EDI training is pretty useless. At a lot of places it’s online training that people can speed through, only used by HR as a tickbox exercise. Not sure what benefit it brings.
Diversity training is well intentioned but absolutely useless. It’s a cheap, quick and lazy way for organisations to pretend they’re modern and inclusive.
Good leadership is difficult but it’s the only thing that truly makes a workplace inclusive and fair. You need people right from the top down who enforce good working practices, provide opportunities and develop staff. Stamp down on discrimination, bullying, harassment and role model a positive culture.
Not some useless online learning module you can click through in 3 minutes.
EDI in every business I have worked at is just a complete waste of time.
No one wants forced diversity. They just want competent colleagues who pull the same weight as them
There’s no way she’d get away with saying this if she was a white man.
90% of workplace courses are snake oil.
If it’s not some integrity test, it’s something to do with health and safety telling you to leave via the front door in case of a fire.
Most of those courses are just done for legal reasons so the company can’t be sued later.
> They also warned that companies too often outsourced or delegated their equality training to those with “potentially conflicting incentives” that had a “proliferation” of different initiatives.
Whilst I agree with the report’s conclusion in this specific case, people easily miss the more general conclusion that this applies to **much** more than equality training. Far too much of company activity is now outsourced to groups with conflicting incentives.
Many workplace courses are too generic and not suitable for the specific role or environment. As a teacher I had to do an online course on fire safety every year. Different types of fire and different types of extinguisher were covered (no extinguishers of any type are present in the classroom). Sources of ignition (which were not present in my classroom) were covered, the financial costs… It took over two hours to complete, 95% was irrelevant.
In reality, if there was a fire, I would walk out with my class making sure they were all ahead of me , crack the alarm on the way and leave it to the fire brigade. Then wait in the designated area with my class. At no point would I be leaving the class to look for an extinguisher to return to the fire.
Diversity training isn’t to teach you how to behave, it’s to use against you when you pretend you “didn’t know that word was offensive”.
Yes you did. You were on the course. Get out.
Ironic considering she’s got the job she has simply because of political diversity optics.
This what happens with “culture war brain”, she’s too thick to see that this training is usual just a form of protection for companies to make staff aware and the minuscule time it takes is insignificant.
Remind me why the fuck the Secretary of Trade is spending her time on culture war nonsense?
I used to work for a large multinational (US based) bank.
Every year everyone had to do active shooter training, even us in the UK.
I moaned and pointed out the most dangerous part of any day is our commute to and from work, why no road safety training…
They’re a waste of time for most of us who are not bigots and/or have the sense not to say things that could cause us to lose our jobs. They’re badly needed for a small minority of walking liabilities, if only to protect the organisations they work for from lawsuits. Ironically, the people who most need to go on these courses are often the ones complaining the loudest about what a waste of time they are. But they would be whining even louder if their employers selected them as individuals in need of this training instead of applying it across the board, so we all get to join them.
Maybe Badenoch should organise a diversity course for certain Tory party donors claiming that specific MPs “should be shot” and make them “want to hate all black women.” Seems like it might be money well spent.
Workplace courses exist to indemnify employers against the actions of their employees. No-body seriously thinks otherwise, do they?
ngl, as someone who worked in a corporation, of this divsersity stuff is crap and most of the training is hr bullshit that doesn’t do anything beyond wasting your time. at least some training companies get a handsome profit, but its pretty pointless, which is the case for a lot of the training we do.
I mean she’s not wrong.
We’ve been increasing diversity and been pushing inclusion for 40 years.
If someone’s not worked out how to avoid being a cunt by now, they’re not gonna get the message from being talked at for an hour by some random.
Yes there’s things like microagressions people may not have considered, but if someone actually gives a shit they can be resolved at the time by just mentioning it.
The real key thing is leadership creating a culture where that can happen safely and happily. And not accepting anyone stepping out of line and being an arsehole. But that’s not fixed by box ticking and a mandatory 2 hour lecture.
I remember one of these class literally trying to teach me not to take clients to strip clubs and pay with the company credit card. It was an insult to my intelligence
People often say that the UK sub is very left wing but it’s absolutely awash with reactionary Times and Telegraph articles.
Sigh.
As we develop more and more of an American style litigation culture, companies become liable for damages if an employee is bullied at their place of work and can prove that the company did not do enough to prevent this.
Diversity courses are primarily a way for companies to cover their back. They are able to show that they did “everything they could” to prevent racist, sexist, ablist etc bullying. Its good PR too.
I thought it was helpful. But then mine was in person,with my colleagues and took all day, fully paid by the company I work for.
There are a lot of really shitty employers out there.
So what is she actually proposing to boost Equality, as required of her in her post as Minister for Equality?
Because it seems she’s moved in from trying to strip away trans people’s rights to just trying to undermine any concept of progress.
Every workplace training course is snake oil.
Painting this as an issue only with diversity training is wildly disingenuous. But she and we know know that certain people will lap this rubbish up.
Didn’t she admit to committing a crime and was never charged or suffered any legal consequences?
And this is just pointless gaslighting to detract from real problems.
My old workplace made us do loads of courses on how to deal with racism, sexual harassment etc. All good to highlight and to make us aware of. However, this was in Belfast, and they never mentioned once how to handle or what the policy’s are around sectarianism. Realistically, that would be much more useful and is something that will be more likely to be experienced by the majority of staff.
A business decision, surely. If I decide that running one of these courses is likely to pay for itself in avoiding legal fees for disputes under the Equality Act, who the hell is Kemi Badenoch to say this isn’t a good allocation of resources? Conservatives no longer believe that people know what’s best for their business?
It’s a total scam.
And it’s no coincidence every ‘Director or D&I’ I’ve met drives a very expensive car. It’s an absolute slap in the face to think someone on six figures+ can have any real life experience to inform their ‘consultancy’ on how to include people from lower economic backgrounds.
A lot of the complaints about forced diversity seem to ignore that a lot of places have regularly practiced forced uniformity.
It doesn’t matter how often you say this, they’ll never think you’re one of them. Give it up.
Paywalled but, no one reads the article anyway.
“Kemi Badenoch has warned companies against prioritising equality and diversity over meritocracy.”
DEI is an attempt to get to the holy grail of meritocracy though. They are not incompatible.
Unless you’re a racist/misogynist who believes companies deliberately hire incompetent staff to fill “diversity quotas”.
29 comments
EDI training is pretty useless. At a lot of places it’s online training that people can speed through, only used by HR as a tickbox exercise. Not sure what benefit it brings.
Diversity training is well intentioned but absolutely useless. It’s a cheap, quick and lazy way for organisations to pretend they’re modern and inclusive.
Good leadership is difficult but it’s the only thing that truly makes a workplace inclusive and fair. You need people right from the top down who enforce good working practices, provide opportunities and develop staff. Stamp down on discrimination, bullying, harassment and role model a positive culture.
Not some useless online learning module you can click through in 3 minutes.
EDI in every business I have worked at is just a complete waste of time.
No one wants forced diversity. They just want competent colleagues who pull the same weight as them
There’s no way she’d get away with saying this if she was a white man.
90% of workplace courses are snake oil.
If it’s not some integrity test, it’s something to do with health and safety telling you to leave via the front door in case of a fire.
Most of those courses are just done for legal reasons so the company can’t be sued later.
> They also warned that companies too often outsourced or delegated their equality training to those with “potentially conflicting incentives” that had a “proliferation” of different initiatives.
Whilst I agree with the report’s conclusion in this specific case, people easily miss the more general conclusion that this applies to **much** more than equality training. Far too much of company activity is now outsourced to groups with conflicting incentives.
Many workplace courses are too generic and not suitable for the specific role or environment. As a teacher I had to do an online course on fire safety every year. Different types of fire and different types of extinguisher were covered (no extinguishers of any type are present in the classroom). Sources of ignition (which were not present in my classroom) were covered, the financial costs… It took over two hours to complete, 95% was irrelevant.
In reality, if there was a fire, I would walk out with my class making sure they were all ahead of me , crack the alarm on the way and leave it to the fire brigade. Then wait in the designated area with my class. At no point would I be leaving the class to look for an extinguisher to return to the fire.
Diversity training isn’t to teach you how to behave, it’s to use against you when you pretend you “didn’t know that word was offensive”.
Yes you did. You were on the course. Get out.
Ironic considering she’s got the job she has simply because of political diversity optics.
This what happens with “culture war brain”, she’s too thick to see that this training is usual just a form of protection for companies to make staff aware and the minuscule time it takes is insignificant.
Remind me why the fuck the Secretary of Trade is spending her time on culture war nonsense?
I used to work for a large multinational (US based) bank.
Every year everyone had to do active shooter training, even us in the UK.
I moaned and pointed out the most dangerous part of any day is our commute to and from work, why no road safety training…
They’re a waste of time for most of us who are not bigots and/or have the sense not to say things that could cause us to lose our jobs. They’re badly needed for a small minority of walking liabilities, if only to protect the organisations they work for from lawsuits. Ironically, the people who most need to go on these courses are often the ones complaining the loudest about what a waste of time they are. But they would be whining even louder if their employers selected them as individuals in need of this training instead of applying it across the board, so we all get to join them.
Maybe Badenoch should organise a diversity course for certain Tory party donors claiming that specific MPs “should be shot” and make them “want to hate all black women.” Seems like it might be money well spent.
Workplace courses exist to indemnify employers against the actions of their employees. No-body seriously thinks otherwise, do they?
ngl, as someone who worked in a corporation, of this divsersity stuff is crap and most of the training is hr bullshit that doesn’t do anything beyond wasting your time. at least some training companies get a handsome profit, but its pretty pointless, which is the case for a lot of the training we do.
I mean she’s not wrong.
We’ve been increasing diversity and been pushing inclusion for 40 years.
If someone’s not worked out how to avoid being a cunt by now, they’re not gonna get the message from being talked at for an hour by some random.
Yes there’s things like microagressions people may not have considered, but if someone actually gives a shit they can be resolved at the time by just mentioning it.
The real key thing is leadership creating a culture where that can happen safely and happily. And not accepting anyone stepping out of line and being an arsehole. But that’s not fixed by box ticking and a mandatory 2 hour lecture.
I remember one of these class literally trying to teach me not to take clients to strip clubs and pay with the company credit card. It was an insult to my intelligence
People often say that the UK sub is very left wing but it’s absolutely awash with reactionary Times and Telegraph articles.
Sigh.
As we develop more and more of an American style litigation culture, companies become liable for damages if an employee is bullied at their place of work and can prove that the company did not do enough to prevent this.
Diversity courses are primarily a way for companies to cover their back. They are able to show that they did “everything they could” to prevent racist, sexist, ablist etc bullying. Its good PR too.
I thought it was helpful. But then mine was in person,with my colleagues and took all day, fully paid by the company I work for.
There are a lot of really shitty employers out there.
So what is she actually proposing to boost Equality, as required of her in her post as Minister for Equality?
Because it seems she’s moved in from trying to strip away trans people’s rights to just trying to undermine any concept of progress.
Every workplace training course is snake oil.
Painting this as an issue only with diversity training is wildly disingenuous. But she and we know know that certain people will lap this rubbish up.
Didn’t she admit to committing a crime and was never charged or suffered any legal consequences?
And this is just pointless gaslighting to detract from real problems.
My old workplace made us do loads of courses on how to deal with racism, sexual harassment etc. All good to highlight and to make us aware of. However, this was in Belfast, and they never mentioned once how to handle or what the policy’s are around sectarianism. Realistically, that would be much more useful and is something that will be more likely to be experienced by the majority of staff.
A business decision, surely. If I decide that running one of these courses is likely to pay for itself in avoiding legal fees for disputes under the Equality Act, who the hell is Kemi Badenoch to say this isn’t a good allocation of resources? Conservatives no longer believe that people know what’s best for their business?
It’s a total scam.
And it’s no coincidence every ‘Director or D&I’ I’ve met drives a very expensive car. It’s an absolute slap in the face to think someone on six figures+ can have any real life experience to inform their ‘consultancy’ on how to include people from lower economic backgrounds.
A lot of the complaints about forced diversity seem to ignore that a lot of places have regularly practiced forced uniformity.
It doesn’t matter how often you say this, they’ll never think you’re one of them. Give it up.
Paywalled but, no one reads the article anyway.
“Kemi Badenoch has warned companies against prioritising equality and diversity over meritocracy.”
DEI is an attempt to get to the holy grail of meritocracy though. They are not incompatible.
Unless you’re a racist/misogynist who believes companies deliberately hire incompetent staff to fill “diversity quotas”.
Dog whistle.