Links:

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Meridian Associations

Diversity Training Group

Pope and Associates

Society for Human Resource Managment

Diversity Training
Plenty of Business,
Not Much Change

By Brent Lamberti, '01

There's been a steady stream of new business for the nation's diversity consultants over the past thirty years but experts say the situation for minorities in the workplace has not improved all that much.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that the number of alleged race-based discrimination charges in the workplace has remained relatively constant over the past eight years.

Reported incidents ranged between 26,000 and 31,000 from 1992 to 1999, according to commission figures. Yet in that same time frame, diversity consultants say their corporate client base has continued to expand, though no exact figures are available. "There are so many consultants out there," said Rick French of the U.S. Department of Labor, "it would be almost impossible to keep track of all of them."

"The bottom line is always money" says one diversity professional
The problem with making diversity training as effective as it ought to be, experts say, is that companies still resist integrating diversity training into their overall business plan. "When I see a company's diversity initiative in the human resources department, I knowthey've only hit the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. Anthony Ipsaro, director of Meridian Associations, a leading diversity consulting firm. "Diversity can't just be an issue for an organization. It must be fully integrated into all of their department's business undertakings for it to have a fully lasting impact."

Dennisse Perez, manager of diversity and employee programs for Sony Music Entertainment, says, "The bottom line is always money." And proponents of diversity training say that there's a direct relationship between good customer and employee relations and profits. Diversity training, Perez says, helps companies avoid lawsuits, litigation, and other potentially costly public relations headaches.

Calvin Ball of the Diversity Training Group, agrees. "Companies are always most interested in the bottom line, and the bottom line for them is profits, losses, investment capital, stuff like that."

Seven years ago, Sony Music questioned selected members of its staff to determine whether diversity training was needed at the company. It was. "After the results of the focus groups came back, there was a lot of negativity to deal with," says Perez.
"One night after I left the course, I almost felt like crying" said one diversity sesson participant

The company hired an outside consultant to begin to try to change the climate. At Sony Music, anywhere from fifteen to thirty people gather each month for a typical two-day diversity training session. Employees interview each other to get a better understanding of their co-workers' cultural beliefs and influences. Through these interviews employees get to know their co-workers cultural backgrounds as well as their belief systems.

In open group settings, employees discuss such sensitive topics as affirmative action and minority quotas, white privilege and bias on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation.

Videos, such as, "The Color of Fear II", examine how white males are often insensitive to the plights of minorities. A white male in the film explains to a group of minorities how the "white man" isn't holding minorities back. He determines minorities are the ones to blame for their slow progress in society. While this view may seem racist to many, the man in the film denies being racist.

Most companies are reluctant to talk about their diversity training programs, but a number of Sony Music employees shared their opinions of the program.

One senior director who declined to be identified found the training session to be both worthwhile and important, but very stressful. "One night after I left the course, I was so stressed I almost felt like crying," he said. "To think that so many people have such biased views about other people is very disheartening."

Another Sony employee offered, "If it can change one person's opinions, then the whole program is worth it."

According to Perez, a heightened awareness of these topics and a better understanding of the issues surrounding them is intended to help make the workplace more accepting to others' differences.

If diversity training is effective at making the workplace more aware and sensitive, then why, over the past eight years, have the complaints filed with the EEOC remained relatively constant ?

Gina Bannister, a spokeswoman for the consulting firm Pope and Associates, believes that more than diversity training is needed to bring those numbers down. "There are millions of people working in this country," she said, "How many of them go through diversity training each year?"

Ball said the methods most companies use to measure diversity in their organizations -- instituting minority quotas in various departments, for example -- are undependable. "We at the Diversity Training Group are looking for more human responses, and those are just hard to measure," he said.

While many participants may be getting a "feel good" sentiment after going through diversity training, it takes more than that for a workplace to enjoy a healthy, diverse atmosphere.

Jan Brown of the Diversity Training Group says it best: "We understand that diversity training can't get rid of most people's biases in two or three days. But if we can make some people more aware of their biases, then that's a good start."