Diversity Training: An Introduction
Over the last few years, it seems like the number of things that make each employee unique has only increased. While differences can be a cause for celebration, they can also create some tricky situations stemming from a lack of understanding. That’s where diversity training comes into play.
What It Is
Diversity training is a type of training that is meant to address all sorts of differences that might be encountered in the workplace. Things like race, color, ethnicity (all technically different things, by the way), language, gender, age, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, religion, and mental and physical capabilities all have an impact on how employees work together. Diversity training helps employees recognize differences and respect them.
Why It Matters
Employees are meant to work as a team. That’s tough to do when diversity leads to division. Diversity training seeks to correct that, to foster understanding and harmony amongst coworkers. This leads to some awesome benefits for businesses, including increased morale and productivity, healthier company culture, better employee retention, and reduced costs related to hiring. On an individual level, the increased understanding, harmony, and morale leads to greater job satisfaction and can help prevent or reduce mental stress caused by work.
How to Make It Effective
It’s not enough to just tell your employees to tolerate one another’s differences. In order for diversity training to be effective, it must go beyond that. It should provide groundwork for a company culture that is inclusive, rather than divisive. Instead of simply tolerating differences, the different approaches to various work tasks and activities that come from differences should be sought out, welcomed, and respected. It should also not simply rely on a list of do’s and don’ts, since those won’t work to build a true understanding between employees with differences. Diversity training should help create common goals, foster understanding, identify and confront unconscious biases, and be chosen and designed specifically for the needs of your workforce.
Pretty much any company today is going to have a diverse workforce, even if you don’t realize it right away. Some differences are not visible, which can create some level of discomfort amongst employees, even if it’s totally unintentional. Diversity training is meant to help. Create a workforce for your business united in understanding and mutual respect
Diversity training is just one of the services you can expect to enjoy when you partner with Quality Payroll. Click here to see what other services we can provide for you today.
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