What is EDI training?

Workplace EDI (or Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) training is a way of ensuring that your managers and employees:

have a solid understanding of your company stance on equality, diversity and inclusion issues
have read and understood your company EDI policies including understanding how complaints will be dealt with
have the tools and knowledge to support, and thrive in, a culture of diversity and inclusion
can see that you are proactive in your efforts to eliminate discrimination and harassment from your organisation

Whilst you can’t control everything your employees do or say, you can educate them in what will and won’t be tolerated. As well as serving as a warning to anyone acting maliciously, it also helps prevent any discrimination resulting from misunderstanding and ignorance. This could relate to the correct use of language including pronouns for example.

Why is Equality and Diversity training for your employees important?

Your legal obligations

As an employer you have a legal obligation to take all reasonable steps to prevent discrimination and harassment in your workplace. The legal framework around discrimination (and its prevention) centres around nine protected characteristics including sex, age and disability (read our blog on embracing diversity and inclusion in the workplace for the full list) and is not just limited to discrimination against employees but also your suppliers, clients and even people applying to work for you.

With Labour’s introduction of the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023, employers face even harsher penalties should they fail to demonstrate that they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in their organisation. To give you an idea of the potential penalties you could face, for the year 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024, the maximum sex discrimination award was £995,128, with the average award being £53,403.

As an employer, workplace EDI training is a demonstrable way of taking action against discrimination by ensuring all employees know what is and isn’t acceptable behaviour.

Duty of Care

As an employer you don’t just have legal obligations, you also have a duty of care to look after the wellbeing of your employees. It goes without saying that discrimination and harassment create unhappiness and stress, potentially to the point of creating stress related sickness issues. Workplace EDI training is a positive step in supporting the mental wellbeing of your employees.

In addition to fulfilling your legal obligations and supporting your employees’ mental health, EDI training’s contribution to a more diverse and inclusive culture has other benefits including increased potential for innovation and more appeal as an employer. For further reading on the benefits of read our blog on embracing a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion here.

The risks of not providing Equality and Diversity training for your workforce:

Probably the most compelling business reason to implement workplace EDI training is to avoid a trip to the Employment Tribunal and a hefty fine. If someone experiences discrimination or harassment in your organisation and you fail to be able to demonstrate that you took every possible step to prevent it, then you will be liable to pay compensation. This could amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

As well as the financial cost, a discrimination claim could severely damage your reputation as an employer. Not all publicity is good publicity and bad employers make compelling headlines.

From a people-first perspective, a failure to provide workplace EDI training is a potential failure to protect your employees, and those you work with, from discrimination, harassment and bullying. Employees experiencing discrimination or bullying are likely to feel higher levels of stress and anxiety, which could lead to higher sickness absence rates or even higher staff turnover as people ‘escape’ the toxic environment.

What could EDI training in the workplace look like:

Ideally EDI training would be included as part of your new employee induction process, ensuring all new staff understand your expectations and their responsibilities as soon as possible. It is then important to reinforce and refresh training regularly to ensure it’s maintained.

This could be delivered as an in-house programme to your whole company ensuring everyone receives the same information, allowing you to deliver bespoke messaging around your own policies. It could also be delivered via an open course such as our half day training, to individuals as and when required e.g. when starting a new position of responsibility or where potential issues have been observed.

It could include:

Laying out the legal framework
Sharing company specific policies and expectations
Exploring stereotypes and the concept of bias (conscious and unconscious) to help your team understand where their own perspectives come from and how to address these
Generating ideas for implementation e.g. creating a team code of conduct
Role-playing best practice conduct
Discussing the benefits of an inclusive and diverse workforce to aid employee buy-in

It’s never too late to introduce Equality and Diversity training as part of your training programme and with the legislation updates around sexual harassment in force from October 2024, if you feel that your team would benefit from some education in this area, we can help.

We run open workplace EDI training sessions regularly throughout the year – view the next available EDI Training Course dates here.

We can also deliver in-house training for larger numbers of delegates at your location, with content tailored to your specific EDI policies. To discuss your workplace EDI training requirements, complete our training enquiry form here and we will be in discuss how we can help.