DE&I training should be a part of an organization's long-term, all-encompassing plan to make the workplace more open, welcoming, and inclusive.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) are becoming more critical in organizations worldwide because of a global pandemic, politics becoming more divided, and movements for racial and social justice. Creating a more diverse and inclusive culture requires numerous matters to work together, like making a long-term plan, getting leadership on board, allocating enough resources, and ensuring that communications, training, and education are coordinated.

One of the most important things HR and Training leaders can do to improve the workplace culture and encourage inclusive behavior is to set up a good diversity training program. Training is also a flexible way to share an organization's DE&I goals, encourage honest conversations and feedback, and teach simple ways to be more inclusive.

An SHRM survey of 1,275 HR professionals found that 52% of organizations already offer or plan to offer new training on unconscious bias, Equity, inclusion, and other diversity-related topics. And almost half have added training on these topics to their existing education programs or plan to do so.

As work changes (for example, many companies now let employees work from home full-time), so must online training, both in terms of what it teaches and how it's used. Like any other content to keep people interested, diversity training should be up-to-date, relevant, and interactive. It should also be changed often to reflect changes inside and outside the workplace.

These five training topics are some of the most important for making a workplace more open, welcoming, and inclusive:

1. How to tell the difference between diversity and inclusion

Most people understand what diversity means, but it takes a different understanding to grasp the idea of inclusion. Without inclusion, it won't be possible to make the essential connections that bring in diverse talent, encourage participation, spur innovation, and lead to business growth.

Suppose diversity is a mix of people with different traits, backgrounds, skills, experiences, and points of view. In that case, an inclusive workplace takes diversity to the next level by including marginalized or underrepresented people in the corporation's operations and leadership. Managers behaving inclusively invite and listen to voices that aren't often heard. They also try to get people from different groups, departments, job titles, and management levels to talk to each other.

2. Making people more aware of unintentional bias

Unconscious bias also called implicit bias, or hidden bias, is a big problem for DE&I. Unconscious bias can be either positive or negative. It happens when people make snap decisions and mental shortcuts based on stereotypes about a person's race, gender, ethnicity, age, and disability, usually without realizing it. A recent survey on diversity, inclusion, and belonging by the American Management Association found that almost 80% of the more than 700 people who took part admitted to having unconscious bias. In addition, nearly 83% said they had seen unconscious bias at work. 

Training for all employees, including those who look over resumes and hire people, can make people more aware of unconscious bias and lessen its effect on workplace practices, policies, and procedures.

3. Identifying and dealing with microaggressions

The idea of "microaggressions," which has been around for decades in psychology, is now part of the larger conversation about diversity and inclusion. Microaggressions are defined as commonplace verbal, nonverbal slights, snubs, or insults, whether they are meant to be or not, that send hostile, derogatory, or harmful messages to people from marginalized groups.

A typical example of microaggression is telling a person of color that they are so articulate, interrupting women in meetings all the time, or assuming someone is gay based on how they look. These seemingly harmless comments, which often come from unconscious bias, have been compared to "death by a thousand cuts" because they can cause health problems, burnout at work, and other nasty things. Training helps employees understand what microaggressions are and how to respond to them, whether they are the target of one, a witness to one, or have been called out for one.

4. Encouraging allies to step in and bystanders to help

Bystander intervention training has become more popular because of the #MeToo movement. This is because it is the best way to stop bad behavior before it becomes unlawful harassment. A previous commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said that bystander intervention training could change the game in the workplace and help employees feel more responsible as a group. Being a good bystander also helps with diversity and inclusion. Employees learn to show support and empathy for their marginalized or underrepresented coworkers by learning different ways to advocate and ally for coworkers who are targets of bias and microaggressions.

5. Understanding the connection between diversity and stopping harassment at work

Organizations can also use diversity training to remind people of their anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies and encourage them to speak up and report wrongdoing. For example, the EEOC's Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the workplace says that a lack of diversity can lead to harassment at work. The report from the task force says sexual harassment of women is more likely to happen in places where most of the workers are men and that racial or ethnic harassment is more likely to occur in areas where one race or ethnicity is the majority.

Harassment can also happen when people don't respect that people have different ideas. The task force said that talking about current events outside of work in a heated way "may make harassment in the workplace more likely or seem more acceptable," which is risk employers should consider and deal with.

Image courtesy of Brooke Cagle @brookecagle

Take the next step

About Jim Woods

Jim has a passion for accelerating talent across organizations. While this passion has fueled his work in leadership assessment and development, it has crystallized in the area of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. 

Jim's experience spans many industries, including public, finance, consumer, retail, pharma, industrials, and technology. 'Organizational & people agility,' 'design thinking,' and 'digital transformation' are some critical themes Jim works with clients on across the globe.