396 as an opportunity to audit their written policies thoroughly.

1. Review your harassment and discrimination policies to confirm they explicitly list gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation as protected categories.
2. Distribute updated policies to all employees and obtain written acknowledgment of receipt.
3. Review dress code policies, restroom access policies, and name or pronoun practices for alignment with transgender employee protections.

These operational details are where many employers fall short — and they're exactly the kind of gaps the CRD looks for during investigations.

Key terms HR teams must understand for SB 396 compliance

HR professionals, managers, and trainers need to understand these concepts accurately to deliver or evaluate compliant training content. Here are the key terms, aligned with current CRD guidance and FEHA regulations:

• Sexual orientation. A person's emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to others. This includes identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, and pansexual. Harassment based on sexual orientation could include derogatory jokes, slurs, or exclusion.
• Gender expression. How a person outwardly communicates their gender through appearance, behavior, clothing, hairstyle, or mannerisms — regardless of whether those choices align with social expectations tied to their assigned sex at birth. Workplace harassment based on gender expression could include mocking how an employee dresses or behaves because they don't conform to traditional gender norms.
• Gender identity. A person's deeply held internal sense of their own gender, which may be male, female, both, neither, or a gender other than the sex assigned at birth. Failing to respect an employee's gender identity or deliberately misgendering them can constitute harassment.
• Transgender. A person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender employees are protected from discrimination, harassment, and adverse employment actions related to their gender identity or transition status.
• Transitioning. The process of socially aligning one's gender with the internal sense of self, such as changes in name and pronoun, bathroom facility usage, and participation in activities. It may also include medical steps. Employers must support employees who are transitioning by respecting their privacy, using their preferred name and pronouns, and applying policies consistently.
• Sex. Under FEHA, this term extends beyond biological sex to include pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and related medical conditions, as well as gender identity and gender expression.

Compliant training programs should cover all of these terms with workplace-specific examples and scenarios, not just dictionary-style definitions.

Practical steps for protecting transgender employees

The CRD has established clear rules that translate SB 396's intent into specific employer obligations:

• Use preferred names and pronouns. Train managers on how to ask respectfully and correct mistakes gracefully.
• Update HR systems. Allow employees to indicate preferred names and pronouns in your HRIS so that directories, email, and badges reflect how people identify.
• Review restroom access policies. Transgender employees must be able to use facilities consistent with their gender identity. Provide a unisex option for anyone seeking additional privacy.
• Audit dress code policies. Ensure they are gender-neutral and don't restrict employees from dressing in a manner consistent with their gender identity.
• Establish transitioning procedures. Create a clear, confidential process for employees who are transitioning, including a designated HR point of contact.

Employees can file complaints with the CRD, which can lead to investigations, mediation, or civil litigation, and employers found in violation may face damages, attorney's fees, or injunctive relief.

EasyLlama's Anonymous Reporting & Case Management tool gives employees a safe, confidential channel to raise concerns about harassment, discrimination, or retaliation.

What documentation HR teams need to track

Good documentation is your best defense in a compliance audit, CRD investigation, or lawsuit. Here's what records to keep:

• Certificates of completion for every employee
• Training sign-in sheets or digital completion logs
• A copy of the training content and materials used
• Name and qualifications of the trainer or training provider
• Dates of training completion for each employee
• Retain these records for a minimum of 2 years, but best practice is to keep records for the duration of employment plus 3 to 5 years to cover the potential statute of limitations on harassment or discrimination claims.

EasyLlama connects with over 1,000 HRIS and LMS providers to sync employee data automatically, giving compliance teams a single dashboard to monitor completion status across the organization.

How to evaluate a California-compliant training provider

Not all harassment prevention training is created equal — and in California, where requirements span multiple laws and evolve regularly, choosing the wrong provider can leave you exposed to compliance gaps, CRD investigations, or employee complaints.

The right training partner should do more than check a box. They should consolidate overlapping mandates, automate administrative tasks, and keep your program current as regulations change. Use the following criteria to evaluate any provider you're considering:

EasyLlama's California Sexual Harassment Prevention Course consolidates AB 1825, AB 2053, SB 396, SB 1343, SB 778, and FEHA requirements into a single program.

The platform also delivers separate supervisor (2-hour) and non-supervisor (1-hour) courses, automates training assignments by role and location, and integrates with 1,000+ HRIS/LMS providers like BambooHR, Workday, Rippling, and Gusto.

Beyond the core training, EasyLlama's Compliance Hub provides real-time updates on California employment law changes, and Llama Bites delivers 5-to-10-minute microlearning modules on topics like pronouns in the workplace and inclusive language.

Schedule a free demo to see how EasyLlama can simplify SB 396 compliance for your team.