Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) remain relevant to employers even as headlines show declines in C-level DEI roles. In fact, a full two-thirds of our clients maintain diversity hiring goals and utilize detailed reporting to track progress and drive improvement.
Most talent leaders want help building strategies to meet DEI objectives, and training is part of the picture. However, many see training only as a way to fight unconscious biases that impede fair hiring and career opportunities. This overlooks a potentially more impactful focus: training to improve the business acumen of every candidate and employee.
Such training can boost DEI across the employee lifecycle, including talent acquisition, onboarding, and employee skills development. The goal is to support all types of diverse talent through the hiring process and continue to support them once they’ve joined an organization. The resulting experience raises the knowledge and awareness of every employee and candidate to give them a fair shot at advancing their careers.
Support the Talent Acquisition Process
The application effort should be a mutual investment. Candidates make the effort to update their resumes, apply for a job, and navigate assessments and interviews. Companies can support them with career-focused training.
Consider tools that cover how to finesse their resumes. An employer can provide resources for interviewing and coaching on how to talk about an applicant’s skills in the context of the organization’s needs and the demands of the role.
Such support positively impacts veterans who need to translate their military experience into the civilian world. Likewise, consider people with parents who worked blue-collar jobs or first-generation immigrants. They may have developed an understanding of one type of application experience but now need to prepare to answer a different set of questions when applying for a role that encompasses management or highly technical responsibilities.
Similarly, while training hiring managers and interviewers on unconscious bias, more companies are helping them think differently about what talent means to the company. Our training effort for an EMEA client is a recent example. We set out to help managers be more successful in hiring for their teams, including creating a consistent approach, keeping the candidate experience top-of-mind, and focusing on candidates with transferrable skills who could succeed with the right training. We found this led to increased cross-functional internal mobility and employee retention.
Consider guiding managers to assess for transferrable skills and aptitude instead of solely relying on experience or degrees. Encourage them to look for candidates who took non-traditional paths to gain their skills. That variety in their background may bring a different perspective or new skill set into the company. Overall, help your team look at interviews to find how a candidate could fit the company, team, and role rather than why they do not.
Establish Value During Onboarding
One potential pitfall in the diverse employee experience is the process of joining the organization. During onboarding, the employer sets the stage for the worker, which could mean starting with a sense of opportunity or feeling lost and playing a game of catchup on skills and culture that never seems to end. The path determines future success and shapes an inclusive employee experience.
Once new talent joins an organization, invest the time and effort into getting them up to speed efficiently. Beyond standard company overview and compliance training, consider “Business 101” and expectation-setting for handling calendars, meetings, and other systems.
Also, think about training individuals on how their roles directly contribute to the business’ bottom line. By setting clear expectations and educating team members on how they can make a difference, you will set them up for success. The benefits of this training apply to all employees, including those from diverse backgrounds.
Develop Skills and Growth Within the Organization
Companies invest in training to upskill their teams and promote organizational growth. The practice encourages the inclusion of diverse talent and enables companies to redeploy their workforce into new roles as needs evolve.
A clear career path builds confidence from diverse workers. Create space and opportunity for employees to take training beyond mandatory topics or those directly related to the hard skills of a job. Offer training that builds transferrable skills and general business acumen (e.g., storytelling, cross-training, job shadowing, and rotational programs). Complement that training with opportunities to grow, posting internal openings and creating transparency to enable them to seek new roles.
Likewise, help employees highlight their potential, promote their expertise, and find roles within your organization. Teach them how to apply for opportunities and interview in a way that applies their experience and understanding of the business, allowing them to move into a new function and advance their careers.
DEI Training Means Educating for Business Success
Sound DEI practices apply to all workers. Organizations improve retention when they seek to become more inclusive and boost retention for diverse employees. A skills-focused interview approach opens the door to a broader workforce supply. Giving diverse workers more paths for career advancement benefits the entire company.
We see the positive business impact of a concerted DEI effort in many clients today. For example, an agricultural equipment manufacturer is reshaping talent acquisition, including training of managers and recruiters, to shift from a legacy, rural, non-diverse hiring pattern to a more diverse talent focus to secure critical technical skills in urban locations. This is one example of a diversity focus at work, and the business drivers will continue to spur action.
With the right training, an organization builds the support system for a genuinely inclusive culture, making it easier to attract talent. The result is a stronger talent base and a business fit for a changing economy.
