A new study measures the impact of training on people’s attitudes and behavior.
July 09, 2019
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Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees, yet surprisingly few of them have measured its impact. To see how an intervention affects employee attitudes and behavior, a group of researchers designed their own training course, focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, which was completed by more than 3000 employees.
The findings held some good news and some bad news. Bias training had a positive effect on the attitudes of some employees, especially those who were initially least supportive of women in the workplace. But there was very little evidence that the training affected the behavior of men and White employees overall — two groups who are often the primary targets of these interventions. The results also yielded a couple surprises about how junior women responded to opportunities after the training, and how training can have positive spillover effects. If organizations want to improve their diversity training programs, the researchers suggest diversifying the training approach, collecting more data, and experimenting.
