Diversity And Inclusion Training Topics: Everything You Need to Know

There are many diversity and inclusion training topics that companies need to consider as they roll out diversity initiatives. Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Training is important for modern organizations in handling a diverse team—including the fight against discrimination, prejudice, and other forms of bias based on personal opinions and beliefs—to optimize advantages and lower hindrances caused by differing views and conducts of employees within a company.

Managing diversity and inclusions is one of the most challenging barriers that managers and their organizations encounter. Employees in modern workplaces remain diverse in religion, age, color, cultural history, and ethnicity. They also differ as per their viewpoints, lifestyle, perceptions, values, traditions, aspirations, capabilities, and knowledge. 

The diversity and inclusion (D&I) training highlights that all types of employees, notwithstanding their position and social standing, feel welcomed in the organizational environment and how the strategies embraced for promoting diversity and inclusion in the company are advantageous for the supervisors, employees, and the company.

If you are looking for modern diversity training that is used by companies such as Blackberry and Stanford University to help build empathy through narrative storytelling while using effective tactics to reduce social and psychological barriers to inclusion, equity, and diversity, contact Impactly today for a free demo.

Significance of workplace diversity and inclusion training 

Diversity and inclusion training has become crucial and prevalent as more and more companies understand the advantages of maintaining a diverse workforce. In addition, to promote workplace diversity, human resource managers learned that employing a diverse group of individuals is not enough, and the employees need thorough diversity and inclusion (D&I) training.

Below are some of the top advantages of introducing diversity and inclusion training courses in a workplace.

• Increased awareness

One of the most significant purposes of diversity and inclusion training is to increase awareness among the workforce regarding the distinctions in individuals based on their races, culture, ethnicities, beliefs, and experiences. Through informative, engaging, and applicable videos and other forms of educational content, employees will better comprehend various neglected concepts such as stereotyping, cultural competence, unconscious prejudice, etc.

• Involvement of the top-level administration 

In comprehensive diversity and inclusion training, the opinions and practices included in the D&I training program get executed at all levels in your company. 

In addition, the diversity and inclusion training program impacts the managers to evolve as role models to establish expectations about how positive organizational culture should be. Furthermore, the diversity and inclusion (D&I) training program facilitates transparent and flexible interaction between managers and employees.

• Better workplace sensitivity 

One of the fundamental concepts in modern diversity and inclusion (D&I) training is workplace sensitivity. With this concept, your workforce remains motivated to accept the differences between different workers. It further describes how people's conduct and perspective towards this distinction can deliberately or unintentionally humiliate the other employees. 

Furthermore, when employees remain sensitive towards each other's conduct, the understanding brought by the diversity and inclusion training program can assist them in preventing harassment and prejudice at all ranks in the workplace.

What are the various diversity and inclusion training topics?

Below are some of the most prevalent diversity and inclusion topics that you can use as examples to promote better organizational diversity and inclusion. 

1. Public awareness of unconscious prejudice 

Unconscious bias, also known as concealed or implicit bias, is a significant barrier to workplace diversity and inclusion. Unconscious prejudice happens when individuals make decisions and take cognitive shortcuts based on stereotypes about skin tone, ethnicity, gender, age, or other measures, whether favorable or adverse.

Unconscious discrimination training for all workers, including hiring supervisors, can increase awareness of the numerous types of unconscious prejudice and lower its influence on workplace rules, procedures, and strategies.

2. Identifying microaggressions

Microaggressions refer to a psychological concept that has been present in workplaces for years and is a crucial topic of diversity and inclusion training. In simpler terms, microaggressions are oral, non-verbal, and insults, rebuffs, or abuses that express aggressive, demeaning, or harmful messages to members coming from a marginalized group, whether deliberate or unintended.

In addition, workplace microaggressions comprise the following:

• Commenting about a person's looks or skin tone
• Constantly interrupting females in discussions
• Supposing someone's sexual orientation remains based on their physical features

These ostensibly innocuous statements, often the outcome of unconscious prejudice, have been likened to workplace burnout, health problems, and other damaging consequences. 

In addition, employees who are the victims of these microaggressions and witnesses benefit from this diversity and inclusion training topic as it acquaints them with what microaggressions are and how to react to them.

3. Allyship and bystander intervention

Bystander intervention and allyship training topics emerged as the most efficient approaches to interrupt unacceptable conduct before it escalates into illegal discrimination. 

In addition, as per EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), this training topic has become a potential game-changer for modern workplaces. It holds a beneficial impact in infusing a feeling of collective accountability among workers. Being an optimistic bystander can likewise aid with diversity and inclusion endeavors.

In addition, your workforce understands how to present support and compassion for their marginalized or underrepresented colleagues. They learn diverse ways to be supporters and partners for their colleagues who are targets of discrimination, microaggressions, and other non-inclusive behavior. 

Why is diversity and inclusion training essential in the modern workplace?

The feature of contemporary organizations concerns two fundamental factors. The primary is the number of people working collectively, and the other is the diversity in the company. Both elements result from years of collaboration and integration between entirely different people, either biologically or culturally. 

Yet, there can be a conflict between the workers, leading to a toxic organizational environment. Here are some of the problems that can arise in your workplace if you do not conduct diversity and inclusion training. 

• Ignorance: Ignorance is the primary issue arising from lack of diversity and inclusion. It refers to the lack of familiarity amongst existing workers regarding the diverse cultures or experiences of other employees. This unawareness can lead to prejudice or harassment in your organization. 

• Reduced productivity: The incapability to work as one team usually results in a reduction in the overall productivity of your workforce. In addition, it is significantly evident whether the workers remain engaged on a group task or send data between departments. 

• Brief tenures: The less-than-ideal organizational atmosphere will lead to numerous workers deciding to leave. These short terms will perhaps hurt the organizations.

• Unfavorable reputation: Another drawback of not incorporating this training is that the bad adventures that workers go through will get public. Other people will abstain from joining the business due to this prominence.

The effectiveness of diversity and inclusion training programs

Many people think that merely attending these diversity and inclusion training programs will lead to an overall change. All these beliefs analyzed above in the training topics should not be just opinions. Instead, the organizations should make intended actions to set specific approaches or procedures in place. These techniques will assist in incorporating these concepts more seamlessly in building a productive working environment. 

Final words 

As modern companies interact with different races due to globalization, organizations must hold positive knowledge with any individual. Therefore, companies must include diversity and inclusion topics that can help them create a diverse and culturally sensitive workplace. 

It indicates that the employees can abstain from making rash decisions concerning their nationality. In addition, companies that deliver diversity and inclusion training to their workforce should concentrate on specialized sessions with continuous topics to bring a truly diverse and inclusive organization. It implies that people feel connected and valued, and likewise, they feel more engaged in work, thus, resulting in improved productivity.