Diversity Training

Diversity training is one of the most powerful tools organizations can use to improve their capacity to better understand and engage their diverse employees and customers.  Our interactive educational programs are led by knowledgeable, enthusiastic and experienced team members.  Below you will find some typical questions organizations seek to answer as they consider becoming engaged in Diversity training.

How do you define diversity?

Diversity represents all of the ways in which people differ.  Diversity defines an individual’s uniqueness.  The fact that people are unique, provides an opportunity for them to experience either tremendous conflict or a broader set of solutions derivative of coworkers performing their jobs in the modern workplace

What is diversity training?
Diversity training is an educational tool that is used to aid organizations in maximizing diversity’s benefits while minimizing its costs.  Diversity training takes many different forms, the most common types being:

• External consultant led training courses
• Internal HR lead training courses
• Computer Based Training courses

What kind of diversity training do you offer?
Integrity typically offers three types of diversity training:

• Diversity awareness training
• Diversity skills training
• Custom designed diversity special needs a  training

How do you measure success?
It is often said that the things that get measured are the things that get done.  We believe in the value of measuring the success of each of our training classes.  Organizations should evaluate training classes at four levels:

• Reaction: the first level of evaluation is simply to evaluate participants’ reaction to the quality of a particular training course.  This level of the evaluation allows you to gain immediate feedback regarding overall satisfaction with the course, the facilitators’ effectiveness, and the value of the information received.
• Increased knowledge: the second level of evaluation is focused on increasing a participant’s knowledge.  Organizations often have policies related to diversity and other considerations that they need employees and managers to understand.  We design courses utilizing a pretest that allows us to measure what participants know prior to attending a training course and what they know after completion of the course.
• Behavior change: the third level of evaluation is focused on measuring the level of change in an employee or manager’s behavior.  Integrity has a great deal of experience in conducting organizational studies regarding healthy, respectful workplace behaviors.  We can identify any counterproductive behaviors that exist in your workplace and design a training experience to help employees and managers learn and practice healthier workplace behaviors.
• Positive business impact: the fourth level of evaluation relates to measuring the impact a particular training course has on business success.  The ultimate goal of training must be to improve an organization’s ability to achieve its bottom line business objectives.

How do you educate adult learners?
There are several key characteristics that are a part of the Integrity educational experience:

• We establish ground rules focused on mutual respect
• Training is specifically designed to meet the needs of adult learners
• Classes are:
• Dynamic
• Informative
• Inspirational
• Highly interactive
• Thought provoking
• Practical
• Client focused
• Respectful of participants
• Enjoyable

How would you describe a typical class? 
The typical class is laid out in the following way:

• 1-2 days in length
• 15-20 participants
• Rooms set up is U-Shaped
• Educational approach is diversified: PowerPoint presentations, DVD videos, large and small group discussions, case studies and roll plays
• Course taught by: Diverse CO- facilitators

Integrity’s diversity philosophies:

• Diversity is broad and inclusive
• All Participants deserve respect
• We seek to educate not devalue
• We believe that diversity training is best when we address the three H’s

• Head: we seek to provide participants with useful information regarding diversity.  They will learn the business case for diversity, some of the demographic shifts that will impact the organization, and practical skills that will enable them to improve their effectiveness at working with diverse employees or colleagues.
• Heart: we see to inspire people to care about diverse others.  Recent research has made it very clear that most people in the workplace want to know that they are cared about as people.
• Hands: we seek to provide participants with practical tools and strategies that they can put into practice immediately.  We recognize that people need more than just good insights and philosophies.  They need the skills, tools and strategies necessary to sustain diversity progress gained through effective educational experiences.

Our interactive educational programs are led by knowledgeable, enthusiastic and experienced team members. Diversity training programs are tailored to specific audiences, from leadership and management to employees or volunteers.

Courses are customized to meet the unique needs of each client audience. We believe that diversity training should be designed to close the gap between desired and current workplace behaviors. Education, however, is a process.  Therefore, our diversity educational continuum provides a basic view of some of the developmental components of diversity learning that can aid organizations in achieving a culture that truly values diverse workers and customers.

 

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