Equity-focused training and development

Because the outcomes of equity, inclusion, and anti-oppression deeply affect people’s lives, sometimes it can feel like training people on the subject is about changing their core beliefs and perspectives. Treating it instead as capacity-building for the right behaviours and practices can feel more realistic. Like any other workplace skill set, training and development on equity, inclusion and anti-oppression is not a nice-to-have, but a critical investment in creating shared language, understanding, and action. 

Building a training and development plan

Use the goals you’ve set and equity-focused competencies to guide what comes first in your training and development plan. Factors may include:

• What employees are asking for most
• Your organization's mission and vision
• Communities your organization serves
• Communities your organization is actively building relationships with

Topics that nonprofits commonly cover first include:

1. Systems of oppression and privilege: Educate employees to understand and challenge the systems of oppression that affect marginalized communities. A robust curriculum on systems of oppression will include time devoted to understanding the role of social and systemic privilege as well. You may like to start with the systems affecting those who are most represented in your program’s clients or among your workforce.
   • Example: When arranging for training on racism, ensure a section devoted to understanding white supremacy and its relationship to upholding racism.
     
     
2. Intersectionality is the idea that a person’s identities, like their race, gender and ability, combine to shape their experiences. Understanding the common challenges that people with certain combinations of identities face helps you build better systems and programs that support them.
   • Example: Studies show that women earn less than men, averaging 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. However, the gap widens when race is considered: white women earn 83%, while Black women earn just 59% of what white men make.
     
     
3. Indigenous rights, truth and reconciliation, and decolonization: Educate employees on colonization and its historical and ongoing impacts on Indigenous people, and how to redress these wrongdoings today through their work. Recognizing the Indigenous right to self-determination supports employees to work towards a safer, more inclusive workplace for Indigenous colleagues and community members. 

Specific topics may include:

• Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action, and your organization’s role in supporting them
• The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
• Giving territory acknowledgements grounded in reflection and action
• Allyship with your organization’s Indigenous host nations
  
  

4. Cultural safety: Employees learn how to create a culturally safe workplace for Indigenous and racialized colleagues. Having cultural sensitivity, safety, and humility training to begin accepting different ways of working, particularly Indigenous ways of working and knowing. Employees learn about the traits of dominant Canadian society, including white supremacy, and how these are unconsciously considered the norm and standard.
   
   Trainings offered by:
   • Indigenous Corporate Training
   • San’yas
   • Indigenous Inclusion
5. Anti-Blackness and anti-racism: Black people in Canada continue to face the lasting impacts of slavery, segregation and discrimination today in the form of anti-Black racism. Understanding how anti-Black racism manifests and how to challenge it equips employees to create a safer, more inclusive workplace for Black colleagues and community members.
   
   
6. Behaving inclusively at work: Equipping employees with the knowledge and tools to communicate respectfully and inclusively at work fosters belonging and psychological safety for everyone. Inclusive behaviour includes the ability to identify and even address subtle or unintentional acts of discrimination in daily workplace interactions. Training should include understanding concepts like:
   • Microaggressions, which are comments or actions that subtly or indirectly insult or stereotype someone’s identity. Microaggressions may be accidental or on purpose, and may even sound friendly at first.
   • The intent-impact gap is when we accidentally hurt someone, even when our words and actions carry good intentions. This can happen more when people do not fully understand each other’s experiences. It’s important to know how to take accountability for such miscommunications and repair the resulting hurt or harm.
     
     
7. Mitigating unconscious bias at work. Unlearning unconscious biases is a gradual process that can take months or years. Unconscious bias training is more effective when it includes techniques for mitigating bias in workplace systems and practices. Current evidence suggests that unconscious bias training alone has limited impact on improving outcomes for underrepresented groups. In some cases, such training can even backfire and unintentionally reinforce stereotypes instead.

Train leadership first

Imagine Canada’s 2023 report cites leadership support as one of the most common enablers of equity and inclusion policies and practices. Supporting decision-makers and those with the power to influence policy to understand what equitable and inclusive systems look like, and how to change them, will enable them to more meaningfully participate in equity working groups and manage their teams.

Leaders and decision-makers include:

• Board members
• Executive director, CEO
• Directors, VPs
• Recruiters, hiring managers, volunteer managers

Leadership-specific training and development topics: 

1. Power, privilege and allyship: Develops skills for inclusive leadership by understanding the dynamics of power and privilege in the workplace. This training is best structured as one that builds on training around systems of oppression and privilege that you may offer across your organization
    
2. Restorative or transformative justice: Shifting towards equity and inclusion will inevitably create friction or grievances. Typical grievance procedures methods tend to focus on punishing wrongdoers rather than supporting those who have been harmed. A restorative or transformative justice approach to conflict resolution responds to harm without creating more harm, and focuses on supporting victims to heal. Another aspect of transformative justice is about accountability and seeking to repair the relationship between those involved.
   
   (This does not apply to legal definitions of bullying, harassment or discrimination).
   
   
3. Building inclusive boards and teams: Teaches boards and managers to recruit equitably, behave inclusively, and foster a sense of belonging for people from a diverse range of backgrounds.
    

Considerations for structuring training sessions

As you identify topics for training and development, you’ll want to consider a few details:

Mandatory or optional?
Making equity training mandatory communicates that it’s a critical skillset. Rather than focusing on changing people’s personal beliefs, treat equity training as a way to clarify the behaviours you expect from employees and why those behaviours matter. Connect the why to broader organizational goals, such as reducing burnout, promoting psychological safety and supporting employee well-being. 

Many organizations designate a core set of mandatory training for all employees, that is then complemented by additional resources that employees can explore at their own pace. 

Accommodations and exceptions

Equity training often touches on subjects that bring up discomfort, grief and trauma – particularly for employees who are from communities directly affected by the subject. Arrange for extra support and work with employees to accommodate their needs. 

Some common supports and accommodations include:

• Offering a recording or transcript of the session for the employee to review later
• Designating a trained active listener or peer support 
• Bringing in a trained counselor or Elder to offer as-needed support
• Reminding employees of existing wellness supports, such as an Employee Assistance Plan line
• Reminding managers to check in with their team afterwards

Frequency and scheduling
Practitioners often book up quickly during relevant occasions. Ensure you book ahead as much as possible. Or announce the session during the relevant occasion, with the training booked for a future date. 

Continuity
When booking, ensure you are allowed to record and archive the training session. Ensure these are available to new employees during onboarding. 

Mentorship programs and supporting growth

Mentorship programs that focus on opening doors for employees to new opportunities have an important role to play in workplace equity and inclusion. Studies show that formal mentorship programs are beneficial for women and racialized people at work, as white men have an easier time finding mentors through informal channels. 

Start an equity-focused mentorship program at your organization by:

• Getting clear on the goals of the program. Is it to advance more marginalized people into leadership positions? Or foster better engagement and a sense of belonging at work?
  
  
• Recruiting mentors from a wide range of backgrounds. Studies show that many employees of colour prefer mentors from a similar background, though others find it less important. However, avoid pressuring mentors to participate just because they’re from a particular background.
  
  
• Train mentors on how to mentor well. A good mentor has similar strengths to a good career coach, like empathy and active listening, and should also have undergone equity training.
  
  
• Set a budget to support relationship-building between mentors and mentees that includes things like gift cards to coffee shops.