Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training?

If you are planning to spend money on diversity training, WAIT!

You may be wasting your money if you haven’t done any foundation building. If diversity and inclusion are not first integrated into your business strategy, very little will change just by holding one or two day training classes. Organizations in all sectors make this mistake and don’t realize it until it is too late.

If you want to leverage the diversity you already have, increase the diversity of your organization, or prevent cultural misunderstandings you need to create a corporate culture that is inclusive at all levels, and in every system and process.

You can get everyone trained by a great trainer, with a great program, but when people leave your organization they take what they learned with them (if they still remember it) and your organization remains the same. Further, reaching resisters and naysayers of diversity efforts is unlikely only with training—a more multi-faceted approach is needed to help these individuals see the value of diversity in their organizations and to bring a greater number of people on board to the initiative.

Simma's Strategies for Creating an Inclusive Organization

Here are some of the steps that need to be taken in order to create an inclusive organization.

Start at the top. It must be championed and led by the CEO and other people in the executive team. Leadership of a diversity and inclusion initiative or culture change cannot be delegated. Other people can help drive it, but it must be viewed as coming from the top. That also means you need to start including it in conversations, discussions, newsletters and e-mail.

Assess your organization with surveys, focus groups and interviews in order to identify strengths, challenges and areas for improvement as it relates to diversity, inclusion and employee satisfaction in specific areas.

Create a cohesive vision and strategy that is agreed upon by members of the executive leadership team. Know where you are going.

Engage all levels of senior management. They need to be part of the vision and have a clear understanding of concepts, roles, business case and benefits, in order to help lead the change.

Develop a communication and information sharing strategy and process in order to share that vision throughout the organization. Send the message in such a way that you create middle manager and employee buy-in. Help them understand how the diversity and inclusion/culture change process will benefit them personally, professionally and as an organization, That will involve internal marketing at all levels.

Use the results of the survey to address specific areas for improvement, most commonly; recruitment, interviewing, hiring, retention, promotion and performance evaluation. Examine your present organizational culture, and identify ways in which your organization can create a more inclusive environment.

Define skills and behaviors that managers need in order to make the initiative/culture change a success and successfully lead a diverse workforce.

Conduct training for all levels of your organization in areas related to diversity and inclusion.

Set up a process for accountability at all levels, relating progress to compensation and evaluations.

Measure results, create the buzz and make it exciting (if its not fun, it won’t be done)

The amount of time, order and the steps themselves depend on your organization and goals, but if you want to go beyond compliance, hear new ideas and best practices, reduce cultural misunderstanding and miscommunication, hire and retain the best of the best from everywhere, training alone won’t do it. Before you spend your next dollar on diversity training, ask yourselves if you just want people to have a good day, learn and forget a few things or do you want ongoing change that will make you a benchmark organization and the employer of choice.

Advertising - Are You Wasting Your Money?

Anybody who has a product to sell, an idea to promote or a service to offer relies on advertising to get the attention they require.

There are so many forms of advertising that finding the correct medium can sometimes be a daunting task.

Depending on the type of business, or the reason for your need for promotion you may find it easier to seek some professional advice.

Firstly you need to decide who your target market is, whether it is men or woman, older generation, younger generation, companies etc.

Secondly you need to ascertain whether your market is local, national or global. This is important, as leaflet dropping in your local supermarket car park is fine if your product or service is a local one, but if your services can be offered world wide or nationally, then you are seriously losing out on the largest percentage of your market.

Once you know who you are planning to target, and where they are, you can begin to research the how, which are the options you have available.

There is an absolute ton of free information on the internet, and if you are reading this, you must have access to it!

If you have a low budget, try doing the advertising yourself, you can knock up some great leaflets from your own pc, (providing your market is local).

Making a website has become a lot easier over the years, and if you shop around you can get some great prices on hosting packages and domain names. Try downloading a free html editor, preferably with a wysiwyg platform, (what you see is what you get), there is a wealth of information on the internet to guide you through making a simple website.

If you have a bigger budget, then consulting with one of the many advertising companies is an option. These people can advise you, and come up with some fantastic ideas, but be sure to shop around and not just go with the first company you come across. Prices will vary, and their expertise will vary also, so it’s an idea to ask to see some references, or some of their projects with other clients that they have worked on.

Done correctly, and with proper research, advertising will reap rewards. It is after all one of the most important factors in any business. So I personally, would always recommend that you give this area the attention it deserves!