Diversity Training Doesn’t Work. And Don’t Bother Fixing It.
By: Hoa P. Nguyen
Tags: Diversity, Workplace, Culture, Equity, Inclusion

Photo by Renee Fisher on Unsplash

In the three short years of my early professional career, I’ve attended three diversity sessions at three different organizations. As a young Vietnamese woman and an alien authorized to work as classified by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I’ve never seen any real impact following diversity training. Studies after studies have found that this type of training has little impact, if not causing more harm to the afflicted instead of alleviating those inequalities.

What remains after hours of being uncomfortable in the same room with your colleagues is fatigue, both physical and mental. “Thank god, it’s over,” some would breathe with a sigh of relief, knowing they are only required to confront this issue once a year. Others would leave the training feeling frustrated, considering the fact that management often fails to follow up with any concrete plans that show commitment.

Diversity, a buzzword that’s supposed to motivate corporations, companies and institutions to provide an equitable and inclusive environment for their employees, has quickly turned into a far-fetched fantasy. Diversity in the workplace tends to be loosely defined, and what many companies have accomplished so far is diversity on the facade, where people of color and underprivileged communities are present yet hardly receive fair pay or only take up positions with low chance for advancement.

And that’s where the multi-billion dollar diversity industry steps in, deceptively attempting to be a panacea for corporate ailments. Yet, it ends up being a never-ending clinical trial on the brink of failure.

The earliest training focused on tackling microaggressions in the workplace, and as the diversity industry expands, the training expands to cover systemic barriers that disenfranchise certain groups, with hope of nurturing a more equitable workplace. Acknowledging the pervasive unfair treatment in place, organizations hold diversity trainings every year, claiming they care about improving equality and make incremental efforts toward progress. But what if all of those efforts are misplaced?

I’ve witnessed first-hand how junior staff members like me are still compensated for much less than their job responsibilities (I was paid an associate’s salary while doing a temp manager’s job). Reports of harassment still get swept under the rug due to complicated circumstances (my supervisor acknowledged the harassment but the accused employee was set to leave the company one week after). Employers still exhibit toxic behavior that discriminates based on my immigration status (I was given only three business days to present my work authorization, which would typically take much longer to obtain). If only these experiences were isolated incidents.

The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge that it exists, and rigorous conversations around inclusion and equity began some 50 years ago as an after effect of the 1960s civil rights movement. Among the most widespread manifestations of this nationwide reckoning on race and inequality was diversity training. By the 2010s, companies of all sizes as well as cultural and academic institutions have implemented their own diversity programming, and one common denomination prevails: the required diversity, equity and inclusion training, or D.E.I for short. Recently places have also referred to them as “bias training.”

One problem with bias training is that it sets out to reveal people’s biases but subtly pressures them to unlearn those biases right away, which is impractical. Generally, short-term educational interventions (exhibit A: the day-long D.E.I training) have little to no impact on people, as shown in a 2018 paper by sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev.

In one study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, researchers find that when a group of white subjects read a brochure criticizing prejudice toward Black people, the reading reinforces their biases against Black people if they are pressured to agree with it. On the other hand, if they feel like the aha moment occurs on a personal level, their biases are reduced. That said, a company-wide session meant to keep people on edge isn’t the place that’s most conducive to that outcome.

That’s not all. Diversity training also affirms existing biases, whether conscious or unconscious, rather than challenging or dissecting them on a deeper level. No one likes to be called a racist, a sexist or an ageist. Nor would anyone voluntarily identify herself with those labels. Unfortunately, diversity training tends to start out with some kind of categorization (though in most cases, not as overtly problematic as the aforementioned examples), such as by race, age group or national origin.

But sorting people into groups deepens those misconceptions and misses the point of intersectionality, in which each and every one of us is a complex, multidimensional human being. This is not to discredit the value of conversations centered around specific issues of race, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. What diversity training fails to recognize is how people of various groups might either embrace certain parts of their individuality more than the others or want to disassociate from some. For instance, my Black friend from Nigeria considers herself Black-adjacent — and not Black in the American sense — as she didn’t grow up experiencing the same struggles Black Americans face because of their skin color. Further, the ways people form kinship with their own group or identity are also very nuanced, and a time-constrained diversity training session is unlikely to succeed at serving as an open platform for such thought-provoking conversations.

Last but not least, the dire lack of personal bond among employees inevitably leads to unproductive conversations around conflicts related to biases. How am I going to feel at ease talking about racial injustice and discrimination with a group of white men I have never talked to and maybe one other Black colleague? Since we never have the chance to get to know each other, it’s difficult for the group to grasp the full context of anyone’s point of view. After all, we just plunge into the conversation with our own partiality.

Let’s drop this unsalvageable diversity training altogether and spend our time, effort and resources elsewhere. Instead of the annual, mandatory, much dreaded day-long sessions where people get reminded how far we have yet to come to arrive at an equitable world, invest in programming that screams longevity.

It’s no longer enough for employers to have good intentions, they must practice what they preach. Host regular discussions about racial and social justice issues that continue to impact our daily lives. Recruit employees from historically marginalized communities and compensate them fairly. Create a welcoming, transparent workplace that seeks constant feedback from the most neglected voices.

Real change doesn’t mean checking the “D.E.I. training” or a “D.E.I committee” box. It takes place when people are willing and energized to participate.