How to roll out inclusion training in your company
What the research says & how to help
Throughout 2021, Hustle Crew successfully trained over 300 employees at Brandwatch, with a total of 230+ hours of training completed during a period of intensive growth for our business.
In response to evolving discourse around social justice and identity and research on the links between psychological safety and productivity, more and more employers are turning to inclusion training as a tool to equip employees to excel in their roles.
With global teams spread out across various cultures — with different histories and social contexts — the task of training all team mates on bias, privilege and inclusion in a meaningful way to increase confidence navigating conversations can seem like an impossible task.
But it’s not. In this case study of a global rollout delivered virtually across teams in Sydney, Singapore, US and UK — learn how to make it happen in your company.
350 participants, 118 workshops and 236 hours of total training time later: we share what helped us pull off this ambitious rollout so you can make it happen in your company, too.
Articulate a powerful “why” message to maximise staff engagement
At Brandwatch one of the values was ‘to be bold’ — we tied in the purpose of the training with wider company goals e.g. to increase the number of underrepresented candidates hired and to increase sentiments of inclusion across all individuals in all teams, especially those from non-dominant groups.
The leadership team all subscribed to this justification and ‘sang from the same hymn sheet’ in all comms related to the rollout. The CEO was very vocal in all hands meetings, on Slack and in emails about the importance of making time for this training — sharing his personal reflections on what he gained from the workshops he attended.
Measure the training’s impact to show your team ROI
It’s important that you already measure the demographics of staff, the inclusion sentiments within each department, and participants’ feedback on any educational events.
When team mates are stepping away from their daily responsibilities to invest time into training, its essential you measure the impact of this time-investment on their personal development plus wider company goals. Consider measuring feedback through a post training survey to share the results with participants after.
Partner with an experienced training company that you feel comfortable with
Most tech teams are relatively homogenous and rarely capture the variety of lived experiences in society, or even in their customer base.
This means the success of bias and inclusion training depends on the facilitator’s ability to capture the curiosity and imagination of participants — they must take your employees on a journey that challenges their preconceptions and helps them create more inclusive habits.
Be honest about what is, and isn’t, working
The first time you do anything, it’s not about getting it perfect. You just need to get it done to capture real life data that helps you adapt and improve in the future. Don’t get stuck in a rut planning. Take action knowing you will gain insight to improve for the next time.
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