Diversity Training for Employees – [Complete Video Kit]

This diversity training video for employees is an 11-minute program that teaches a workforce what diversity, equity and inclusion mean on the job, where stereotypes and bias come from, and how a respectful workplace treats every co-worker as an individual. Employers with a diverse workforce use it to reduce conflict, raise morale and give every employee the same footing.

It is written for every employee in any industry, from the shop floor to the front office, and runs as a stand-alone session or as the first module of a respectful-workplace program. The manager and supervisor version is a separate kit, linked below.

What the Diversity Training Video Covers

• How have workplace demographics changed through the years? (race, faith, sexual orientation, culture, age, etc)
• What is diversity and why is discussing it with your employees an important part of any successful workplace?
• How can any workplace have diverse employees with various religious, sexual, or ethnic backgrounds and makeup – and actually be more successful than if they all looked alike, came from the same backgrounds, held the same beliefs, etc
• What is DEI?
• What types of legislation has been passed through the years protecting workers’ rights regardless of sex, color, religion or national origin?
• What is inclusion and why is it important?
• What role does diversity and inclusion training have in any workplace harassment program?
• What are the benefits of a diverse workplace and employee base? (a diverse workplace benefits employees and employers alike – as well as customers)
• What is a respectful workplace, and how does it relate to diversity and inclusion training?
• How to incorporate diversity awareness into your workplace
• What positive effects on employees occur when workplace diversity is embraced? (Boost their confidence, strengthens morale, increase job satisfaction, etc.)
• What are the problems associated with stereotypes? (Leads employees to make assumptions and jump to conclusions about co-workers due to their color, age, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, etc.)
• “Biased beliefs” are discussed, including such stereotypes as:
  • “Women are the weaker sex.”
  • “All foreigners are lazy.”
  • “Older people don’t work well with computers.”

More Diversity Training Topics Covered

• How to create a more inclusive environment in the workplace
• How the combinations of stereotypes and unconscious biases lead people to potentially discriminate against each other (and this, in turn, will lower morale, create a hostile work environment, force good employees to leave, etc). This is also sometimes referred to as micro-inequities
• What are the negative consequences of discrimination on the job for the employees, their team, and the employer?
• What is cultural competency, and why is it important to teach our employees how to work with their teams who might be of a different cultural background?
• How to help employees understand, respect, embrace, and value differences between themselves and their co-workers when it comes to differences in cultures, gender, values, insights and perspectives
• What are the key elements of any diversity training program?  (allyship, sensitivity training, inclusive leadership, and more)
• What are “good diversity practices,” and how do they help employees understand and appreciate each other’s differences
• How to teach employees that what they “know” about someone who is of a certain ethnicity, religion, etc, is often completely wrong (all people, regardless of the characteristics that they were born with, are individuals and completely different from one another in an infinite number of ways)
• How to encourage a free exchange of all employee’s ideas and opinions

What Is in the Kit

• Full-length diversity training video (11 minutes, English or Spanish)
• Trainee quiz and answer sheet
• Presenter’s guide
• Employee sign-in sheet
• Certificate of completion, editable and reusable for every session

How You Can Deliver the Training

The kit ships on DVD or USB stick in English or Spanish. Play the video in a classroom, a team meeting or one-on-one, hand out the quiz, and file the answer sheet, sign-in sheet and certificate with the employee’s training record. Everything in the kit can be reused for every new hire and every refresher. If you would rather assign the course online with automatic completion tracking, this program is also part of our online safety training library of 250+ courses. If you need the management side of the same program, see our Manager Diversity Training kit.

Diversity Training Video – Full Length Preview:

Who Needs Diversity Training

• Every employee at onboarding, in the first weeks on the job
• A team after a complaint, a conflict between co-workers or an incident
• A workforce after a merger, new leadership or a new location brings groups together
• Everyone, as an annual refresher

Repeat it after a discrimination or harassment complaint, an EEOC charge, a new policy, or when a new group of hires joins. No federal rule sets an interval; most employers run it once a year alongside their harassment-prevention training.

Is Diversity Training Required?

No federal law requires an employer to give diversity training. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2) prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin, and employers use diversity training as one way to prevent the conduct that leads to a charge. State harassment-prevention training mandates in California, New York, Illinois and other states are harassment training, not diversity training: this kit supports a respectful-workplace program and does not satisfy those mandates. If you need a state-mandated harassment course, see our sexual harassment training for employees.