Diversity Training
Dec. 19th, 2021 05:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis article suggests ways to make diversity training more effective.
It seems like a good start.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives directly impact an organization’s culture and financial success. However, there’s often a gap between diversity training programs and achieving a truly inclusive workplace.
Well, yeah. Diversity training won't help if your CEO is a Klansman or your staff is almost all homogenous. You have to actually hire different kinds of people and then not piss them off so bad they leave.
Also, diversity isn't necessarily warranted in every business. If you are blending makeup for Asian women, your staff should be mostly or all Asian women, as they will likely understand both the products and the customers better and they have a right to make their own stuff. If you are trying to create a palette from which any person should be able to mix a personal foundation shade, then you need a wide variety of staff so they'll know that the chemistry needed for different ethnic groups varies somewhat, not just color -- black skin tends to be drier and you have to avoid creating the "chalky" or "ashy" effect, etc.
1. Offer freedom of choice
It's hard to go wrong with this as long as your offered options are all good.
Ask employees for their input on what training should consist of and allow them to choose topics of interest from a large library of content.
This is important because:
* Different people have different knowledge and skills already. Repeating it wastes time; let them learn something new.
* One department may have communication-based friction while another has time-based friction. They will benefit from different solutions and thus training materials.
* People have different learning modes that work better for them. If you force everyone to watch a video, your text learners will retain very little of it.
Plus if you give people a library of options, you can also add incentives:
* Everyone is responsible for completing 3 learning modules by the end of the week, to be selected based on their preferred learning mode and what they feel would be most helpful.
* Anyone completing 5 modules will be invited to an office party on Friday with delicious catered snacks.
* Anyone completing 10 modules this month will earn an extra vacation day.
* Anyone completing 15 modules gets an entry into a lottery with a $500 prize, plus assorted smaller prizes.
* The company plans to assemble a diversity team who will get a pay raise to compensate for their extra work. Those who complete 20+ modules in two months will become eligible for a weekend workshop, and the team will be chosen from among the workshop attendees who perform best.
2. Make it easy to participate
I would say, include an easy level. Bear in mind people find different things easy or difficult. I would find a phone conversation odious, but would not hesitate to chug a 300-page book in a day.
Since many people enjoy a challenge, I would also include more adventurous options. For example, this scale goes roughly from easier to harder:
* Watch a 20-minute video on black culture.
* Read an issue of Ebony and discuss it with a group of coworkers who also selected this option.
* Read an anthology of short stories by different black authors.
* Listen to the current top 10 songs in the Jazz, Blues, or Soul genres.
* Find matching articles on a current issue relevant to your job, one from a white author and one from a black author; compare and contrast their perspectives in a written response.
* Visit a museum showing black artwork and take a tour led by a black tour guide.
* Eat a meal at a restaurant serving African or African-American cuisine.
* Volunteer at a soup kitchen or other charity in a black neighborhood.
* Offer to be a gofer for a black professional at a conference.
* Identify a black professional in your field and study their work in depth, then discuss it with your supervisor.
* Choose a current issue that black people are struggling with and formulate a plan how this company could assist in solving it.
If you have a bunch of people doing lots of different things over time -- if you make this a regular part of your company activities -- then you will gradually build up more diverse experiences. You also increase the chance of people making friends across ethnic lines, which is a real marker of success. Because the more people experience things from other cultures, the more they have to talk about with coworkers in those cultures. If you've got an American, a Japanese, and a Bangladeshi all dissecting the latest Bollywood hit around the water cooler, you're doing it right.
3. Encourage participants to set goals
Goals are essential for two reasons:
1) They translate awareness into action. Without that, you're just ticking a box.
2) They allow you to measure results. Without that, you can't tell which methods work well, so-so, or backfire.
I'd say give people a list of different goal frameworks and let them pick what works best for them. Goals can be public or private, but make sure there is some accountability to track who meets theirs or not.
4. Include perspective-taking exercises
Well, you really need to put the bottom rungs on the ladder first. Show how to describe a perspective on a topic and break it down into aspects based on personal experience or worldview. Discuss some ways that perspectives can differ. Browse examples of perspectives from diverse people. Discuss how they actually differ. Start with exercises that feature a group of similar characters where the idea is to describe the perspective each character might have (e.g. a group of friends deciding which movie to watch). Then hand out the exercises for diversity perspective-taking so people can apply what they've learned. Because if you start with the diversity exercises, the people who lack the skills will be confused, not do well, and not learn much. You have to actually teach the skills.
I would add, cultivate a diverse culture at your company in general. If it's just a training module, it won't stick. Things you can do beyond just hiring diverse employees and putting them in positions of authority:
* Make an effort to connect like-minded people. Attach new employees to a mentor who is similar to them. Offer clubs or other social opportunities if your company is big enough. Just having multiples of each type helps reduce tokenism.
* Encourage people to mingle across groups. If they tend to separate, have a "mix it up at lunch" day or similar. Assemble mixed teams for projects.
* Reward employees with good diversity skills. These are people to promote. Don't reward or promote those who can't handle working in a mixed group.
* If you celebrate holidays and decorate for them, tap as many as possible in your employees and customers. Don't just do Christmas, do Chanukkah and Yule and Kwanzaa. Get someone who celebrates each holiday to represent it. Encourage people to bring and share their favorite holiday foods. People love food and it's great for bonding.
* Make sure your company materials are inclusive. Queerfolk should feel free to bring their emfriend to a party. Black folks should feel comfortable choosing an ethnic hairstyle or clothing. To get that, you have to make sure the wording of documents doesn't rule out such things or make other things sound better.
Evidence-based training is the most important thing. A lot of it is flimflam. Look for evaluations of past events or materials. A good program should be able to show you numbers of improvement. If they can't prove it's working, it might not be. Find something with proof. If nobody will cough up numbers, do your own statistics to determine which methods are more effective.
It seems like a good start.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives directly impact an organization’s culture and financial success. However, there’s often a gap between diversity training programs and achieving a truly inclusive workplace.
Well, yeah. Diversity training won't help if your CEO is a Klansman or your staff is almost all homogenous. You have to actually hire different kinds of people and then not piss them off so bad they leave.
Also, diversity isn't necessarily warranted in every business. If you are blending makeup for Asian women, your staff should be mostly or all Asian women, as they will likely understand both the products and the customers better and they have a right to make their own stuff. If you are trying to create a palette from which any person should be able to mix a personal foundation shade, then you need a wide variety of staff so they'll know that the chemistry needed for different ethnic groups varies somewhat, not just color -- black skin tends to be drier and you have to avoid creating the "chalky" or "ashy" effect, etc.
1. Offer freedom of choice
It's hard to go wrong with this as long as your offered options are all good.
Ask employees for their input on what training should consist of and allow them to choose topics of interest from a large library of content.
This is important because:
* Different people have different knowledge and skills already. Repeating it wastes time; let them learn something new.
* One department may have communication-based friction while another has time-based friction. They will benefit from different solutions and thus training materials.
* People have different learning modes that work better for them. If you force everyone to watch a video, your text learners will retain very little of it.
Plus if you give people a library of options, you can also add incentives:
* Everyone is responsible for completing 3 learning modules by the end of the week, to be selected based on their preferred learning mode and what they feel would be most helpful.
* Anyone completing 5 modules will be invited to an office party on Friday with delicious catered snacks.
* Anyone completing 10 modules this month will earn an extra vacation day.
* Anyone completing 15 modules gets an entry into a lottery with a $500 prize, plus assorted smaller prizes.
* The company plans to assemble a diversity team who will get a pay raise to compensate for their extra work. Those who complete 20+ modules in two months will become eligible for a weekend workshop, and the team will be chosen from among the workshop attendees who perform best.
2. Make it easy to participate
I would say, include an easy level. Bear in mind people find different things easy or difficult. I would find a phone conversation odious, but would not hesitate to chug a 300-page book in a day.
Since many people enjoy a challenge, I would also include more adventurous options. For example, this scale goes roughly from easier to harder:
* Watch a 20-minute video on black culture.
* Read an issue of Ebony and discuss it with a group of coworkers who also selected this option.
* Read an anthology of short stories by different black authors.
* Listen to the current top 10 songs in the Jazz, Blues, or Soul genres.
* Find matching articles on a current issue relevant to your job, one from a white author and one from a black author; compare and contrast their perspectives in a written response.
* Visit a museum showing black artwork and take a tour led by a black tour guide.
* Eat a meal at a restaurant serving African or African-American cuisine.
* Volunteer at a soup kitchen or other charity in a black neighborhood.
* Offer to be a gofer for a black professional at a conference.
* Identify a black professional in your field and study their work in depth, then discuss it with your supervisor.
* Choose a current issue that black people are struggling with and formulate a plan how this company could assist in solving it.
If you have a bunch of people doing lots of different things over time -- if you make this a regular part of your company activities -- then you will gradually build up more diverse experiences. You also increase the chance of people making friends across ethnic lines, which is a real marker of success. Because the more people experience things from other cultures, the more they have to talk about with coworkers in those cultures. If you've got an American, a Japanese, and a Bangladeshi all dissecting the latest Bollywood hit around the water cooler, you're doing it right.
3. Encourage participants to set goals
Goals are essential for two reasons:
1) They translate awareness into action. Without that, you're just ticking a box.
2) They allow you to measure results. Without that, you can't tell which methods work well, so-so, or backfire.
I'd say give people a list of different goal frameworks and let them pick what works best for them. Goals can be public or private, but make sure there is some accountability to track who meets theirs or not.
4. Include perspective-taking exercises
Well, you really need to put the bottom rungs on the ladder first. Show how to describe a perspective on a topic and break it down into aspects based on personal experience or worldview. Discuss some ways that perspectives can differ. Browse examples of perspectives from diverse people. Discuss how they actually differ. Start with exercises that feature a group of similar characters where the idea is to describe the perspective each character might have (e.g. a group of friends deciding which movie to watch). Then hand out the exercises for diversity perspective-taking so people can apply what they've learned. Because if you start with the diversity exercises, the people who lack the skills will be confused, not do well, and not learn much. You have to actually teach the skills.
I would add, cultivate a diverse culture at your company in general. If it's just a training module, it won't stick. Things you can do beyond just hiring diverse employees and putting them in positions of authority:
* Make an effort to connect like-minded people. Attach new employees to a mentor who is similar to them. Offer clubs or other social opportunities if your company is big enough. Just having multiples of each type helps reduce tokenism.
* Encourage people to mingle across groups. If they tend to separate, have a "mix it up at lunch" day or similar. Assemble mixed teams for projects.
* Reward employees with good diversity skills. These are people to promote. Don't reward or promote those who can't handle working in a mixed group.
* If you celebrate holidays and decorate for them, tap as many as possible in your employees and customers. Don't just do Christmas, do Chanukkah and Yule and Kwanzaa. Get someone who celebrates each holiday to represent it. Encourage people to bring and share their favorite holiday foods. People love food and it's great for bonding.
* Make sure your company materials are inclusive. Queerfolk should feel free to bring their emfriend to a party. Black folks should feel comfortable choosing an ethnic hairstyle or clothing. To get that, you have to make sure the wording of documents doesn't rule out such things or make other things sound better.
Evidence-based training is the most important thing. A lot of it is flimflam. Look for evaluations of past events or materials. A good program should be able to show you numbers of improvement. If they can't prove it's working, it might not be. Find something with proof. If nobody will cough up numbers, do your own statistics to determine which methods are more effective.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-12-20 04:26 am (UTC)With these examples, even with a homogenous advertising and product development crew, you may have more diversity in the mailroom, accounting department, or deliveries.
>>Plus if you give people a library of options, you can also add incentives:
* Everyone is responsible for completing 3 learning modules by the end of the week, to be selected based on their preferred learning mode and what they feel would be most helpful.
* Anyone completing 5 modules will be invited to an office party on Friday with delicious catered snacks.
* Anyone completing 10 modules this month will earn an extra vacation day.
* Anyone completing 15 modules gets an entry into a lottery with a $500 prize, plus assorted smaller prizes.
* The company plans to assemble a diversity team who will get a pay raise to compensate for their extra work. Those who complete 20+ modules in two months will become eligible for a weekend workshop, and the team will be chosen from among the workshop attendees who perform best.<<
Keep in mind:
1) Completing modules should be paid work. (Ditto for the workshop.
2) Activities outside the usual work hours may not be welcomed, especially if mandatory.
3) Food rewards actually create a few problems:
3a. Some people will have medical, religious, or psychological issues with certain food. It is best to try and accommodate these, if possible, both in diversity of offerings and by not making the food-related activities mandatory or the only reward.
3b. I do believe there is a recent-ish social trend where the food-as-reward offered by workplaces is being seen as an insult (think "Thanks for all your hard work, have some discount pretzels.") Some people are saying they'd prefer bonuses or raises to [pretzels, speeches, effusive thanks] because a bonus lets you pay your rent.
Granted, there may be better ways to do food-rewards-at-work that I have not seen, but I think the topic should be approached with forethought and sensitivity.
>>Make an effort to connect like-minded people. <<
Commonality Connection is a good way to bond with people - even if they are on the surface very different from you.
>>Reward employees with good diversity skills. These are people to promote. Don't reward or promote those who can't handle working in a mixed group.<<
Also look for people who are generally liked and respected. And especially keep an eye out for if a minority person considers a more privileged person as a hmmm, safe person re challenges or discrimination.*
*Examples:
- the guy who can listen to a long rant about sexual harassment and is then willing to talk to the aggressor if asked
- the recent immigrant's cultural 'Translator Buddy' who is their go-to person for all the 'this is weird and what do I do?' questions
- the boss who gets called in for / warned of minor inconveniences before they snowball
I find that generally, people will stand closer to and be more relaxed around a Safe Person. More extreme expressions tend to be obvious.
>>To get that, you have to make sure the wording of documents doesn't rule out such things or make other things sound better.<<
And pictures. Have pictures of queer couples, traditional hairstyles, differently shaped bridesmaids, disabled parents...whatever. (Heck, a small business could ask current clients if they want to model for ads.)
Thoughts
Date: 2021-12-20 06:07 am (UTC)That's possible. I like diversity in general, but I support the right of people to create targeted companies matching their audience.
>> 1) Completing modules should be paid work. (Ditto for the workshop. <<
I agree.
I also feel that if physical fitness is required, the exercise routine should be paid work. Hence why T-American police departments have an exercise room, sometimes a firing range and an obstacle course, but the latter two may be a share of independent facilities. Employee schedules include training time. Weekends usually see the obstacle course swarming with a mix of first responders, citizens training for an application test, and assorted other folks.
>> 2) Activities outside the usual work hours may not be welcomed, especially if mandatory. <<
That's why there's a list and people can pick what they want from it. If they don't want to step outside their routine, they can watch a video, read materials, or discuss with coworkers; but it's probably less interesting than dinner at an ethnic restaurant or going to a museum.
Anything mandatory must be paid for, otherwise it constitutes wage theft. If people have free at-work options, then the off-work options may or may not be compensated. Some companies will, for instance, get tickets to a concert they can hand out to interested parties. It gets butts in the seats for the local theatre and encourages cultural activity in the employees.
>> 3) Food rewards actually create a few problems:<<
There's nothing wrong with a food reward so long as it is an option not the only option. If you're not interested in that reward, you pick a different goal. For that matter, no one reward will please or necessarily be safe for everyone; hence the need for variety. Companies often ignore this.
Hell, it's legal here for an event to book whatever random food vendors apply, instead of being required to supply even the most basic of "at least one meat truck, at least one vegan/vegetarian truck, at least one allergy-friendly truck, etc." When they then say "no outside food," they might as well say "crips keep out, abled attendees only." It's bad enough for a building to ban outside food, given some people's private necessities; it's quite another to ban outside food outside.
When I said "delicious catered snacks" I meant hire an actual caterer to bring a meat tray, a cheese tray, a fruit/vegetable tray, and maybe something cute like a six-foot sub sandwich or sushi roll. Not just pizza or donuts. You know, the people who get paid to bring the treats for a party or a wedding. Though it's fine to have pizza or donuts if your employees love those things.
>> 3a. Some people will have medical, religious, or psychological issues with certain food. It is best to try and accommodate these, if possible, both in diversity of offerings and by not making the food-related activities mandatory or the only reward.<<
I agree that food-related activities should not be mandatory. I feel that a company which provides food is responsible for making sure there is something everyone can eat, to the extent personnel have chosen to disclose any dietary requirements. (Nobody is required to disclose, but if you don't, your employer is not responsible for meeting your secret needs.) A range of healthy to indulgent options should be available, but specific requirements will vary widely. One place might have lots of vegans, another paleo, this one Jewish, that one Muslim, etc. No point catering to what you don't need, especially since it's expensive.
>> 3b. I do believe there is a recent-ish social trend where the food-as-reward offered by workplaces is being seen as an insult (think "Thanks for all your hard work, have some discount pretzels.") Some people are saying they'd prefer bonuses or raises to [pretzels, speeches, effusive thanks] because a bonus lets you pay your rent.<<
It depends a lot on context.
Some people are insulted by junk food, others by health food. Some people might prefer food, others cash. But in general, food is bonding, and anything that undermines the food-bonding should be viewed with great suspicion less it fray already weak social ties. Seriously. I'm not kidding. You can sabotage a society this way.
>> Granted, there may be better ways to do food-rewards-at-work that I have not seen, but I think the topic should be approached with forethought and sensitivity.<<
There are. These include but are not limited to:
* Set up a healthy vending machine village or minimart in your breakroom.
* Stock your breakroom and/or vending machines with healthy snacks.
* To maximize health and productivity, offer mood-boosting foods, energizing foods, and nutritious foods. You can also throw in things like superfood packets if your folks like to make smoothies.
* Offer healthy snackbox subscriptions or make your own. As different companies cater to different tastes, this is an easy way to meet diverse dietary needs.
* Hire caterers who can accommodate special dietary needs and provide delicious healthy foods.
* People will appreciate indulgent treats more often if they are rare than if you have a pizza party every Friday. Even then, you can offer a range of options like cauliflower crust, whole wheat, or white crust pizza; fried or baked donuts.
One time I was at a con with a green room you could literally eat all meals out of, and that's pretty much what we did because daaaaamn. First time we went in there, a guy was manning a blender and would hand-make whatever salsa you wanted from several bags of fresh produce. There were always things like sandwich bread, salami, cheese, fresh fruit, etc. but thrice a day hot things appeared. Scrambled eggs for breakfast, pot of chili or pulled pork for lunch, stew for supper. Things that'd keep well and feed a crowd affordably, with a nice range of healthy to indulgent. We swarmed that place like locusts. Same thing works in a breakroom if you want to do that. It's not hard to run a crockpot.
>>Also look for people who are generally liked and respected. And especially keep an eye out for if a minority person considers a more privileged person as a hmmm, safe person re challenges or discrimination.*<<
Agreed.
>> And pictures. Have pictures of queer couples, traditional hairstyles, differently shaped bridesmaids, disabled parents...whatever. <<
Excellent idea, especially if your product catalog or corporate newsletter has people in it. I've seen a few places here doing that. Some of them have gotten boycotted for it. Several of these cases made more money because all the trait-havers showed up in droves to support them.
>> (Heck, a small business could ask current clients if they want to model for ads.) <<
Hence why Penny has supervillain models. :D
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-12-20 07:17 am (UTC)Some people are insulted by junk food, others by health food. Some people might prefer food, others cash. But in general, food is bonding, and anything that undermines the food-bonding should be viewed with great suspicion less it fray already weak social ties.<<
Specific context for this: It's tied into the current health crisis and resulting labor movement; I've heard people are apparently getting tired of the "Thanks for all your hard work" being... a box of cookies, instead of like, a livable wage and sane hours/treatment. (Quite frankly, I think they make a good point.)
Granted, it can be done well; a nicely catered meal could be a wonderful Black Friday treat for store employees. Pre-pandemic, it would be so busy at the stores that you couldn't buy lunch and get back in time. The stores I worked at usually just did a potluck.* And who knows what the holiday season will look like in another five, ten years...
*And for these potlucks? Fruit is my go-to food to bring in - few allergy issues, acceptable for halal/kosher/diabetic/vegetarian diets, and it won't crowd the fridge. (Sometimes I'd take ice/a cooler, or paper plates, etc - a lot of people forget nonfood stuff for potlucks.)
Personally, I'd say you can offer, but don't kick up a fuss if people decline. Be sure to have a variety of foods, not always the same thing, and offer other rewards too. If there are persistent issues, try to fix them, and fix them well. And make sure the food isn't trying to slap a Band-Aid on a traumatic amputation! (Which seems to line up fairly well with your points.)
>>Seriously. I'm not kidding. You can sabotage a society this way.<<
Or relationships. Or someone's mental health. Very [bleeping] badly, and you might not notice the damage until its already gone really, really wrong.
Conversely, if someone is willing to roll with whatever weirdness/otherness you've got going on, pay attention; that indicates someone who is being very attentive to your needs, and if that behavior is consistent, that person is potentially a very good friend/ally.
One of my fonder memories of bonding-as-food, was someone trying to coax me to eat...by giving me a fork. Person remembered I like to eat stuff with utensils, not fingers. And the remembering and acknowledging of my preferences did succeed in getting me to eat the offered food.