Section 1: General Questions

What is HR or compliance training?

It includes child safeguarding, sexual harassment prevention, discrimination prevention, workplace misconduct prevention, information on complaints and responses, management training, and more. Having adequate training is a best practice for all organizations that work with people—which means you have to be pretty small for this not to apply to you.

Why don't some ministries and businesses see any real need for HR or compliance training?

Some organizations share the conviction that "nothing will happen here." They may implicitly trust their culture, their calling, or their people to protect them. They often fear that training will pull away time and resources from their mission and may understanding about the risks of not doing it.

Why choose values-based workplace training?

People don’t engage with training that violates their convictions—or ignores them entirely. Whether you lead a ministry, Christian school, nonprofit, or faith-driven business, your people need training that speaks to their values and meets your legal obligations. Generic training can feel out of touch—or worse, hostile to your mission and vision. That puts engagement, culture, and compliance at risk.

Telios Teaches provides clear, legally sound training that equips your team to prevent misconduct, protect one another, and honor your organization's core beliefs. It’s not just about checking boxes. It’s about building a workplace that reflects what you actually stand for.

How does training actually protect our people and reduce risk?

The right training doesn’t just help you check a legal box—it helps you prevent harm before it happens. Our courses encourage healthy, informed bystander intervention and equip your team to recognize misconduct early, understand their reporting responsibilities, and respond with clarity and care.

For leaders, this means preventing lawsuits and preserving trust. For employees, it means working in an environment where dignity and respect aren’t just aspirational—they’re expected.

What happens if I don’t train my team?

Skipping harassment or safety training doesn’t just increase risk—it removes key protections if something goes wrong. Without clear instruction, your organization may struggle to prove it acted in good faith, undermining your legal defense and exposing you to lawsuits, penalties, or public backlash.

But effective training does the opposite. It shows your people you care. It deters would-be offenders, equips bystanders to act, and helps prevent misconduct before it spirals. It protects your team from abuse—and your organization from liability.

Doesn’t mandatory training hurt morale?

Only if it’s bad. Boring, redundant, or overly frequent training can sap engagement. But a lack of training? That sends a louder message: “You’re on your own.”

When people don’t feel safe or supported, morale drops fast. Engaging, well-paced training shows your team that you’ve got their back. It reinforces trust, builds confidence, and strengthens culture—especially when it reflects your mission and values.

How can training help Christians live out their values?

Ministries want to reflect Christ’s character and create environments that honor Him. Businesses want a healthy workplace culture, loyal employees, and—often—an expression of shared spiritual values.

But when abuse, bullying, or harassment is allowed to thrive, the message is clear—and it's the opposite of what you intend. Even if nothing “goes wrong,” neglecting to train or implement safeguards signals that protection and accountability aren’t priorities.

And people notice. Many Millennials and Gen Z have already left the Church. They won’t return to environments where even the basics—like child safety or anti-harassment policies—are missing.

Think of training, policies, and prevention as a love letter to your people. It’s how you show them they matter.

What qualifications sets Telios Teaches apart from other training services?

The Telios Teaches suite offers concise, attorney-vetted training that’s compatible with Christian and conservative values. Our content is crafted by legal subject matter experts and designed to keep learners engaged through a mix of:

• Informative videos
• Humorous videos
• Formative quizzes
• “Choose Your Own Adventure”–style scenarios

We offer both faith-aligned training grounded in a Christian worldview, and ideologically neutral training that focuses strictly on legal and practical best practices—without unnecessary trimmings.

What types of training does Telios Teaches offer?

We provide 25 practical, flexible training courses designed to meet the needs of every level in your organization:

• Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination Training for employees at all levels
• State-compliant modules for jurisdictions like California, New York, and Illinois
• Leadership & Crisis Response for managers, supervisors, and team leaders
• Investigative Readiness for managers, supervisors, and team leaders
• Child Safety Training for churches and ministries
• Specialty modules that cover bullying, retaliation, crisis response, and more

All courses are self-paced, video-based, and designed to maximize engagement while honoring your team's time.

What inspired you to create Telios Teaches?

The Telios Teaches training was born out of complex messes that Telios Law has worked on. Our colleagues in the industry see the same problems. And prevention is so much better than cleaning up messes. Everyone is happier, and it's a lot cheaper.

Am I working with Telios Studios or Telios Teaches?

Telios Studios is the creative team behind the content. They produce the videos, graphics, and training materials used across various projects—including Telios Teaches and other custom work.

Telios Teaches is the actual training platform. It offers courses in HR compliance, child safeguarding, harassment prevention, and more—delivered through our self-paced, online system.

Section 2: Legal Compliance

Is online compliance or employee training required in my state?

Regardless of whether your state currently mandates harassment and discrimination prevention training, protecting your team is part of being a good steward. Failing to train can create—or amplify—legal liability. When employees are harmed, it damages not only your workplace culture, but also your essential functions. Conversely, employees are happier, healthier, and more engaged when they know their employer has their back.

Many states, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, and New York, already require sexual harassment prevention training—and the list keeps growing. Telios Teaches updates its core compliance training and state-specific modules every year, so you can be confident your training meets current mandates and follows best practices.

What are the legal compliance requirements for religious organizations?

Religious employers are subject to most of the same employment laws as secular ones—especially when it comes to harassment, retaliation, and discrimination. But the application of those laws can be very different.

For example, the ministerial exception under Title VII and Religious Freedoms Restoration Acts do carve out exceptions for religious organizations to hire based on their beliefs. However, actual harassment and discrimination is unlikely to be a sincerely held religious belief of any Christian organization.

This means that for practical, anti-harassment and anti-discrimination purposes, religious organizations have similar legal obligations to any other employer. The trick is that you need training that both protects your people, meets your legal obligations, and honors your convictions all at the same time.

What is the ministerial exception, and why does it matter?

The ministerial exception is an important legal doctrine that allows religious organizations to make staffing decisions that reflect their beliefs and mission. For example, it gives churches the legal freedom to reserve certain ministry roles for men or women, depending on their theological convictions.

In plain English, it means ministries have almost complete freedom to choose their ministers according to their religious beliefs.

And that’s a critical caveat: while the ministerial exception is a powerful protection for religious liberty, it’s also one of the most misunderstood parts of employment law. Telios Teaches helps your organization understand when and how the ministerial exception applies, so you can lead with both confidence and clarity.

How does Telios Teaches ensure federal and state compliance?

Our training is written and regularly updated by attorneys who specialize in employment law. That means every course reflects current federal guidelines, evolving state laws, and the best practices emerging from real investigations.

Section 3: Training Access, Time, and Delivery

How is the training delivered?

Training is delivered through our Online Learning Management System (or LMS), hosted by Thinkific. An LMS is a digital platform where courses live, usually self-study. Telios Studios hosts an LMS for the Telios Teaches material.

How long does the training take to complete?

Wasted time is wasted money—or at the very least, wasted peace of mind. That’s why Telios Teaches is designed to be as efficient as possible—without cutting corners on legal compliance or clarity.

For basic anti-harassment and anti-discrimination needs..

• Employee training takes about 1.5 hours
• Manager and Leader training is more in-depth and takes around 2.5 hours
• State-specific modules (e.g., California or New York) may add a bit of time depending on your location

All courses are video-based and self-paced, so your team can complete the training on a schedule that works—without falling behind on requirements.

How do I know if all my employees completed the training?

We make it easy to track every learner. Telios Teaches provides:

• Completion certificates for each employee
• Real-time progress tracking
• Custom reports and exports
• VIP Admin Dashboards for organizations with larger teams

You’ll always know who’s enrolled, who’s completed, and who still needs a nudge. No guesswork—just simple, clear oversight.

If I buy your training, how long will I need to stay enrolled?

Our subscriptions are for one year. So, you'll be enrolled for at least that long!

But preventing harassment and discrimination is not a one-and-done thing. To use an analogy, it's a lot harder to vaccinate against behavior than it is to vaccinate against disease.

Your learners will need reminders, your learners will need guidance, and your learners will need updates. Many states require annual or semi-annual training. Each year, we both refresh material and add new material. We recommend that each year, you choose which courses your employees and managers will cover, so that you pace the learning and avoid too much repetition.

Is your training accessible for diverse teams?

Yes—our training is designed with accessibility in mind. All videos include AI generated closed captioning. For non-English speakers, AI translated captions are available on request. We continually update our interface to meet ADA best practices.

Whether your team includes remote workers, multilingual staff, or people with different learning needs, Telios Teaches delivers training that’s clear, respectful, and usable for everyone.

Section 4: Costs, Value, and Alternatives

Isn't HR training costly and boring?

That’s the stereotype—but it doesn’t have to be. One advantage of the digital and AI age is that instead of paying an experts high rates for in person training, you can have access to a vast library of training online, via LMS, for a modest subscription. This training can can be affordable, flexible, and engaging.

Our team works hard to creating new training and updating existing training to ensure that annual and biannual learners always have fresh content to look forward to. To find out more, look through our course descriptions and contact us for a quote or discussion.

There are a lot of great child safeguarding courses. Why should I use Telios Teaches?

There are many excellent child safeguarding courses available, each with different strengths. We encourage you to evaluate which one best fits your organization’s needs—or even rotate training providers over time to bring in fresh perspectives. For example, some organizations retrain annually with a new approach from a different vendor.

Our child safeguarding course focuses on God's calling to protect children, emphasizing the role of the “capable guardian.” It also includes specialized training on mandated reporting and intake processes. We’re proud of our approach—but even some of our clients alternate between programs to keep their training fresh and well-rounded.

Isn’t it cheaper to build our own training?

The short answer is no. Unless you have a full-time legal team, instructional designers, tech experts, and creatives just sitting around—it’s rarely cost-effective to build and maintain your own training. To be effective, training must be:

• Trackable – with a secure learning management system
• Credible – written and vetted by employment law experts
• Professional – with quality production and user-friendly design
• Engaging – relevant, practical, and values-aligned

Even large organizations find that licensing our training costs a fraction of what it would take to build (and maintain) something comparable in-house—especially with laws and best practices constantly changing.

How much does it cost—are there any discounts available?

Why, yes, yes there are. We offer tiered pricing based on the size and needs of your organization. The larger your team, the more you save per learner.
In addition to tiered pricing, we periodically offer:

• Seasonal promotions
• Partner discounts
• Special offers for returning clients

You can check out our Pricing Page for current rates—or visit the Product Page to see if a promotion is active.

Section 5: Legal Risk & Additional Services

Are there legal risks for not complying with training laws and best practices?

Yes—and they’re significant.

Child abuse and employment discrimination lawsuits make up a large share of legal claims against ministries and faith-based organizations. Employees, clients, and even volunteers now sue ministries as regularly as they sue businesses.

Several states require sexual harassment and child safeguarding training. Failing to comply doesn’t just increase legal risk—it can lead to civil penalties, lost lawsuits, and reputational harm.

Courts often look for evidence of prevention, including good training and reporting systems. Given the high legal risk and relatively low cost of effective online training, skipping it isn’t just negligent—it’s irrational.

What if we need more than just training?

If your organization is facing deeper issues—like unresolved conflict, policy gaps, or a recent incident—training may not be enough on its own. Telios Teaches is part of a broader suite of services designed to protect people and organizations. Through our affiliated teams at Telios Law and Telios Investigations, you can access:

• Legal counsel for employment and compliance issues
• Policy development aligned with your mission and your legal requirements
• Third-party investigations that are trauma-informed and legally sound
• Leadership consulting for risk management and organizational health

When training isn’t the full answer, we can help you take the next step.

Can a church or faith-based employer be sued for harassment or wrongful termination?

While religious liberty offers key protections it’s not a shield against every lawsuit. Churches, ministries, and Christian-owned businesses are still subject to many state and federal employment laws, especially around harassment, retaliation, and hostile work environments. The best protection is prevention: clear expectations, informed leaders, and legally sound processes.

Telios Teaches helps reduce your risk by preparing your people—so they know what misconduct looks like, how to respond, and when to get help.