Effective Diversity Training Methods

Did you know that there are up to five generations in today’s workforce? Nearly one-third of the workforce consists of people of color, and nearly one-half of employees are women. These statistics continue to evolve as businesses begin to accept and understand the basic necessity for diversity. To ensure inclusion within your company, it’s imperative to adopt effective diversity training methods. Your employees need to uncover their unconscious biases and learn how to respectfully affirm and interact with those of different backgrounds. 

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Why Is Diversity Important?

To understand the best ways to train your employees in diversity, you must first understand why it matters:

• Respect. At a basic level, diversity is important simply because every individual deserves the same level of respect. It’s about acknowledging the differences of others and seeing others as equal despite these dissimilarities.
• Innovation. Dissimilarities are key to forming innovative ideas and out-of-the-box solutions. For instance, employees of the same background will likely think very similarly, whereas employees with diverse backgrounds can draw on varying experiences to come up with unique suggestions.
• Employee engagement and retention. A survey done by Korn/Ferry International revealed that, yearly, nearly 2 million people quit their jobs due to unfairness in the workplace. This equates to an employer loss of about $64 billion per year in hiring costs.
• Increased revenue. According to the American Sociological Review, the most diverse businesses bring in 15 times more sales revenue compared to businesses with the least amount of diversity.

With all of these benefits of diversity for individuals and organizations, it’s clear to see that having a diverse workforce and an accepting company culture is necessary to thrive.

What Is Diversity Training?

There are different types of diversity training because diversity training addresses many unique characteristics of your employees, such as:

• Nationality
• Ethnicity
• Race
• Gender
• Religion
• Age
• Sexual orientation
• Socioeconomic status
• Physical ability
• Mental ability

The goal of diversity training is more than getting your employees to simply “tolerate” differences. Effective diversity and inclusion training courses should shift your team’s perspectives to fully accept, acknowledge, and see the value in the dissimilarities between team members. This is what fosters respectful communication between coworkers and cultivates a positive, inclusive workplace culture.

Top Diversity Training Methods

When you’re ready to design an effective diversity training program for your company, consider incorporating the following diversity training methods for the most effective results.

Diversity Assessment

How can you improve diversity without knowing how employees feel about the state of diversity in their workplace? While your company may appear to be diverse on paper, this doesn’t reveal how diverse employees are being treated.

An effective way to gain an understanding of employee perception of diversity in their workplace is by administering an assessment. Create an assessment that gauges what degree diversity needs to be improved. This assessment should hone in on particular areas of need and if there are issues between workers (e.g., between equals, superiors vs subordinates, etc.). From here, you can build the rest of your training or take action to address key issues identified from the survey.

Teach Relevant Skills

Skills-based training is still applicable when it comes to diversity. There are specific soft skills that can help improve interactions between differing individuals. To promote an environment for diverse workers to thrive and feel included, prioritize equipping every team member with the following skills:

• Communication
• Conflict
• Cultural competency
• Emotional intelligence
• Teamwork
• Workplace conduct

Include other relevant soft skills in your diversity training program as you see fit.

Interactive Exercises

Diversity is about how individuals interact with one another. That’s why it’s important to actively talk through diversity and practice new skills with team members.

Diversity Activity

Consider starting the discussion on diversity with a relaxed icebreaker, such as Diversity Works from HRDQ. Beginning with a low-stress activity allows employees to ease into the learning process and feel more open to speaking. This particular activity asks participants to work together to complete fun, problem-solving tasks that each have an objective pertaining to diversity. However, you could even start with something as simple as asking the group, “What does diversity mean to you?”

Diversity Game

Another way to get employees talking about diversity and applying their newly-learned knowledge is through a game, like tossing around HRDQ’s Diversity Thumball. Each side of the ball features a different topic related to diversity. Ask the participants to pass the ball and answer the prompt until each employee has spoken. There are also plenty of other diversity games you can implement, so feel free to pick one – or a few! – that you believe will help open the group discussion.

Increase Diversity with HRDQ

Addressing diversity and creating an inclusive work environment is imperative in today’s world. Yes, there are many advantages for your organization when there is more workplace diversity, but at the true heart of diversity training are the people. Everyone should feel a sense of belonging in their place of work.

If you need assistance implementing these effective diversity training methods, explore the full HRDQ diversity and inclusion collection. Our training consultants are here to equip you with the tools you need to promote and encourage diversity within your team and throughout your business. Get started today!