12 Diversity Training Topics

Diversity training topics are topics used in diversity programs, sensitivity-training, inclusiveness orientations, and gender diversity seminars. These seminars and activities aim to bring diverse groups of employees together in a way that allows them to positively contribute to organizations by putting their cultural differences aside and working together.

1. Generational Diversity in the workplace

Generational diversity is a very important topic to cover in diversity training and seminars because your workforce may span across multiple generations. There can be problems that arise if these generations don’t understand each other. Chances are, your workforce will consist of up to three generations, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. If there isn’t adequate training and inclusive communication to help these generations coincide with each other, this could lead to stereotypes, unrealistic expectations, and an overall loss in production. An LMS such as EdApp can help you to create generational diversity training materials with its easy-to-use editable Library.

2. Intentional Inclusion

Another important topic to work on in diversity and inclusion training seminars is intentional inclusion. Intentional inclusion involves purposeful action-based plans that are focused on inciting positive changes, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace. Teaching your teams about inclusion is one thing, but it is another thing to ensure that your organization has procedures that help the team practice what was preached about workplace cultural-diversity.

Intentional inclusion helps workers to realize that they are all accountable for taking the necessary steps to foster diversity inclusion and cultural awareness a reality in their workplace.  The intentional inclusion topic will hope workers understand that they will all need to work together for progress to be made in their diverse workforce.  Here are a few diversity training courses from EdApp that you can use to work on your inclusion training. Also, Queer Eye’s Karamo has launched a new DEI EdApp course, giving you and your team the tools you need to create a more intentionally inclusive workforce.

Discover Many Other Diversity Training Topics in EdApp Course Library

3. Microaggressions at work

Microaggression is a very important topic that is quite often overlooked in diversity training seminars. The concept of microaggression describes everyday non-verbal, verbal, or environmental insults or slights, whether intentional or non-intentional, that come across as derogatory, negative, or hostile messages to underrepresented members of your workforce. This can lead to extremely low morale and low production if not nipped in the bud.

4. Diversity vs. Inclusion

Most if not all of your workers should understand the meaning of diversity, but they may not all know the difference between diversity and inclusion. At work, it is great when your workers are courteous to their colleagues that are multicultural and different, but until they learn the need to include them, innovation and growth may not happen. When your workforce learns the difference between diversity and inclusion, you will find it easier to recruit diverse talent to your teams.

5. Racism

With all that is happening around the world today on the topic of racism, leaders must include this topic in any workforce diversity training. If we were to focus on the bad things that come from racism, we would not be finished with the section. So let’s talk about some of the good things that can come out of a workforce where racism has no place. Companies that have a supportive workforce will see more innovation and creativity coming from their workforce. If you are thinking about creating a course or training with ethnicity demographics, minorities, and racism as one of your main topics, you can use this LMS platform to put together your presentation. It has a powerful authoring tool that you don’t need special skills to use.

6. Culture Diversity

Cross-cultural training is an integral part of any company that wants to take full advantage of the positive advances that can come from intercultural work. When you do cross-cultural training with your employees, you help them to adjust and experience less shock to different cultures if they relocate to other countries for work. In addition to that, cross-cultural training will help your employees be more open to the differences in their co-workers’ cultures. They will learn to embrace and understand, which in turn can facilitate their growth. A workforce that spans the world can face many cultural hurdles that have the potential to hamper production, but these can be mitigated by managers doing cross-cultural training.

7. Stereotypes

As you may know, a stereotype is a perceived notion about a particular person or a group of people in which we believe that they are all the same. We often judge people like this without any knowledge or evidence. This type of thinking should have no place in the workforce, but it is present in most. Stereotypes are dangerous in the work environment because they can cause conflict, low morale, low productivity, and many more negative situations. If you have employees that act on stereotypes rather than allow their co-workers to do the jobs they are assigned, this will severely hinder progress. You can use gamification techniques to challenge stereotypes in a fun way.

8. LGBTQ+

Almost every adult knows the meaning of LGBTQ+. The reason why everyone knows the meaning of this acronym is that this community has been fighting for equal opportunities for quite some time now. It is important that diversity training and seminars include this topic because it will show your employees that everyone has different ways in which they express who they are, and it is important that they are open to LGBT people instead of labeling. This topic is often quite sensitive as it deals with sexual-orientation, so instead of doing full-on courses that may last for hours about this, perhaps you could consider utilizing the microlearning feature from the EdApp platform to create micro-lessons on this.

9. Unconscious Bias

This is one of the most common diversity training topics and for a good reason. Unconscious biases are often considered one of the biggest disablers of diversity. Some people will go as far as to say unconscious bias is the number one enemy of innovation and shows a huge lack of fairness. Unconscious bias training is useful when our minds tell us that people who think, look and act similar to us are safer/better than those who don’t. It is important for us to change the way we think if we think like this because different people will bring different attributes and ideas to the table, leading to ultimate growth.

10. Bystander intervention

Bystander intervention training is seen as one of the most effective ways to stop inappropriate behavior in the workplace before it crosses the line into harassment. This topic should be used to create a sense of collective responsibility and business case among employees.  Speaking of collective, when creating your course or diversity program, you should use a cloud authoring feature that gives access to multiple authors.

11. Disability Awareness and Diversity

More and more organizations are giving their employees proper disability awareness training to make sure that they are informed of the rights of workers with disabilities. This also allows them to recognize discriminatory practices and stop them in their tracks. As a company, it’s important that you train your employees on disability rights and disability laws. This way, you can emphasize each employee’s responsibility to maintain a positive and welcoming workplace where are all employees, including the qualified disabled workers demographic, are treated with respect and given equal job opportunities. There are so many benefits of diversity training topics such as this one. Through disability awareness training, you can also make sure that your staff are aware of the different issues that people with disabilities face in their daily lives, and are capable of assisting them and helping them address these issues.

12. Religious Diversity

Companies greatly benefit from religious diversity in the workplace as it brings different viewpoints together and helps team members to better understand one another. However, from a human resource perspective, it can be tricky to manage. You’ll have to learn how to balance your employees’ diverse beliefs with the values of the organization. This entails being able to accommodate your different team members’ religious practices and fostering religious diversity, such as dressing a certain way, eating certain foods, or celebrating religious occasions. By giving your teams proper religious diversity training and setting guidelines in place, it’s easier to create an inclusive culture where employees are comfortable practicing their faith.