Build more workplace empathy with a better approach to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training.
An organization-wide commitment to increase diversity, equity and inclusion should be table stakes in terms of values by now. Given what we know about the power of day-to-day equality to empower innovation, teamwork, creativity, collaboration, and performance, DEI isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a why-don't-we-have-this-yet.
A Harvard Business Review team recently found that equity is listed as a corporate value for a vast majority (nearly 9 out of 10) Fortune 100 companies. Analyzing earnings calls for S&P 500s, they found that mentions of DEI skyrocketed 658% from Q1 2018 to Q1 2021. While the pandemic prompted a number of organizations to press pause on their DEI initiatives — 27% according to one survey — DEI is already returning to the agenda as we try to regain equilibrium amid a new normal. That means a new crop of DEI trainings. This time, will they be effective?
A recent Bersin study of more than 800 organizations noted that nearly all Fortune 500 companies offer some form of diversity training, yet around 80% are just going through the motions. In fact, diversity initiatives are backsliding in the U.S. — and training on its own is rarely effective. But what really moves the needle is business strategy. If DEI is siloed within HR, it won’t have much of an impact.
Not entirely surprising, is it? Any initiative that doesn’t have executive buy-in won’t gain employee buy-in either. But more than that, if a commitment isn’t wrapped into the bottom line, it’s going to lack robustness, depth, and clarity. Businesses are in business. The nature of organizations is to grow. If DEI isn’t considered part of that, if it’s not a core business principle, it won’t thrive.
Training In A Vacuum
What to do? Don’t not do the training. Just take it out of the vacuum. Bersin laid out 5 DEI strategies that are essential to moving forward:
1. Listen, hear and act
2. Strengthen HR capabilities in all roles
3. Engage senior leadership commitment
4. Set goals and measure
5. Create accountability for results
All of these play a role in a solid DEI initiative makes DEI an ingrained (read: valued) part of the conversation—wrapped into the bottom line, and a factor in strategy and success. All entail executive participation and real-time analytics and accountability. And instead of keeping DEI over in that HR corner, it brings HR into the fore—and along with it, a way to further DEI goals.
Again and again, what sets the bar high for DEI training is a focus on overall impact and change. Here’s what this might look like—it’s not just the programs that are important, it’s the framing:
1. Build A Strong Foundation
Connecting DEI training to meaning, purpose, and mission requires a strong foundation that lasts beyond a quarter or two. Holistic, multi-tiered, multipronged, multimedia, multifaceted, multiyear—you get the idea. You’re not going to be able to connect with every employee the same way. Hearts and minds are moved by different messages and widely varying means.
2. Make It Official
Don’t make DEI optional or segmented. It should be a though-line that taps right into the business objectives as well as the culture of the organization. That takes a very intentionally crafted declaration of commitment—with status and gravity. Put an exclamation point on the competitive importance of getting DEI right for the bottom line.
3. Root It In The C-Suite
Without support and participation by the C-Suite—and by extension, leadership—any program can be viewed as an actual priority integral to your organization’s success. Don’t just leave it to the CDO (chief diversity officer) or someone in a similar title. Provide the funding, the support and the participation to make it happen.
4. Make DEI Part Of Leadership Development
Bersin research showed that a full 75% of companies don’t connect DEI to leadership development and L&D curricula. Instead, it’s treated as a compliance issue. This reduces DEI’s importance radically in four fatal ways: It dilutes it into a transactional “fix”; overlooks the need to develop more diversity and inclusion in the leadership ranks; ignores the need to shape tomorrow’s decision-makers; and reinforces the lesser importance of DEI as a lower-echelon issue.
5. Make Examples Of Excellence
Recognition and reinforcement are superb levers when it comes to learning. Bersin noted that only 12% of companies recognize senior leaders for inclusion or diversity goals, for instance. Integrate actual accomplishments around DEI into training to give it real-life, tangible, this-is-what-we-do context.
6. Establish A Standard Curriculum
A DEI program, starting with training, needs to cover sufficient ground to be effective. That means covering the core factors considered part of DEI, particularly when it comes to awareness among the workforce. That includes (and feel free to build on this list):
• bias (unconscious and implicit)
• what DEI really means
• stereotyping
• allyship
• facing and addressing microaggressions
• sensitivity training
• empathy
• cultural awareness
• acceptance and belonging
• identities
• harassment and how to stop it
• scapegoating
• accountability
7. Focus On The Story
Each organization should include its own history and story in DEI training as well. Self-awareness and a commitment to do better has to start within the organization itself — and that requires being willing to pull back the veneer and look at DEI in the past. Workplace diversity training and affirmative action emerged in the U.S. in the 1960s; there are countless organizations founded well before. Choosing to overlook a less-than-ideal history isn’t great optics in you’re concerned about transparency. Plus, it gives you somewhere to start from.
8. Survey Frequently
Conduct digital pulse surveys early and often to gauge engagement, buy-in, and improvements. Construct well-considered questions that take little time but generate lots of data, and open room for further conversations. But do make surveys anonymized, and don’t micro target — it could backfire as people feel singled out or excluded.
Questions should ask “Have you experienced” and “Have you witnessed” and even “Have you sensed.” Look at microaggressions and perceived bias, look at leadership, and management. And look at training, to see how it’s landing, and be ready to adjust your approach depending on what you find out.
9. Drive With Internal Data
Internal data provides milestones for improvement. The data from pulse surveys and other research can paint a full picture of the workforce now, pain points and all. It also turns DEI into a discipline with set metrics, same as any key business objective. Again, this is about solidifying DEI as a hard business target, not just a compliance challenge or a soft issue of morals.
10. Benchmark On External Data
Use benchmarks from your competitors to position your own organization on a spectrum and aim for gaining ground. If your closest competitor has a highly diverse workforce and a low attrition rate; how can you optimize DEI training and improvements to rank higher? Competition is a great motivator in business, or we wouldn’t be here, right?
12. Incentivize And Reward Participation
At the core of DEI is the belief that everyone’s time, energy, experience, and ideas have equal value — across genders, ethnicities, identities, lifestyles. Rewarding participation is an apples-to-apples way to walk the walk. Make it clear that the reward for participating isn’t just learning and growth — that you know you’re requiring people to incorporate this into their workdays and their lives, and that you recognize that. Nothing says We appreciate you like actually appreciating them.
Many organizations revamp their DEI training after something bad has happened (remember Starbucks). But if you wait until a public relations fiasco to push DEI messaging and anti-bias training, that does, in fact, smack of insincerity. For instance: establishing ERGs (employee resource groups) is an absolute best practice. But if they feel like a band aid, participation won’t be as wholehearted. Cynicism is a terrible motivator.
If, on the other hand, you don’t address a crisis with action, that could also backfire. So my advice: use this era of uncertainty (looking at the recent SCOTUS decision, again) to make DEI a certainty in your organization. It could be the most effective way you have to set yourself up for success.
