As a multitude of companies grow their operations and expand globally, diversity and inclusion training become more vital for employees. In order to grow successfully and flourish as an organization, it’s important to understand the varying complexities of Human Resource management in every country.
Regardless of sector, the global workforce includes people from vastly different backgrounds. Cultural, gender, and economic diversity play an increasingly integral part in small and large businesses alike. This is true even when your workforce is 100% remote.
Diversity and inclusion training for your remote teams can increase their sense of value in their professional role, and open lines of communication. Whether you have an in-house HR department, or choose to outsource your HR needs, you should have an actionable strategy to implement this training.
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How Europe HR Solutions Can Help
At Europe HR Solutions, our Europe-based professionals have worked closely with many US and UK companies looking to expand their international reach. We understand the laws and regulations surrounding European businesses.
We can take care of your HR needs so you can focus on the day-to-day operations and growth of your company. Our expertise allows us to alleviate your stress by offering services such as:
- Consulting services for US and UK-based companies
- Recruitment, selection, and retention of talent
- Implementation of strategic approaches for employee retention in startups
- Implementation of policy, procedures, and training
- Employee contracts
- Consulting services for start-ups, small businesses, and mid-sized businesses
- Brainstorm and create HR strategies for success in the future workplace
We can implement and lead your diversity and inclusion training programs, too.
Definitions and goals of diversity and inclusion training
In order to implement a successful diversity and inclusion training program, you need a working knowledge of what this process entails, and the pillars the training programs are based on. Let’s take a look.
What is diversity training?
Diversity training tackles issues surrounding diversity that may arise in the workplace. It allows employees to consider the different perspectives their fellow team members may hold, and helps them develop stronger interpersonal, communication, and collaborative skills.
For example, “get to know your team member” exercises in diversity training could help employees to recognize the vast distinctions of individuals on their team. On remote teams, people may speak different native languages, hail from different countries, and live with contrasting customs.
By sharing their differences, your remote team may become more cohesive and develop a greater understanding of their co-workers communication styles. A conscious awareness of diversity leads to a greater appreciation of inclusion.
What is inclusion training?
Diversity and inclusion training go hand in hand. Diversity helps employees understand that every individual worker is coming from a different background. It increases cultural awareness among team members, and paves the way for inclusion.
Inclusion training helps teams to intentionally welcome and accommodate members who are different and may be in the minority. Inclusion may reach to obvious differences like gender, race, or religion, or could mean accomodation for people with varied personalities and communication styles.
For example, imagine that most of your employees celebrate the Christmas holidays. However, several Muslim employees would prefer to work over Christmas, and take off for Ramadan. Diversity training can open the lines of communication for the Muslim remote team members, and allow their co-workers to understand why Ramadan is important to them.
Diversity and inclusion programs also allow companies to implement company-wide policies that adhere to what this training teaches.
Inclusion training can help management and employees recognize the value of others’ beliefs, practices, and customs, and brainstorm on ways to make every employee feel welcome.
The four pillars of diversity and inclusion training
Diversity and inclusion training are relatively new aspects of the international HR management curriculum. Diversity training first emerged in the US in the 1960s before expanding to other countries.
Global corporations that incorporate these concepts in the workplace include:
- Johnson & Johnson
- Mastercard
- Kaiser Permanente
Diversity is the foundation for inclusion. However, each concept is based on ideal pillars.
These pillars of diversity and inclusion training for remote teams include:
- Respect: Respect for every employee and potentially recruited candidate.
- Belonging: Every team member is made to feel welcome and valued.
- Contribution: Each team member has the ability to contribute to the success of the collective whole.
- Career progression: Every team member has the opportunity to progress their career.
- Inclusive hiring: Diversity (Cultural, Ethnic, Intellectual, and Educational) from the beginning of the hiring process onward.
- Inclusive leadership: Every employee in a leadership position should exemplify diversity.
- Accountable goal tracking: Each team member should create a set of professional goals, and have an actionable plan to track and meet these goals.
Why is diversity and inclusion training important for remote teams?
It’s estimated that 16% of the global workforce is entirely remote. This number has decreased substantially since 2020, but people are returning to full-time office work after the remote trend during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many companies opt to keep entirely remote teams, or have employees work with a hybrid of office and remote time.
For many remote teams, getting to know the diversity of coworkers proves difficult. Communication may only occur during weekly team meetings or via DMs. Diversity and inclusion training for remote teams is a vital way for each team member to feel as though they are both valued and contributing.
Many remote teams include people in a variety of countries as well. Thus, learning to appreciate one another’s backgrounds, cultures, and ethnicities can prove a successful outcome of training implementation.
Open lines of communication and motivated employees can be a direct result of diversity and inclusion training as well.
Contact Euro HR Solutions
If you’re looking to expand your company in Europe. Euro HR Solutions can offer you guidance and take on your human resources management tasks. If you’d like to outsource your training programs, we can implement a training program for you.
Your company’s success deserves your full attention — you don’t want to stress about the complexities of HR in Europe. You need an HR team you can depend on. Let Euro HR Solutions take care of your HR needs. Contact us today to help implement diversity and inclusion training for your remote teams.
