Five Ways to Improve Your Diversity Training Programs

As the global workforce continues to grow diversity training is becoming both more important and more popular all at once. It makes sense if you consider the many benefits this form of employee development can provide for your entire organization. Making diversity and inclusion a high priority not only improves brand reputation, employee retention rates, innovation and workplace satisfaction, but can also significantly increase an organizations profits. In fact, companies who provide high quality cultural diversity training have up to 35% higher financial returns than the national average (1). Organization who integrate gender diversity training earn up to 15% more than the national average (2).

Implementing diversity training is a win win scenario when implemented correctly. However, not all diversity training programs provide optimal results. However, there are several ways you can improve your diversity training programs. In this article we will share with you five of the best ways you can improve the effectiveness of your diversity training programs.

1 Ask for Feedback

One simple way you can ensure that your diversity training programs are relevant and effective is by asking for participants’ feedback. Having your employees take part in a short survey or questionnaire where they can express their thoughts, feelings and address any concerns they may have is great way to improve your training.

This also shows your employees that diversity and inclusion are a company priority. You may find that there are topics or issues that are relevant to your workplace that may have been overlooked or there may be a new topic that needs to be addressed. Taking a look at learner data such as engagement, participation and completion rates can also be used to find valuable insights. These insights can be used to optimize training and improve learning experiences.

2 Emphasize Inclusion and Equity

Diversity, inclusion and equity are each critical topics that impact an organizations company culture. However, these terms are often confused for one another, but each play a different role in the process. Emphasizing the importance and differences between these terms can greatly improve the effectiveness of your diversity training efforts.

3 Integrate a Relevant Blend of Topics

Be sure to include a wide range of topics and delivery methods in your diversity training program. This will help build curiosity and increase engagement. Some training formats such as gamification, video-based learning and simulations can help build more context around more complex topics.

For example, soft skills , sexual harassment and unconscious bias training are all relevant topics you may want to include in your diversity training programs. Integrating learning activities that use real world examples will help boost employee engagement and promote a deeper understanding of each topic as well as its relevance in the workplace.

4 Communicate Consistent Messaging

Be sure that your training programs have messaging that is consistent with your policies and brand. If your goal is to create a work environment that values differences and inclusivity where all employees can contribute their thoughts and ideas to work towards a greater goal then the messaging in your training programs should also highlight this. Consistent messaging will help tie in the relevance of training to the overall company culture and initiatives.

5 Treat Training as More Than a Compliance Issue

When corporate training programs centered around diversity are made mandatory they begin to come across less as an important company initiative or common goal of inclusivity, but more as another compliance training program. This can lower levels of engagement as well as levels of knowledge retention.

Conclusion

Implementing an effective diversity training program is a great way to improve both your workplace culture and profit margins. A recent Gartner study predicted that by 2022, 75% of companies with diverse and inclusive decision making teams will exceed their financial targets (3). Read the case study and learn more about how you can utilize corporate training to improve workplace safety.