Best Practices for Diversity Training

Workforce.com
Here are five of the best practices based on research and companies’ experiences
By Todd Henneman
September 12, 2011

Here are five of the best practices based on research and companies' experiences.
• Communicate an individual business case. During the past decade, developing a business case for diversity has become a standard practice within companies. However, organizations also should communicate what Villanova University management professor Quinetta Roberson calls an individual business case. “People want to know, ‘What's in it for me?' ” says Roberson, who studies strategic diversity management. “Is this going to increase my skill set where I'm more likely to be identified as a high-potential or future leader? They need to be given some kind of motivation to learn.” That way, they're more engaged when they attend training.
• Use experiential training focused on behaviors. “Generic and theoretical learning doesn't have the same stickiness as experiential learning,” says Michael Hyter, president of diversity consultant Global Novations. Leading-edge practices incorporate experiential learning that develops skills rather than simulates discrimination. “We don't teach people how to manage black people,” Hyter says. “We teach people how to teach people who are different than them.”

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/article/20110912/TOOLS/308129991/best-practices-for-diversity-training

Solving the Diversity Puzzle

Workforce Management
August 2011
Lecturing employees about diversity is one thing, but some companies are taking training a step further. Strategies include engaging employees in teamwork exercises and having workers simulate disabilities. By Todd Henneman

Lecturing employees about diversity is one thing, but some companies are taking training a step further. Strategies include engaging employees in teamwork exercises and having workers simulate disabilities.
In July, Jennifer Vena decided to talk with colleagues about Tourette’s syndrome after watching video clips of American Idol contestant James Durbin and public speaker Marc Elliot, both of whom have the neurological disorder known for causing motor and vocal tics.

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/hr-management/feature/solving-diversity-puzzle/index.html

Harvard scrutinizing its police on race

By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff August 27, 2008

Harvard University will launch an examination of the campus Police Department following long-running complaints that officers have unfairly treated black students and professors and, in an incident this month, a black high school student working at Harvard.
President Drew Gilpin Faust announced yesterday that she has appointed an independent, six-member committee to review the diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts of Harvard police, the first review of its kind in more than a decade. In recent weeks, black student and faculty leaders have been pressing the university to address what they view as racial profiling by the predominantly white campus police force, which Harvard oversees.
Ralph Martin, former Suffolk district attorney and managing partner of the Boston office of the Bingham McCutchen law firm, will lead the committee, which will start work next week.
"All of us share an interest in sustaining constructive relations between our campus police and the broader Harvard community, in order to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all faculty, students, staff, and visitors," Faust wrote in an e-mail to senior university administrators and faculty. ". . . I am confident that this group's efforts will help the university address this important set of issues in a constructive spirit and forthright manner."
Black faculty members praised Faust's initiative, saying it signaled that she will address the issue thoroughly and effectively. Some said the university should go further and establish a permanent police community board to ease tension on both sides.
Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree said black students arrive on campus aiming for academic success but instead find themselves under suspicion.
"I've been hosting, moderating, and mediating meetings between Harvard's black students and university police for much of the last 20 years, and it always stems from an individual incident when African-Americans appear to be the subject of racial profiling by the police department," Ogletree said yesterday. "The problem is a persistent one, because there's still this unfortunate assumption that equates the color of a person's skin with involvement in criminality."
Harvard police officials would not respond to questions about specific incidents, but issued a statement yesterday saying they hope the review will help the private force better serve Harvard's diverse population. "We look forward to any recommendations generated by the process that will help ensure the HUPD remains as effective as possible," the statement said. [To view the entire story, go to: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/08/27/harvard_scrutinizing_its_police_on_race/ ]

National Association of Scholars Starts New Effort to Watch Campuses

The Chronicle of Higher Education
News Blog
July 30, 2008

The National Association of Scholars is asking both faculty members and ordinary citizens to monitor campuses for activities that it finds objectionable.

In a news release issued today to roll out the new effort, the group said it had recruited volunteers partly by inviting readers of Townhall.com, a conservative Web site, to take a survey designed “to learn the educational background and opinion outlook of those attracted by the concept of campus-watching.” Each volunteer has picked a college to watch and has begun “to look into whether that college conducts politicized teaching, requires ideological adherence, or sustains slights to conservative students.”
The group says the recruits also will be on the lookout for “mission statements that betray an ideological agenda and residence-life programs that include political and diversity training.” Two weeks ago, it issued a statement denouncing such residence-life programs, as well as certain approaches to diversity training, as part of a movement on campuses to indoctrinate students in leftist ideology. [To see the entire news blog, go to: http://chronicle.com/news/article/4901/national-association-of-scholars-starts-new-effort-to-watch-campuses?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en ]

Posted on Tuesday July 29, 2008

Most Diversity Training Ineffective, Study Finds

Washington Post
By Shankar Vedantam Washington
Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 20, 2008; A03

Most diversity training efforts at American companies are ineffective and even counterproductive in increasing the number of women and minorities in managerial positions, according to an analysis that turns decades of conventional wisdom, government policy and court rulings on their head.
A comprehensive review of 31 years of data from 830 mid-size to large U.S. workplaces found that the kind of diversity training exercises offered at most firms were followed by a 7.5 percent drop in the number of women in management. The number of black, female managers fell by 10 percent, and the number of black men in top positions fell by 12 percent. Similar effects were seen for Latinos and Asians.
The analysis did not find that all diversity training is useless. Rather, it showed that mandatory programs -- often undertaken mainly with an eye to avoiding liability in discrimination lawsuits -- were the problem. When diversity training is voluntary and undertaken to advance a company's business goals, it was associated with increased diversity in management.
The origins of diversity training trace back to the civil rights movement and the belief that education, sensitivity and awareness are key to reducing discrimination. While many companies have embraced such training as a way to make workplaces more inclusive and to cater to an increasingly diverse customer base, trainers and researchers note that other companies use "sensitivity training" superficially -- as a cosmetic response to complaints from internal and external critics.
Today, U.S. businesses spend from $200 million to $300 million a year on diversity training, but the new study is one of the first attempts to systematically analyze its impact. What it found is that programs work best when they are voluntary and focus on specific organizational skills, such as establishing mentoring relationships and giving women and minorities a chance to prove their worth in high-profile roles.
"When attendance is voluntary, diversity training is followed by an increase in managerial diversity," said Alexandra Kalev, a sociologist at the University of Arizona, who led the research. "Most employers, however, force their managers and workers to go through training, and this is the least effective option in terms of increasing diversity. . . . Forcing people to go through training creates a backlash against diversity." [To read the entire article, go to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/19/AR2008011901899.html?wpisrc=newsletter]