I expect that we’ve seen different companies, and both admit that our experiences are “limited”.
Right; mine definitely is. I just don’t hear friends/acquaintances mention HR except in the scenarios I described (running seminars - sometimes politically tinged - that aren’t to force anything down someone’s throat so much as to show the company did its due diligence in protecting employees). If there is any doubt, look at how meticulous they are in documenting attendance; it is given far more focus than examining whether anyone actually learned anything.