Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training?

If you are plotting to spend money on diversity training, WAIT!

You may be wasting your money if you haven’t done any foundation building. If diversity and inclusion are not first integrated into your business strategy, very small will change just by holding one or two day training classes. Organizations in all sectors make this mistake and don’t realize it until it is too late.

If you want to leverage the diversity you already have, increase the diversity of your organization, or prevent cultural misunderstandings you need to make a corporate culture that is inclusive at all levels, and in every system and process.

You can get everyone trained by a fantastic trainer, with a fantastic program, but when people leave your organization they take what they learned with them (if they still remember it) and your organization remains the same. Further, reaching resisters and naysayers of diversity efforts is unlikely only with training—a more multi-faceted approach is needed to help these individuals see the value of diversity in their organizations and to bring a greater number of people on board to the initiative.

Simma’s Strategies for Making an Inclusive Organization

Here are some of the steps that need to be taken in order to make an inclusive organization.

Start at the top. It must be championed and led by the CEO and other people in the executive team. Leadership of a diversity and inclusion initiative or culture change cannot be delegated. Other people can help drive it, but it must be viewed as coming from the top. That also means you need to start including it in conversations, discussions, newsletters and e-mail.

Assess your organization with surveys, focus groups and interviews in order to identify strengths, challenges and areas for improvement as it relates to diversity, inclusion and employee satisfaction in specific areas.

Make a cohesive vision and strategy that is agreed upon by members of the executive leadership team. Know where you are going.

Engage all levels of senior management. They need to be part of the vision and have a clear understanding of concepts, roles, business case and benefits, in order to help lead the change.

Develop a communication and information sharing strategy and process in order to share that vision throughout the organization. Send the message in such a way that you make middle manager and employee buy-in. Help them know how the diversity and inclusion/culture change process will benefit them personally, professionally and as an organization, That will involve internal marketing at all levels.

Use the results of the survey to address specific areas for improvement, most commonly; recruitment, interviewing, hiring, retention, promotion and routine evaluation. Examine your present organizational culture, and identify ways in which your organization can make a more inclusive background.

Define skills and behaviors that managers need in order to make the initiative/culture change a success and successfully lead a diverse workforce.

Conduct training for all levels of your organization in areas related to diversity and inclusion.

Set up a process for answerability at all levels, relating progress to compensation and evaluations.

Measure results, make the buzz and make it exciting (if its not fun, it won’t be done)

The amount of time, order and the steps themselves depend on your organization and goals, but if you want to go beyond compliance, hear new thoughts and best practices, reduce cultural misunderstanding and miscommunication, hire and retain the best of the best from everywhere, training alone won’t do it. Before you spend your next dollar on diversity training, question yourselves if you just want people to have a excellent day, learn and forget a few things or do you want ongoing change that will make you a target organization and the employer of choice.

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Image by USDAgov
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack speaks to Food Safety Inspection Service employees at the 2010 FSIS Diversity Training Conference in Arlington, Virginia, Tuesday, August 31, 2010. The theme of the conference is "Diversity in Thought, Unity in Purpose." The reason for the conference is to improve civil rights for clients and employees. USDA Photo 10di1475-71 by Bob Nichols,

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Tagged with: Diversity • money • Training • Wasting

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