User:RobbieH19/sandbox

1960's
In the 1960's, the concept of promoting diversity in the workplace was prompted as a result of the societal and legal reforms that followed the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, enacted by the 88th US Congress, made it illegal for employers with more than 15 workers to discriminate in “termination, hiring, promotion, compensation, training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” Since its enactment, Title VII has been supplemented with legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, age, and disability. After the Civil Rights Act came to be, activists protested organizations who refused to hire blacks, planned jobs banks, and filed charges against employers that discriminated against their employees.

1970's
D.C. reinforced civil rights policies in the early 1970's with the Supreme Court extending the definition of discrimination in 1971, in Griggs v. Duke Power Company; the Court overruled employment practices that ostracized black employees without evidence of intent to discriminate. The civil rights movement helped to recreate its momentum for a new round of movements in the 1970’s for the rights of women, the disabled, Latinos, and others. With shifts in societal and legal reforms, Federal agencies took the first step towards modern day diversity training, and by the end of 1971, the Social Security Administration had enrolled over 50,000 employees through racial bias training. Corporations followed suit and, over the next five years, began offering anti-bias training to their employees. By 1976, 60 percent of large companies offered equal-opportunity training.

1980's to Present
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan tried to reverse affirmative action regulations put forward by JFK and appointed Clarence Thomas to run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As a result, diversity trainers in the U.S. began calling for diversity training arguing that women and minorities would soon be the backbone of the workforce and that companies needed to determine how to include them amongst their ranks. By 2005, 65 percent of large corporations offered their employees some form of diversity training.

Industry Norms
A study was conducted where researchers followed over 800 firms over 20 years that examined the selected companies’ ability to incorporate six predetermined diversity policies, including diversity training. The researchers found an overwhelmingly strong correlation between companies’ capacity to incorporate these policies and the historical precedent of firms in their field. When companies along a specific industry type would bandwagon a policy or program, it was a strong predictor of acceptance among the other sample firms in similar fields considering that for four of the six outcomes, industry prevalence had the strongest effect among the variables of interest.

Company Culture
The individual culture of a corporation has also been found to be a foundational cornerstone of diversity training. In the same study as above, research showed that companies who lack a history of creating and implementing diversity initiatives cannot be expected to drastically change their commitment given a short timeframe. On the other hand, a corporate culture of executing commitments to social norms is a strong predictor of adoption of diversity training.

Internal Advocates
While previous studies suggest that internal advocates for change depend on the external legitimacy of innovations, Dobbin, Kim, and Kalev’s findings suggest that internal advocacy can be effective in the absence of apparent industry norms as a predictor for diversity training; research shows that firms appear to listen to the opinions of important managerial bodies. Whereas previous studies of internal advocacy have pointed to professional groups, this study shows that identity groups, whether it be among women, latinos, or blacks, being in management can affect the outcome of diversity training. For example, the direct influence of human resources professionals on diversity endeavors is humble compared to that of white female managers.

Andrew Herdman and Amy McMillan-Capehart, two professors of management at East Carolina University conducted a study, titled “Establishing a Diversity Program Is Not Enough,” where they collected data from over 3,500 employees across 163 distinct hotels regarding their experiences with managerial values tied to diversity training. In their findings, the professors found a strong correlation between the diversity program measure and the population of minority leaders. This data suggest that the effectiveness of these initiatives were greater in environments where senior leadership was more racially diverse.

Sodexo, Inc.
Sodexo has taken a systemic approach to ensuring that diversity and inclusion are embedded in its company culture in all 6,000 of its locations. Their approach consists of a top down and bottom up strategy, which includes senior level commitment, robust metrics and accountability through an incentive compensation link, grass roots engagement through their employee affinity groups, and incorporating diversity and inclusion in all business and HR practices and policies. While still very important, it makes a clear distinction to separate its EEO and compliance education from diversity training. Approximately 15,000 of its employees have completed affirmative action and EEO training, and every 3 years, they are prompted to take a refresher course.

Every manager at Sodexo enrolls in a training called “Spirit of Diversity”, an eight hour course serving as an introduction to the company’s DEI commitment. Next, the company offers a wide array of voluntary educational opportunities, including learning labs that are formulated to continue to increase visibility and build skills around particular diversity dimensions. The labs range from 3 to 4 hours in duration and topics include cross-cultural communication, sexual orientation in the workplace, generations in the workplace, micro-inequities, and gender in the workplace. These opportunities are led by experienced internal trainers, who undergo a train-the-trainer exercise that includes self-awareness to facilitate the content. Finally, diversity content is incorporated into all offerings through Sodexo University.

Hewitt Associates
When launching its first diversity training, Hewitt first took 2 years to gain buy-in, align its senior leaders around the business case for diversity and build the foundation of understanding among its employees. Following the 2 years of readying, Hewitt’s first foray into training put senior leadership in sessions with lower ranked employees using a theater-based education. There, leadership learned how the Hewitt experience could be different for employees from diverse backgrounds. The CEO of Hewitt advocated that his senior team needed to be culturally cognizant and decided they would partake in self-assessments using the Intercultural Development Inventory (or IDI). The IDI was developed by Mitch Hammer and Milton Bennett and measures respondent's intercultural sensitivity along a continuum from ethnocentric to ethno-relative.

The partners engaged in monthly lessons and spent 2 hours per month completing an assignment that included reading, watching movies, reflecting with their partner, and assessing applicability to workplace situations. At the end of the year-long engagement, the IDI tool was re-administered and the leaders moved from minimization to acceptance, which provided Hewitt with quantitative evidence that the diversity training it sponsored was effective.

Collegiate Institutions
A study was conducted by the University of Southern California's Campus Climate Committee on 16 colleges' faculty diversity training programs. The committee found that despite differences in scope, resources, and diversity goals, most existing programs consist of speaking engagements, workshops, and lectures. These programs also maintain a written plan for measurable increases in diversity, including ADA compliance to Federal, state, and local affirmative action protocols.

Additionally, certain schools, such as Stanford, specify a range for their audience and maintain groups just for staff to promote diversity. Institutions like the University of Pittsburg and UCI also offer their participants with diversity certificate programs to enroll in credentialed training that empower participants with competencies in diversity, management, and other varied topics.

College diversity trainings are also generally free as a way to promote inclusion for those who cannot afford or disapprove of attending a required event.