Corporate Training LMS for Chicago and Illinois Employers
Chicago employers answer to two annual harassment training rules. Here is how to run the Illinois and City of Chicago cycles, bystander training and records in one LMS.
A corporate training LMS for a Chicago employer has to juggle two annual cycles that do not line up. Illinois requires sexual harassment prevention training for employees every calendar year, while the City of Chicago requires its own training, including a separate hour of bystander intervention, on a July 1 to June 30 year. We recommend LMS Advisor for this, because it can assign separate courses to separate groups, track each with its own certificate validity, and keep the records you need for five years or longer under your own retention settings.
This guide sets out both rules side by side, then shows a practical way to run them without double work.
The Illinois statewide requirement
The Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) explains on its sexual harassment prevention page that employers operating in Illinois must provide sexual harassment prevention training to their employees once a year, a requirement that started with a December 31, 2020 deadline and has run annually since. Restaurants and bars carry extra duties: a written policy on sexual harassment prevention training and supplemental training specific to their setting.
IDHR also publishes a model training program with slides, handouts and video modules. Its minimum content covers what sexual harassment is under Illinois and federal law, examples of unlawful conduct, the relevant laws and remedies, and the employer's responsibilities for prevention, investigation and corrective action. If an employer does not comply, IDHR describes a notice to show cause with 30 days to comply, after which it can ask the Illinois Human Rights Commission for a civil penalty.
The City of Chicago requirement
Chicago goes further. According to the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, since July 1, 2022 every employer in the city must provide, each year:
- One hour of sexual harassment prevention training for all employees, and two hours for supervisors and managers.
- One hour of bystander intervention training for all employees.
The city's FAQ says the training runs on an annual basis between July 1 and June 30, and that employers must keep training records for at least five years. Employers do not submit the records to the city, but they need to produce them if asked. Chicago employers also need a written sexual harassment policy, given to employees in their primary language within their first calendar week, and a posted notice. The city notes that the state's one-hour template is sufficient for the general employee hour of harassment prevention.
State and city side by side
| Item | Illinois (statewide) | City of Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Annual period | Calendar year | July 1 to June 30 |
| Employees | Annual harassment prevention training | 1 hour harassment prevention plus 1 hour bystander |
| Supervisors and managers | Annual harassment prevention training | 2 hours harassment prevention plus 1 hour bystander |
| Model materials | IDHR model program | City templates, state template accepted for the employee hour |
| Records | Keep a record of training | At least five years |
| Extra duties | Restaurants and bars: supplemental training | Written policy in the first week, posted notice |
Use the table to plan, then confirm the details with your employment counsel, especially if you also have staff in other states.
How to run both cycles in one LMS
The mistake we see most is trying to bend one course and one deadline to fit both rules. It is cleaner to treat them as separate pieces of content that share a lot of material.
Step 1: build three courses, not one
- Harassment prevention, employee version. Based on the IDHR model program, so it serves the state rule and the city's employee hour.
- Harassment prevention, supervisor add-on. The second hour for Chicago supervisors and managers, plus investigation duties.
- Bystander intervention. Built from the city's template, assigned to everyone who works in Chicago.
Step 2: use groups for geography and role
Set up a Chicago group and a Rest of Illinois group, plus a Supervisors group. In LMS Advisor, branches and departments can mirror your locations, for example a Loop office, a suburban distribution center and a plant in Rockford or Peoria, while groups decide which courses each person receives.
Step 3: let certificates carry the clock
Give each course a certificate with a 12-month validity. The platform shows who is current, who is in the 30-day expiring-soon window, and who has lapsed, for each course separately. Certificate-expiring email automation nudges people before they fall out of date.
Step 4: report on your own dates
Because the state and city years start on different dates, run your reports with filters for the period you need. Export to CSV, Excel or PDF for each window and keep the files with your HR records, alongside the platform's own audit logs and data retention settings.
Step 5: handle joiners, movers and leavers
Turnover is where annual records quietly break. When someone joins, SCIM 2.0 provisioning from your identity provider can create the account and place it in the right groups, so the assignments follow automatically. When an employee transfers from a suburban site into a Chicago office, moving them into the Chicago group adds the bystander course and, for managers, the supervisor hour. When someone leaves, SCIM can take away their access, and your data retention settings decide how long their training history is kept, which matters if a former employee's training is ever questioned.
Making the training interactive and accessible
IDHR's training FAQs say employers must provide the training in a way that is accessible to their staff, that all employees must be trained by December 31 of each calendar year, and that short-term, part-time and intern employees are included. LMS Advisor's interactive module builder lets you turn the model slides into short scenarios with scored knowledge checks, required blocks and drag-and-drop exercises. The bystander course works well as interactive video: show a scenario, pause at the key moment, and ask the learner what they would do, with rewind-on-wrong remediation to replay the scene.
For language access, use course and lesson translations to keep Spanish, Polish or other language versions inside the same course. Chicago's model policy is already published in English, Spanish, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Arabic and Hindi, which gives you a sense of the languages many Chicago workforces need.
Chicago's mix of industries
Chicago and the wider Illinois economy cover finance and trading around LaSalle Street, insurance, healthcare systems, food manufacturing, freight and logistics around the rail yards and O'Hare, and a growing tech scene. That mix shapes the rest of your training program beyond harassment prevention:
- Office and finance teams sign in through SAML 2.0 SSO, with SCIM 2.0 creating and removing accounts automatically.
- Warehouse and plant staff use the native iOS and Android apps or phone one-time codes, with QR attendance check-in for toolbox talks and in-person sessions.
- Technical and sales teams take internal certification exams in the standalone Test Center, with proctoring when the result matters.
- Restaurants and bars can add the supplemental course as its own assignment for the right locations.
Why we recommend LMS Advisor for Chicago employers
Overlapping annual rules reward a platform that treats every course as its own record with its own clock. That is how LMS Advisor works. Mandatory organization assignments with due dates and overdue reports keep each cycle visible. Course certificates with expiry and recertification show status per course. Groups, branches and manager views mean a store manager in Naperville sees their people, while HR sees the whole state. Audit logs and retention settings support the five-year record window, and exports give legal a copy they can file.
It also covers the year-round work: onboarding paths, live sessions over Zoom or Google Meet, SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, xAPI and cmi5 content, and AI tools that help draft and translate lessons for human review. You can run it in LMS Advisor's cloud or on your own server. The LMS Advisor product overview and the solutions page show how these pieces fit together.
Before you choose a platform
- Ask the vendor to show two courses on two different annual periods in one employee's record.
- Check how records are retained and exported for a five-year window.
- Test assignment by location: can you target only Chicago-based staff?
- Ask whether you can bring in the IDHR or city materials and add interactive questions.
Related reading on Trusted IT Firms: our guide to compliance training software, the best enterprise LMS platforms for 2026, and the New York corporate training LMS guide, which covers another city with its own rule on top of the state's.
See it with your own courses
LMS Advisor serves employers throughout the United States, Chicago and the rest of Illinois included, from its cloud or on servers you manage. It has no Chicago office; implementation and support are handled remotely. To walk through the dual-cycle setup with your content, book an LMS Advisor demo and read the LMS Advisor company profile. You can also explore IT companies in Illinois or all listed IT companies.
Frequently asked questions
Is sexual harassment training required every year in Illinois?
Yes. The Illinois Department of Human Rights says employers operating in Illinois must provide sexual harassment prevention training to employees once a year.
What training does Chicago require on top of Illinois law?
Chicago requires one hour of sexual harassment prevention training for all employees, two hours for supervisors and managers, and one hour of bystander intervention training for everyone, each year.
How long must Chicago employers keep training records?
The Chicago Commission on Human Relations says employers must keep training records for at least five years. They do not submit them to the city but must be able to produce them.
Can I use the Illinois model training for Chicago?
The city says the state's one-hour template is sufficient for the general employee hour of harassment prevention. Supervisors still need a second hour, and everyone needs the bystander hour.
What is the best corporate training LMS for Chicago companies?
We recommend LMS Advisor because it tracks separate courses on separate annual cycles, assigns them by location and role, and keeps audit logs and exports for long record windows.
Sources
Add trusteditfirms.com as a preferred source on Google, or open this page in your AI assistant to use it as a source.
