Diversity and inclusion training programs often fall short when they lack measurable objectives and fail to engage the right audience. No wonder Unconscious Bias training is considered of little value. To make DEI initiatives more effective, organizations should focus on:
- Setting measurable, data-driven objectives to track real behavioral changes, such as the diversity of recruitment pools and the fairness of decision-making processes.
- Engaging the unengaged by embedding inclusion into regular leadership, technical, and skills development training, making it relevant and applicable to all employees.
- Building practical inclusion through top-down commitment and empowering middle managers to integrate DEI into daily operations. This approach will create more inclusive and high-performing teams.
Are you frustrated that your DEI efforts aren’t producing results? Are you annoyed that unconscious bias training is considered enough? Are you worried that your budget is going to get cut if you don’t show some evidence of change?
Is this the end for diversity and inclusion training programs?
Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result; but it is clear that despite the huge momentum at the start of the decade, DEI is under threat. Budgets are being reduced, high profile heads of DEI are quietly being let go and accusations of ‘woke-ism’ are being added to the ways in which outspoken CEOs and politicians undermine the inclusion agenda.
In this article, we’re going to look at three ways you can implement an effective diversity and inclusion program – one that not only builds real, sustainable inclusion but one that makes the CEO sit up and notice. Firstly, we’ll look at setting objectives that can be measured, then we’ll work through engaging the unengaged in learning that makes a difference and finally, we’ll examine building practical inclusion into the DNA of your organization.
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Measurable objectives for diversity and inclusion training
I worked as a people and culture manager for an organization that only had one diversity metric required for DEI learning – percentage of employees who have completed the training. I didn’t even need numbers – and thereby identifying who hadn’t done the training – I just had to hit a specific percentage of attendees.
I delivered a session on equity in hiring with one team of 20 people. 18 of them sat with laptops open, obviously and unashamedly doing other work. When I refused to sign them ‘in’ to the training, the head of department overruled and said, they were in the classroom, could hear the training and therefore attended.
And for eLearning, I reported on the average score in the final quiz at the end…
So, what should we be measuring? One of the engineering companies we work with has taken a data-driven approach to identifying how to implement an effective DEI learning culture.
Why are we doing this?
They started from the perspective that all training must change something, usually a behavior. And that behavior must be one that impacts the business. And if training is going to change something, they needed to find the thing that is less good and measure how successful they were in improving it. Diversity metrics only matter if we are trying to change them!
They asked themselves, ‘How are we doing in recruiting? Do we measure how rejected candidates feel about the opportunity and recruitment experience? Have we examined how inclusive our recruitment process is? How do we recruit for talent, not cultural fit?’
The answers to these questions gave clear insight into how effective the efforts of the DEI team were. They were able to see if there was genuine equity in hiring.
If the workplace diversity is not representative of the local communities you are present in, then your recruitment is not working inclusively. And that isn’t just about race and gender. We must consider the intersectionality of characteristics as well as some characteristics that get forgotten. Neurodiversity, accent and language, social status and background are just some of the ‘uncool’ characteristics we often overlook.
The engineering company was able to measure the workplace diversity of people recruited against the diversity of the general population. And that means they had a qualitative data point to measure the effectiveness of unconscious bias and inclusive recruitment training. And this diversity metric can be used to look at the entire employee lifecycle – rewards and bonuses, promotions, disciplinary hearings and grievances.
Transparent processes
But the stakeholders didn’t stop there. They started to look at how key strategic project sponsors are appointed. Was there a transparent process which ensures the best person takes on high profile responsibilities? When an idea is put forward, what safety measures were in place to ensure it is attributed to the right person, rather than the loudest person?
And they identified that overwhelmingly a small group of people from the headquarters office was credited with 95% of the ideas and innovation – despite the fact for nearly a third of them, the headquarters had no employees with credible expertise in the relevant disciplines.
Clearly, the DEI training which had started to bring results in recruitment had not yet impacted psychological safety or decision-making. The training is being tweaked and supplemented to account for that blind spot now.
As we uncover these processes, we can see not only what is measurable but where our training needs to be targeted. Too often we design a standardized Unconscious Bias training which meets the needs of no one. Instead, we must build targeted inclusive leadership, inclusive recruitment, equitable rewards training – and so on.
Engaging the unengaged
I’m sitting at the front of a large meeting room, with innovative content, exciting activities and 100 reasons why inclusion is important to every member of the organization. But as the attendees cautiously and nervously edge into the room and take up the seats at the back, it’s clear that I’ve got the wrong people in the room.
This group is made up of people who always come to this kind of event.
They’re the ones who already give up valuable time to promote DEI event, the organizers of committees and ERGs, the ones who have a reputation for being awkward when the company is taking a shortcut… and there’s also a few others – the ones who’ll do almost anything for a free coffee, a cookie and 60 minutes away from their work.
Reaching the wrong audience
It’s an unspoken truth of DEI training that the people who need it most are the ones who attend least.
And one more uncomfortable truth: homophobes, racists and other bigots are not going to change their mind even in the most brilliantly designed and engaging training. Bigotry does not have a rational basis, so they will not be persuaded by your logic and carefully constructed activities.
If you want to engage the unengaged, be realistic and target your learning at what they think they need to know and learn. A training entitled, ‘What you’re doing wrong and what I think you should do instead,’ is not only in need of a better, catchier title, but it also doesn’t appeal to anyone who is reluctant to attend. We don’t like being told off and we don’t like being told to do things differently by someone who doesn’t understand our job.
Embedding DEI in all activities
The most-effective way to engage people in diversity and inclusion learning is to embed learning in everything they do normally. Leadership development is inclusion learning; technical skills development is inclusion learning; feedback skills is inclusion learning…
The organization I mentioned that I worked for before managed exactly this. When they introduced a new project management platform, the project team ran extensive training on how to use it and how to adapt project processes to the new platform. They provided options for those with neurodiversity needs, speakers of English as a second language and the partially sighted. And the project team also invited those less digitally confident (of any age) to one-to-one sessions.
The training demonstrated inclusivity. Trainers talked about how talking about project progress contributes to ‘belongingness.’ They discussed why it is essential to consider who you’re adding information for and how they might use it. They mentioned conventions and processes that were designed specifically to cater for difference in cultural approach, language and needs. It wasn’t perfect, but it was an excellent example of how inclusion is part of every conversation and not a separate topic.
How adults learn stuff
DEI often forgets the core principle of adult learning: adult learners learn through self-motivation and by solving problems they face. That means that some people will learn about inclusion because they have taken a personal interest in the ethical question and in equity.
But for the majority of your workforce, DEI learning might be interesting, but it doesn’t make their life easier or inspire them to be a better person. Embedding the principles in management training, feedback training, presentation and influencing skills, decision making skills gives me something tangible that appeals to me.
We’re not saying that we need to hide away the nasty pill of DEI and ignore the historical and present injustices perpetrated by deliberate and accidental acts of bias, ignorance and privilege. On the contrary, we still have a huge amount of awareness-raising to do.
However, it’s a harsh truth: if we want the learning to stick, it has to be connected to something I want to change in myself – we need a selfish reason to be engaged.
Practical Inclusion
Let’s assume that we’ve sorted out the measurable objectives and engagement challenges. How can we get it to work in practice? How can we build an inclusive organization through effective learning and training?
Embedding inclusion into all the other L&D programs you’re running will go a long way and has an additional advantage – given that DEI budgets are in decline, ‘borrowing’ from L&D enhances the L&D offer and increases inclusive behaviors.
But even better is starting at the top and ensuring there is 100% commitment and buy-in at the top and then work your way down. Make sure that there is a C-Suite sponsor with the authority to deal with the powerful resistors.
Getting buy-in
Working as a people and culture lead just before COVID, I overheard a senior leader tell their report, a manager of a team of 60 people, ‘Don’t worry – just get them to do the course. Give them the answers if necessary so they get a pass mark and then carry on as you’ve been doing.’ This influential leader reduced the entire DEI effort to waste in two short sentences and an exasperated tone.
To build practical inclusion, you must ‘sell’ the benefits of inclusion. That’s not just the ‘fuzzy’ ones – better wellbeing, kinder workplace, better relationships (Forbes). And it’s not the ones that are too big to be easily measurable (30% increased profitability - Mckinsey).
An inclusive team just works better. It’s uncommon common sense. When people belong, they contribute more fully. When they trust each other, they collaborate effectively. When they’re committed to the team, they put in their full effort.
Exclusion adversely impacts performance of the whole team
But if they feel that things are not fair, that some have an advantage over the other, they do the bare minimum, they don’t volunteer their best ideas. It’s not a conscious decision, but experience has told them there’s no point, so they don’t waste their energy.
A manager who doesn’t want to improve the performance of their team must be removed. And inclusion is one of the easiest ways to boost performance in very specific and measurable ways. And so, our final suggestion is to focus on the ‘lost middle’ – middle managers. Build courses and programs that activate the spine of your organization. The people with the most influence on the operation of your business.
Middle managers are the ones who have to ‘put up with’ their team being dragged away to do mandatory DEI learning that ‘adds nothing to their productivity.’ So, change the narrative. Help them understand that effective diversity and inclusion learning is a key management tool. It’s something that they can’t manage without.
Too often tailored DEI programs develop ‘inclusive leadership’ for senior leaders – and then everyone else is expected to learn from a generic ‘all staff’ program. Make a point of building a practical, hands-on program that focuses on role modelling for performance.
Diversity fatigue
Don’t be fooled by the headlines and articles talking about diversity fatigue. Don’t listen to the anti-woke warriors. When diversity is positioned as a problem, it’s often because people are reacting to a misunderstanding about why they should be involved in it.
We can’t have diversity fatigue while 51% of the world’s population is likely to receive 80% of the pay that a man does for the same work. Someone with a ‘foreign-sounding’ name is 3 times less likely to be called for interview. Someone with darker skin pigmentation is 5.9 times more likely to receive a custodial prison sentence than a white person.
For those who are excluded, diversity fatigue is real. They are tired of being excluded.
And businesses suffer because of it.
Refocusing your measurable objectives, engaging the real audience and making it practical are three ways you can not only build a genuinely equitable organization, but you can also add real value to your business.
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