Does Mandatory DEI Training work?
Mandatory Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training does not work, in fact data shows that companies that enforce mandatory DEI training resulted in resistance and animosity. Even companies that required people to comply or leave, under the assumption to keep only those that align with DEI, saw a decrease in minority representation rather than an increase. (Dobbin & Kalev, 2016).
So, What Works?
Voluntary DEI training has a positive result yielding increase in minority representation. When employees are mandated DEI training it reinforces their bias, when given a choice to join, it reduces their bias.
So how do we engage more employees to voluntarily participate in DEI ?
Engage allies or ambassadors to help you expand on your initiative.
During a cultural transformation conference, Simon Sinek, an author and inspirational speaker, shows how you can apply the law of diffusion of innovation to do a cultural transformation to engage all employees. The key is to engage the early adopter’s group, in this case the group that is very interested DEI, to go apply to participate in a training program first (voluntarily). To engage this group, the initiative (product or training) should be presented as an exclusive opportunity. Handing out the opportunity will not attract this group. After the training is given, ask for volunteers to create a program to deliver it to the rest of the organization, this would include the groups under the larger portion of the bell curve, the early majority and the late majority and ultimately the laggards. This concept is proven to work for diversity training as it does for any other initiative a company wants to get buy in from and to close the gap between the early adopters and the rest of the group.
References:
Dobbin, F. and Kalev, A. (2016, July-August). Why Diversity Programs Fail. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/07/why-diversity-programs-fail
DenkProducties. Simon Sinek: How to start a cultural transformation?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zClAdLw4yRI