Harassment training entirely via text message. Could this actually work?

Yesterday, I received an unsolicited email from a company called Pluto.

Pluto claims to offer a text message harassment training course that helps startups get compliant in less than 5 minutes a day.

So, I headed over to the Pluto website to learn more. Here is what I found:

Compliance done right.

SB 1343 mandates that all Californian companies over 5 people conduct harassment training for their employees by January 1, 2020. Unfortunately, harassment training can be expensive and difficult for startups to conduct, despite it being absolutely vital.

Pluto is a 30-day text message course that meets California requirements and helps your team get compliant in less than 5 minutes a day (comprehensive report and certificates included). Developed with experts and thought leaders, Pluto is easy to deploy and costs just $29 per employee.

Again, I’m not a Pluto shill; I have no relationship with Pluto. But, this whole concept of training by text message intrigues me.

On the one hand, if it’s a cost-effective engaging way to train the workforce, score! Indeed, the company claims that “text message courses can be extraordinarily effective for encouraging positive behavior.” Pluto’s partner, Arist, touts that the completion rate of text message courses is 92% compared to 5% for video courses.

On the other hand, the EEOC underscores that “training is most effective when tailored to the specific workforce and workplace, and to different cohorts of employees.” Plus, the best anti-harassment training courses are live and interactive. I don’t know whether Pluto’s text message training checks these boxes. I do know that $29 per trainee is cheap. But, do you get what you pay for?

What do you think? Would you explore text message anti-harassment training for your workforce? Email me and let me know.