DEI Education: Empower Employees for a More Equitable Workplace

Crafting a workplace culture with a firm foundation in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can dramatically improve your organization’s performance and standing in the business community.

Regardless of how new your organization is to the concept of DEI, culture change begins with buy-in and active participation from those in leadership positions – the people within your organization who set the tone for the broader business culture.

Here’s what you need to know about why DEI is essential in today’s business environment and how you can effectively provide DEI education in your organization.

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Making DEI education an essential part of your workplace culture prepares your employees to meet the needs of a globally diverse marketplace. They can proactively seek insight from a more diverse pool of experts, and innovate solutions that are more equitable and inclusive from the start.

A McKinsey study looking into how DEI impacts business results revealed, “The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.” Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams, for example, were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than those in the fourth quartile.

These findings have been echoed in other studies, with 75% of companies with diverse and inclusive decision-making teams exceeding their financial targets.

Sources: “Diversity wins: How inclusion matters”, McKinsey; “Diversity and Inclusion Build High-Performance Teams,” Gartner

Deloitte and the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative (BJKLI) conducted research into employee perceptions of DEI for the report “Unleashing the power of inclusion.” The findings were quite conclusive: Employees want to see DEI actively practiced throughout the organization.

80% said inclusion was important when choosing an employer.
39% would leave their current position to move to a more inclusive employer.
23% have already moved employers to find a more inclusive corporate culture.

One of the starkest findings in current DEI research has been what leads to ineffective investments in DEI education: a lack of corporate follow-through.

In fact, 71% of workers said they would rather work for an organization that demonstrated inclusive behaviors and had a mediocre DEI program than one that had an outstanding DEI program but lacked consistent inclusive behaviors.

What these findings illustrate is that for DEI education to be effective, managers and C-suite leadership must both champion DEI initiatives and lead through example.

When that enthusiastic participation from leadership is lacking, employees notice. An analysis by McKinsey of workforce comments related to inclusion and diversity within organizations across all industries showed a largely negative opinion of leadership. An average of 51% of the total mentions about inclusivity and diversity were related to leadership, with 56% of those citing negative experiences.

Managers are uniquely positioned to model positive DEI behaviors in their organizations.

Transforming an organization’s culture truly begins with introspection and behavior adoption at the management level. Managers should be the first employees to engage in DEI education programs.

Once buy-in is won at the management level, granting them the authority to change processes with an eye to improving DEI in your organization will remove barriers and create opportunities to build a more inclusive and equitable culture.

To this point, Katie Sutherland, senior principal, advisory in the Gartner HR practice, explains, “HR and DEI leaders need to support managers with the necessary tools to build authentic relationships with the underrepresented talent on their teams, so that they have a better, more holistic view of their team members and can advocate for them appropriately.”

Source: “Gartner HR Research Finds Organizations are Falling Short on Leveraging Managers to Champion DEI Efforts”, Gartner

Here are some excellent courses to share with these stakeholders to get them ready for rolling out a more comprehensive DEI program.

Foundations of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Dereca Blackmon, CEO of Inclusion Design Group

This course is a great primer to get your leadership teams on the same page with understanding the basic language and concepts around DEI. Blackmon guides learners through foundational concepts such as how biases impact hiring, the importance of inclusive communication, why belonging matters, and how to identify and stop microaggressions.

Skills for Inclusive Conversations

Mary-Frances Winters, Founder and CEO of The Winters Group, Inc.

The art of inclusive conversation is a skill that managers and leaders need to develop in order to foster a sense of inclusion in the workplace. Winters teaches skills for engaging in conversations and addressing difficult topics from a practical and inclusive perspective.

Inclusive Mindset

Dereca Blackmon, CEO of Inclusion Design Group

DEI should not be viewed as an add-on to your corporate culture, but rather a “deliberately cultivated, highly complex skill set that can be learned over time with the right kind of mindset.” Blackmon shares principles and practices that can guide your teams to operating from a DEI-centered approach.

Beyond the fundamentals covered in the courses above, here are key topics to include for a DEI program that elicits real, beneficial change.

Unconscious bias. Everyone carries with them biases that they are unaware of. These biases influence our behaviors. Rooting out the source of these biases will help your workforce identify what is motivating them and offer opportunities to make conscious decisions about their behavior. Suggested course: Unconscious Bias
Microaggressions. While many people understand that they shouldn't be objectively rude or aggressive toward others, there are learned behaviors that are widely considered microaggressions. Much like unconscious bias, it is vital that your workers learn to identify these behaviors in themselves in others, and develop allyship skills to put an immediate stop to such behaviors. Suggested course: Understanding Unconscious Bias and Microaggressions
Accessibility. A culture that fosters accessibility naturally drives innovations that are accessible. Your organization should strive to be an accessibility leader. Suggested course: Supporting Accessibility in a Hybrid Workspace
Bystander syndrome. This is a behavior that harms the culture of your organization: when individuals see a transgression but fail to act on behalf of the individual being targeted. Teaching skills and methods of intervention and reporting empowers more workers to do the right thing. Suggested course: Bystander Training: From Bystander to Upstander
Intentional inclusion. While this skill is mandatory for those in leadership roles, everyone in your organization can benefit from learning intentional inclusion. Building awareness of inclusive behaviors helps your workforce develop broader perspectives on how to solve pressing problems and create cohesive cross-functional teams. Suggested course: Getting Off the Fence: Inclusive Leadership in Action with Tara Jaye Frank

DEI Education: Empower Employees for a More Equitable Workplace

Why is DEI education essential to business today?

Employees care about diverse and inclusive workplaces

What makes DEI education effective?

The critical role of managers in creating a DEI culture

DEI education resources to get started

Key elements of DEI education