What good is diversity and inclusion efforts by employers to improve the workplace if those efforts don’t also include examining how workplaces became so male, white and homogeneous in the workplace?
Much has been written about how effective unconscious bias training actually is, but popular thought on this topic also shows that how we think about our colleagues, gender, race, and class is key to actually making change. It just can’t stop there, as Jess Bost of Consolidated Planning says in this clip from our November 2020 Spark Disruptors panel on the finance and business world’s lack of diversity “The Only Women in the Room are Making Room for More.”
Indeed a 2020 report by the Harvard Business Review found that when diverity and bias training is paired with programs like mentoring and recruiting from diverse pools, the results are much more effective:
“Our research suggests that a small number of systemic changes — targeted recruitment, mentoring programs, open skill and management training, and diversity task forces — can lead to significant and persistent increases in workforce diversity and opportunity. This is true for both frontline and managerial jobs. As a means of promoting equity, diversity training is still worth fighting for — but, as our research makes clear, only when coupled with these systemic changes.”
Watch the full Disruptors Panel “The Only Women in the Room Are Making Room For More” here.
