DEIB Training: Your Guide to an Inclusive Workplace

Today’s employers must implement and master several leadership components, the most important of which is ensuring every employee feels seen, accepted and valued. But, how can people in C-suite positions make sure each team member has a positive experience in the workplace? One answer is diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) training. 

An understanding and appreciation of the people around you is vital for creating a healthy work culture, and that means every employee needs to be given the same high-quality and consistent DEIB instruction. 

Continue reading to discover more about diversity and inclusion, proper training and how you can promote a healthy and happy workplace.

Diversity in the Workplace

DEIB stands for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and has become a guiding light for business and human resource strategies as companies build more inclusive workplaces. DEIB is best understood when looked at both at a granular and high level, namely its four key elements and collectively as an initiative for companies to implement. 

• Diversity: How varied a company is based on terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, physical ability, religion and other characteristics. With this initiative, employers should focus on hiring people with a wide range of life experiences.
• Equity: Determined by a workplace’s fairness. The goal of equity is to ensure all employees have equal opportunities to grow and progress within the company. 
• Inclusion: Highlights the importance of a welcoming environment for all. Employers should focus on making everybody’s voices heard and allow each team member the opportunity to share their opinion.
• Belonging: This new addition to DEIB values represents the relationships among employees. Every person should belong, no matter their background. 

Although every person must be on board with DEIB efforts for the workplace to thrive, employers are responsible for setting expectations and holding the business accountable. One way for leaders to achieve this is by implementing intensive DEIB training. 

Importance of DEIB Training

DEIB initiatives are important first and foremost because each person in your organization deserves to feel like they’re essential and belong at their workplace. In general, DEIB companies have been found to be more successful than their counterparts who don’t pursue DEIB. According to Drive Research, companies that employ an equal number of men and people of other genders manage to produce up to 41% higher revenue than those that don’t. Also, inclusive companies are up to 120% more likely to hit their financial goals. 

That being said, diverse and inclusive organizations are more able to produce quality work, and that starts with education. 

By prioritizing DEIB training and providing readily available resources, your HR staff will be better equipped to hire a diverse workforce. And, staff may be more understanding of how to treat people who are different from themselves. 

There’s no one-size fits all approach to diversity training, but there are four important types of training to help you achieve your organization’s goals:

1. Awareness training: This is the first step to creating positive change in your business. It involves giving your employees information about workplace demographics, sexual orientation, gender, race, ethnicity and other defining features. 

2. Skills-based diversity training: Focus on specific actions people at different levels within your business can take to ensure all employees are well-equipped with practical DEIB skills. 

3. Diversity audits: Give your company checkpoints to determine if your DEIB efforts are bettering the work environment and encouraging employee respect. 

4. Diversity training: Create respect and empathy in your workforce by providing more in-depth inclusion training on anti-racism and anti-sexism practices, cultural sensitivity and human resource compliance requirements. 

What Is Unconscious Bias?

One important factor often overlooked when undergoing DEIB training is unconscious bias. This refers to assumptions, beliefs or attitudes that people have without being aware of them, and they can lead to skewed judgments and prejudiced, unfounded thoughts about people, according to Asana.

There are different types of unconscious bias to be aware of:

• Affinity bias: This type of bias leads you to favor people like you. You may feel comforted by people with similar backgrounds, experiences and personal traits. Affinity bias can make you want to avoid people who are unlike you or treat them differently than people to whom you relate. 

• Attribution bias: In a scenario involving attribution bias, you excuse your own behavior as a response to circumstances, but if someone else acts the same way, you assume it’s part of their character or personality. This can make you generate assumptions about people without knowing them or understanding their motivations. 

• Confirmation bias: For those that unconsciously struggle with confirmation bias, you may purposefully attempt to seek out evidence you think confirms your initial thoughts or beliefs about someone, and overlook any facts that challenge them. 

Although these types of biases occur naturally in every person’s mind, your team should know what they are and work toward changing or eliminating them.

Ensuring a Healthy Workplace

To build up employees and create a healthy environment in which every person is valued, make certain that you cover the following topics during training:

• Common workplace diversity issues: By giving your employees examples of the problems that underrepresented minority groups face (such as gender gap statistics), you can make these issues more concrete and help people become aware of them.

• Beliefs and challenges around unconscious bias: Help your team better understand themselves and why they think the way they do. 

• Feelings and motivations: Each person in your team is driven by different things. Give everybody a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the people around them to improve working relationships. 

• Standing up in issues of workplace discrimination: Equip your staff with the tools and words necessary for intervening when they witness racial bias, microaggressions or non-inclusive situations of any kind. 

• Contributing to an inclusive workplace culture: On top of standing up for marginalized people, help colleagues learn how to support their colleagues and better the business environment. 

Because DEIB training is so important, you need to choose the best possible type of training for your company. Online, video-based training keeps the information being shared consistent and accessible, whether your workforce works remotely or completely in person. Browse course topics by name or filter by topic category to find the classes that your company needs, and make those training videos a part of your core DEIB training program with ease. 

Find modern training through MasteryTCN, and continue working toward a more inclusive workplace.