Diversity, equity & inclusion training

There are four core stages to building a more diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation.

1. Conduct a DEI Audit

You can’t solve a problem if you don’t know it exists. A DEI strategy without a DEI audit is like launching arrows with no target. It doesn’t matter how many you release; none will hit the spot.

DEI Audits are there to highlight your organisation’s strengths and challenge areas when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. By understanding exactly what you’re doing well, you know where to keep up the good work.

By uncovering your weaker areas, you know where to focus your efforts, for more effective, faster and long-lasting improvement.

2. Create a DEI Strategy

Once your DEI audit has highlighted your strengths and challenge areas, it’s time to create an action plan to target them.

It’s important that your DEI strategy be challenging but achievable. Setting out a realistic plan based on your timescales, resources and priorities is important for striking the right balance and effecting change.

If you set your organisation overly ambitious targets, you may spread your resources too thin and fail to deliver. If you do too little, you’re unlikely to achieve any sense of momentum in your initiatives.

Working with an experienced DEI expert will help you to create an effective action plan, tailored to your budget, priorities and goals.

3. Implement your DEI Programme

Your plan is in place, now the execution is crucial for success. Your strategy needs to be backed by action.

This may include changes to policies and paperwork, 1-2-1 coaching for your executive team or tailored programmes delivered across your organisation to leaders and employees.

Many of our clients find that a top-down, bottom-up approach is vital for triggering widespread organisational change. Depending on your DEI maturity, you may already have specific areas within the employee lifecycle you wish to target and improve, such as recruitment.

Our dedicated team of business psychologists can work with you to design and deliver training that triggers lasting change in your business.

4. Measure your DEI progress

If you were climbing a mountain, you’d probably stop along the way to check your progress, make sure you’re still on the right path – and admire the views.

Easily forgotten, measurement can often be the missing link in a DEI chain, one that helps to keep momentum by celebrating your progress, acknowledging your improvements and helping to keep you on track to success.

It also allows you to adjust your strategy, which is crucial in the ever-changing landscape of the modern workplace.

Reviewing your successes can help to ensure buy-in from stakeholders and employees alike, showcasing the strength of a more diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, while ensuring that any problems arising can be swiftly identified and tackled.

Speak with a psychologist

Diversity, equity and inclusion training is – as the name suggests – about making the workplace a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place.

While this applies to the overall culture and people, it’s also about improving processes, attitudes, behaviours and procedures in the workplace.

Put simply, it’s about making the workplace work better, for everyone. This is to ensure everyone can feel psychologically safe in the workplace and have the support they need to thrive in their role.

DEI training is a generic term and can include improvements to processes and paperwork, to help make them fairer and more inclusive, as well training that might be delivered to individuals or groups to support more inclusive behaviour. This might include unconscious bias training, inclusive leadership training or micro-incivilities training, for example.

If workplaces are more inclusive, and barriers that may be putting people at a disadvantage are addressed and removed, then everyone benefits from an even playing field.

When a workplace is inclusive and fair to all, talented, hardworking individuals can thrive, be identified and progress – a real meritocracy. This is of clear benefit to both business and employees.

We refer to this training as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training, however you may have heard of other terms and acronyms, or your organisation may refer to the same type of training under a slightly different name.

Ultimately, the end goal is generally the same for any organisation – to make the workplace more fair, effective and productive, ensuring that talented individuals want to work for them and are in an environment that where they feel safe and supported to succeed.

Other common names for diversity, equity and inclusion training include:

• Equity, diversity & inclusion, EDI, ED&I
  This is the same as DEI, simply in a different order! This is a popular acronym particularly in the education sector, however, is not as widely used as DEI or D&I.
• Equality, diversity & inclusion, EDI, ED&I
  To learn why we use the term ‘equity’ instead of equality read our article ‘Why leaders should lead with equity, not equality’.
• D&I, Diversity & Inclusion
  Many organisations still use this to encapsulate their DEI initiatives, and it does not mean that they are not working on improving equity within their business.
• Equal opportunities
  An older term, less commonly used.

No matter what term your organisation uses, our in-house team of business psychologists can support you to create more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces to help you to attract, retain and support talent to thrive.

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question. The biggest factor will be what your organisational goals are, as depending on what you are trying to achieve – and who you are trying to reach – there will be different programmes and approaches that will be most effective for your needs.

For example, an in-person workshop for up to 25 people – based on a specific subject area, utilising existing research and processes – may be in the region of 3,500-£7,500 depending on the content and scope of work.

A completely bespoke piece may be far higher than this, due to the additional design work involved, or for example for 1-2-1 inclusion coaching for a senior leadership team would vary based on the timeframe of the work and experience of the practitioner involved.

An example of the factors that would impact the cost of DEI training would include:

• Overall organisational goals
• Number of people to go through training
• Number and type of teams to go through training
• Number of languages the training will be delivered in
• Seniority of those going through the training
• Number of training areas to be covered
• How bespoke the training would be
• Whether you’re looking to introduce ‘train the trainer’ initiatives for in-house teams
• Whether your training will be delivered in person, live online or through self-paced learning
• Whether you’re looking to include DEI in other areas of learning and development, such as leadership development centres, 1-2-1 coaching or recruitment.

Beyond these areas, cost will also always depend on the expertise, experience and qualifications of the training provider you choose to work with.

At Pearn Kandola, all our practitioners are qualified Business Psychologists, and those who deliver our leadership coaching/development programmes are also accredited coaches.

We are also confident in our ability to deliver, and as such none of our programmes are ‘off-the-shelf’, as through 40 years of expertise in this area, we know that there is no one-size-fits-all.

We make change happen, and our programmes are proven to deliver behavioural change, where traditional e-learning and off the shelf workshops do not.

If you’d like to discuss your needs, please reach out to us via 01865 900695 or email info@pearnkandola.com.

No. Some organisations choose to make it so, but we actually advise clients not to make it mandatory. This is because research shows that it’s less likely to be effective if people feel forced into it.

There are some industries that have requirements related to DEI, and this may be outlined by governing bodies or national/regional laws.

For example, in the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed measures in 2023 to boost diversity and inclusion standards in the financial services sector.

Requirements proposed for larger firms include:

• Developing a diversity and inclusion strategy
• Collecting, reporting and disclosing data against certain characteristics
• Setting targets to address under-representation

So while DEI training isn’t mandatory ‘across the board’ there will certain regulations in place from governing bodies, or at the government level (such as mandatory gender pay gap reporting) that will certainly impact organisations’ needs to implement DEI strategies, goals and training.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion training has a number of benefits in the workplace, both for employees and employers.

Employee wellbeing

Research shows that feelings of exclusion in the workplace take a mental and physical toll on individuals, with exclusion triggering the same area in the brain that we feel physical pain.

When employees feel included, valued and psychologically safe in the workplace, they are more likely to have a better sense of wellbeing and happiness at work. This, in, turn, has a number of other benefits for organisations and employees.

Productivity and teamwork

Oxford University’s Said Business School conducted a study that showed that happy workers are 13% more productive.

Employees who respect and understand each other – and are aware of how to overcome their unconscious biases – are more likely to work effectively together.

Research has also shown that inclusive teams are 35% more productive and diverse teams make better decisions 87% of the time.

Innovation

McKinsey’s diversity wins research shows organisations in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to outperform their peers, with those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity 36% more likely to outperform their peers.

Talent attraction and retention

It may seem obvious to say, but if we feel included, reported and recognised in the workplace – and feel like we are treated the same as our colleagues, with the same opportunity to progress – we’re more likely to work harder, and stay longer.

With 3 in 4 job seekers saying a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating job offers, it’s clear the impact a diverse and inclusive organisation will have on attracting and retaining talent.

Talent pipeline

It doesn’t stop at bringing in top talent to your organisation, and keeping them. It’s about development too. If you remove unconscious bias from decision making, and make your performance management processes fair, you’re more likely to easily identify and develop top talent, protecting your pipeline of future leaders.

Ultimately, diversity, equity and inclusion maximises both the individual and collective success of your employees and your business.

When your employees feel included in the workplace, they are more likely to work better together, and you’re more likely to attract a diverse pool of talent – and diversity of thought – for a more innovative, progressive and motivated workforce.

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Smaller organisation looking for support?

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For small and medium enterprises looking to deliver effective training at scale, you may be interested in Kandola+, our digital platform that is changing the game for online DEI learning.

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