Human resource professionals in California will play a vital strategic role in how businesses navigate critical workplace challenges, including sexual harassment prevention training, the legalization of recreational marijuana and demands for equitable compensation.

They have their work cut out for them. Effective with the new year, California employers can no longer ask job candidates for their salary history or immediately disqualify job applicants with criminal records. New laws also legalize pot and make more parents eligible for baby-bonding leave.

Sexual harassment prevention education tops the to-do lists of many HR professionals and attorneys who advise California businesses. They've been fielding detailed questions about the adequacy and efficacy of their anti-harassment instruction in the wake of highly publicized accounts of harassment and assault by powerful men, including Hollywood producers and actors, Silicon Valley investors and executives, Sacramento politicians, and a Pasadena-based federal appellate judge.

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