Once you have determined that you would like your employees to participate in DEI training, how can you determine the best program for them? There are two important factors to examine that will help you figure it out, which I will discuss in today’s blog. First, let’s look at those two aspects of your organization that help you figure out what kind of DEI training program you should offer.
Your Company’s Culture
The importance of your company’s culture cannot be overstated when it comes to choosing the right DEI training program for employees. The best person to objectively and accurately evaluate your organization’s culture is a professional DEI consultant. Through employee interviews, focus groups, and confidential surveys, they will gather the hard data needed to get a clear picture of your organization’s current DEI strengths and challenges.
Your company’s policies and procedures should also be carefully reviewed to look for areas of improvement. It is this overall cultural analysis of your company’s culture that will determine the most effective type of training. To be effective, a DEI training program should be tailored to your organization’s unique needs using hard data.
Your Workforce Distribution
We have been seeing many employees make a return to the office in recent months. However, most office-environment workplaces have permanently shifted to a hybrid model. This means that some employees might work partly from the office and partly from home, whereas others could be fully remote or fully onsite. Even if employees have seen a return to the office, most companies are still in the process of working out their hybrid plans and may not have a clear picture of what they will look like over the coming months. Whether your employees are mainly in the office on a set schedule or primarily remote and scattered across different time zones determines the type of training that will be most accessible and effective for them—in-person or online.
For the modern, more flexible workforce distribution, hybrid DEI training is often the most effective model. On-demand online DEI training allows all employees, especially those working remotely, to participate and engage on their own schedule. And live or virtual in-person training offers the kind of immediacy and personal attention that encourages maximum engagement. With a hybrid DEI training solution, you can customize your DEI training solutions to the unique needs of your workforce. This is the best way to ensure that your employees are not only given the opportunity to participate but that they receive the most benefit from the training, including the knowledge and tools to cultural shift in your organization.
Why Online DEI Training is Giving Companies an Edge
Because of the uncertainty around a return to office and flexible or remote schedules still being in flux, companies who choose to implement online, on-demand DEI training are finding a distinct advantage over those who are not. Online training makes coordinating employee schedules or navigating indoor gathering safety regulations unnecessary. However their schedules and locations may differ, employees across the board can participate in online training. Higher levels of participation and engagement mean companies are seeing greater success with their DEI training efforts.
—–
If you strategically evaluate your company’s culture and the distribution of your workforce, you can determine the most effective DEI training methods for your employees. Online, on-demand training will almost certainly be a crucial component of this training, and many companies are seeing success with it.
I’m Dr. Sangeeta Gupta, and I founded Gupta Consulting Group to help CDOs and HR leaders create and implement DEI programs—including hybrid training programs—that meet their organization’s unique needs. Schedule a conversation with me today to learn more.