All types of diversity training have become a valuable investment for organizations. These trainings create a more successful and ethical workplace for everyone’s benefit. According to the Pew Research Center, 53% of workers who have participated in DEI training said they’ve been helpful.
What is Diversity Training?
Diversity training is designed to help employees understand and appreciate diversity in the workplace. So, through the training, employees learn to recognize and address their biases, and effectively interact with people of different backgrounds. It also trains them on how to contribute to creating a more inclusive work environment.
The Benefits of Different Types of Diversity Training
- Training helps build a workplace where everyone feels respected and valued for their contributions. So, a positive company culture boosts employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, ultimately reducing turnover.
Quantum Workplace reported that employees who say their culture is positive are 3.8x more likely to be engaged. When employees agree that their organizational cultures are positive, they are more likely to be highly engaged (84%).
- Training helps ensure that all employees are heard and considered, opening a wider range of perspectives and leading to more creative solutions, improved decision-making, and increased profits. A LinkedIn report shows:
- 60% of respondents in the study said that diversity within their sales team has contributed to their teams’ success.
- Organizations in the top quartile for gender diversity have a +25% likelihood of financially outperforming their peers.
- Organizations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity have a +36% likelihood of financial outperformance.
- Diverse companies earn 2.5x higher cash flow per employee.
- Diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time.
- Various types of diversity training and development show the organization’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, attracting more diverse candidates and strengthening the employer brand. Similarly, a Jobvite survey revealed that 38% of candidates would turn down a job offer if the company lacked diversity in its workforce or had no clear goals for improving diversity.
- Training helps prevent discriminatory behavior, creating a safer and more equitable work environment and protecting the organization from lawsuits and damaging the company’s reputation.
- Training makes companies embrace diversity, which helps them become more competitive in a global marketplace. Thus, they can connect with a broader range of customers and partners and develop products and services that appeal to a more diverse market.
9 Types of Diversity and Inclusion Training
1. Awareness Training
This course is where you start to learn about diversity. It covers basic ideas like race, gender, age, ethnicity, and more. So, you’ll also find out about the advantages of having a diverse workplace, such as more creativity, better problem-solving, and increased innovation. The course also talks about important diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) elements like empathy, belonging, and psychological safety. In addition, it gives you practical strategies and tips for applying DEI in your work.
2. Skills-based Training
Once employees become aware, they need to develop skills for interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. So, this includes learning how to actively listen, show empathy, and communicate effectively across different cultures. It also teaches how to resolve conflicts, intervene as a bystander, and behave respectfully.
3. Unconscious Bias Training
Unconscious bias training helps spot and deal with biases that might influence everyday decisions. So, it covers various types of biases, prejudices, and stereotypes. Thus, employees find out about their own biases and learn how to overcome them.
4. Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership helps bosses treat everyone well at work, no matter who they are. So, leaders learn how to interview, run meetings, give tasks, and communicate with different groups of people.
5. Cultural Competency
Cultural competency teaches employees about various cultures, covering history, traditions, beliefs, and how people communicate. So, this helps employees understand their own cultural values, biases, and assumptions better. When working with colleagues from diverse backgrounds, they learn different ways of communicating, cultural practices, and beliefs. Therefore, this makes them more open-minded and respectful toward their coworkers.
6. Microaggressions
This training helps people learn about and spot microaggressions. So, these are small, unintentional actions that can hurt someone based on their race, age, gender, or background. It covers what microaggressions are and how they affect relationships. It also covers how biases develop and how to respond to them.
7. Intermediate Diversity Training
This type of training concentrates on the different aspects of diversity, diving deeper into them. So, it includes:
- gender bias
- disability inclusion
- religion, spirituality, and beliefs
- LGBTQ inclusion
- allyship
- neurodiversity
- Employee resource groups (ERGs)
In addition, it tackles different concepts related to these DEI concepts, biases and discrimination against them, and inclusive actions to accommodate them.
8. Specialized training
Specialized training aims to bring diversity principles into everyday workplace tasks, such as hiring, welcoming new employees, helping them grow, deciding on pay and benefits, and training leaders. So, the goal is to build and use important diversity skills in regular job duties.
9. Anti Harassment and Discrimination training
This training teaches anti-discrimination laws and regulations, how to approach offensive behaviors, how to manage the impact of bullying and harassment, and how to create anti-harassment and discrimination at work policies.
DEI Training Providers
1. Easy Llama
Their DEI training catalog offered courses for the following:
- Diversity and inclusion
- Microaggression
- Unconscious bias
- Cultural Competency
- Religion, spirituality, and beliefs
- Americans with Disabilities Act
Also, these courses can be completed in 30 minutes and are available in 100 languages. So, participants can access the courses on mobile devices, and once they are finished, they receive certificates.
2. Trailant
Trailant offers DEI education in bite-sized pieces for small businesses and can be customized to any industry.
Their DEI training catalog offered courses for the following:
- Cultural competence
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion at work training
- Inclusive language training
- LGBTQ+ Inclusion
- Microaggressions and subtle acts of exclusion
- Religion, spirituality, and beliefs
Additionally, they also offer DEI training specific to the healthcare industry.
So, courses range between 25 to 30 minutes. They also include two three-minute videos called Trailaint Sparks to supplement the main course training, keep DEI top of mind, and start conversations.
3. Prism
Prism uses its PRISM process to teach diversity, which consists of training programs, consultation, and team meetings to address the question, “What can I do differently to be more successful and get results in my areas of responsibility?“. They approach DEI as part of organizational goals.
Their DEI training catalog offered courses for the following:
- #1: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Executives
- #2: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Supervisors & Managers
- #3: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Customer Service
- #4: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Recruiters
- #5: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Multicultural & Multilingual Workplace
- #6: Inclusion & Diversity Training for Everyone
- #7: Inclusion & Diversity Training for ERGs & Diversity Councils
They also offer courses via eLearning & blended learning.
4. Affirmity
Training is available in microlearning format, which includes animated videos, interactive eLearning, and simulations. It can also be tailored depending on the organization’s culture and values:
- Digital Solutions for Managers supports managers in starting DEI conversations and continuing the process:
- Recruiter Bias
- Talent Acquisition Nudges
- Career Planning Nudges
- Allyship Nudges
- Performance Management Nudges
- Inclusive Behaviours
- Impostor Syndrome
- LGBTQ+
- Sounds of Disability
- Microaggressions
- Digital Solutions for All Employees
- Inclusion & You
- Exploring Bias
- Neurodiversity
- Allyship Nudges, Introductions, and Topic-Specific Learning
- LGBTQ+
- Sounds of Disability
- Microaggressions
- Managing Unconscious Bias eLearning
- Principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion eLearning
5. EW Group
EW tailors training programs delivers them virtually or in person, and supports them with e-learning modules.
They offer the following courses:
- Anti-racism training and allyship
- Anti-harassment and discrimination
- EDI compliance
- Mental health and wellness
- Neurodiversity
- Gender identity and equality
In addition, they have a Train the Trainer course to build in-house DEI expertise. They can also design customized DEI training programs per the company’s request.
Tips for Implementing a Successful Diversity Training
1. Define your goals
What do you want to achieve with this training as an employer or HR? Is it to raise awareness, create more understanding and respect between employees of different identities, or implement more inclusive practices? Is it to reduce the number of discrimination and harassment cases in your organization?
If you don’t know where to start, survey your employees. So, consider having focus groups or training needs assessment. Then, use their feedback to help you understand your current culture and what they think about your current DEI strategies. You can also discover and identify biases and inequalities in your organization.
2. Get leadership support
In CIPD’s Inclusion at Work report, 47% of senior decision-makers do not have a diversity, equality, and inclusion strategy or action plan ready. And 36% of companies do not anticipate focusing on any specific DEI areas in the next five years, indicating a lack of consensus on their DEI plans.
In addition, being in HR, you should start DEI conversations with the management because you won’t have successful DEI training if you don’t have the budget and approval from them.
So, meeting with the leadership team and proposing why you need diversity training in the organization is crucial. Also, ensure that you promote the benefits of investing in DEI training and have a clear plan (or at least an outline) of the diversity program to give them an idea and get their support.
3. Research and evaluate potential providers
When picking a DEI training provider, go for ones with experience in diverse training programs. So, check their history and ask for references. Also, make sure their facilitators have the right credentials in DEI and training.
Another thing to think about is what the training covers and how it’s done. So, does it cover what you need? Can they adjust it for your organization? Is it online or in person? Also, consider how your employees like to learn: Do they prefer using their phone in their free time, or would it be better to set aside work hours for the training?
4. Asking the right questions
After you’ve made a list of the training providers you’re considering and plan to meet with them, inquire about how they handle data and measurement. So, find out how they will check if the training is working and if they can give you a dashboard or metrics to keep track of the progress.
Also, make sure to ask about their commitment to ongoing support and follow-up. So, besides the training, do they provide coaching or resources to help employees put what they’ve learned into action and maintain the new behavior?
Lastly, compare pricing and packages. So, get quotes and consider the value you’re getting from the investment.
5. Consider if a training provider can train your HR team
It’s cheaper if the company’s HR or L&D team can handle the DEI training over time. This way, the company can make the most of its training budget and possibly get more value out of it by using internal experts instead of hiring external providers.
Also, a trained HR team can quickly make the training work for everyone in the company. They know the ins and outs and can also fix diversity and inclusion issues. In addition, they can adjust the training to match the company’s values and image.
6. Conduct post-training assessment
Evaluating the training’s effectiveness is critical to ensure you are achieving your DEI goals and getting your return on investment.
Always get feedback from employees. So, ask them if they get the content, if they like how the training was done, and if they are happy overall. Then, keep an eye on how employees act to see if there are improvements. Also, check for a lasting impact to make sure the training still helps months or even years later.
Finally, see if the training does what you wanted. So, did more diverse people get hired? Was there less leaving from certain groups or backgrounds? Did the pay gap get fixed? Also, was there less bullying or harassment?
Why I wrote this:
Ongig advocates for DEI best practices, including all types of diversity training to equip all employees with the right mindset and behavior to create an inclusive workplace.
