THE TOP TEN SECRETS TO HIGH IMPACT DIVERSITY TRAINING PART 1

With Legislation concerning discrimination by Age, Disability, Race and Sex affecting your work place the need to be pro-active in integration into the “corporate culture” is now paramount.

Diversity training does not differ from any other training apart from the focus. All good training follows the list of keys to successful, high impact diversity training presented below:
Understand the problem that you are addressing with training rather than train for a quick fix to protect the organisation from discrimination law-suits or losing good employees.

Assess the problems and concerns in order to understand the specific employee behaviours that are problematic and their impact on individuals and the organisation.
Use the assessment data to determine if training is the best approach to address the issues. Oftentimes, training is implemented without considering whether or not other approaches (e.g., policy changes within the organisation) are more suitable for addressing the needs.
Determine the best training format or formats to use (e.g., discussion, role-play, simulation, games, action planning, etc), when training is considered the best approach or an additional intervention. This is partly determined in diversity training by a combination of the sensitivity of the issues being addressed and the audience's openness to dealing with them directly.

Focus the training on behaviours targeted for change or improvement. Offering a general intercultural communications course is less likely to have an impact than offering a course directed at reducing "off-colour" jokes and comments, or sexist language. Again, the assessment of the problem will provide the information about relevant behaviours to address

See the next part of this article in part 2 on our website

Ada Maduakoh, Executive Director. Ada is a lawyer specialising in human rights, minority rights and employment law. She was a former legal adviser (Human Rights Liaison) to the United Nations. Ada is also a member of the Discrimination Law Association’s Advisory Board, Diversity and Equality Voluntary Code or Practice Committee, and a member of the Enfield Racial Equality Council. She has held a number of senior positions in the private and public sector and is a human rights expert, with publications and articles, including “Diversity Training-Not Just a Waste of Time”.
For more tips on how to ensure that your diversity initiatives are a resounding success. Contact us on : 0208 366 9700 Fax: 0208 366 7017 or visit our website: http://www.prodiverse.co.uk

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