There’s a lot of talk these days about getting back to normal, but what does the new normal look like for your business?
In light of shifting attitudes about everything from gender roles to technology to corporate hierarchies, now is an excellent time to reassess your company culture and spark changes.
One of the best ways to support equity is through continuous training and education.
Creating a Learning Culture Within Your Company
Knowledge and development are two powerful tools business leaders can infuse into their employee training and onboarding strategies.
When you provide education and training around staff needs and skillsets, regardless of gender or place within the company structure, you avoid the problem of “one-size” solutions and support higher staff engagement.
This opens up opportunities for all employees by providing equal access to training tools and promotions and helps overcome the low number of women in leadership positions. Studies show that companies that perform in the top 20% in terms of diversity are more likely to place near the top in terms of profitability. If you want your company to be considered forward-thinking and progressive, here is how to make that vision a reality.
How a Learning Management System Contributes to Equity
A learning management system (LMS) platform allows business leaders to assess where they stand in terms of job equity, identify problem areas, and provide actionable guidance toward improving everything from interoffice communications to job performance and productivity.
Such an application helps you achieve job parity and equal access to training and upward mobility through training and self-assessment in a manner that is individualized, actionable, and measurable in terms of effectiveness.
There are five components to any effective LMS, and some of them make the process both fun and meaningful.
Compliance Tracking
With the right software, you can ensure that everyone on your team contributes to compliance and regulations regarding sexual harassment, equal pay, and equal access to internal promotions and other opportunities.
Courses can be tailored to identify areas where employees and leaders are inadvertently contributing to gender equity issues and suggest ways to improve or challenge behavior.
With the right app, business owners, leadership, or HR can configure platforms to automatically schedule training sessions and monitor progress.
Audience Segmentation
This is an essential component if you want to avoid wasting time and money with ineffective one-size training. You can configure applications to provide different management and staff training based on individual circumstances and performance evaluations.
For example, new hires receive different training than current employees. Those with a particular issue on the job might attend another type of training.
You can segment individual audiences according to job title, location, or other metrics to promote corporate equity.
Platform Mentoring
This type of virtual training is designed to provide precise and general guidance in a way that doesn’t disrupt the workday.
Think of it as a virtual assistant for compliance, training, and education. With forum-style mentoring, you can set up the platform to incorporate training throughout the day or offer tips and suggestions for addressing specific issues as they occur.
The training can be as granular as your employees need to empower them in a number of areas.
Whether you decide to provide training on solving common technical issues with PCs to reinforcing guidelines for respectful communication with coworkers, you can ensure that all employees have equal access to training and technology.
These are big steps in sectors that are considered to be typically male-dominated.
Gamification
This kind of training is gaining traction in schools and workplaces throughout the world, and it’s ideal for L & D professionals. We learn better when education is initiated in a fun and engaging way.
Through gamification techniques, participants can internalize important concepts. This method also provides instant feedback and engaging our innate need to compete through:
- Reward systems and badges
- Leader boards
- “Leveling-up” through various challenges and concepts
For it to be effective, the gaming interface needs to be constructed to include just enough elements to be meaningful and engaging without diverging from the topics or tasks at hand.
Quizzes
Quizzes are a great way to gauge where someone is at in the learning process, which saves time and prevents redundancy. They also provide almost instant feedback and help identify areas that need improvement.
Leaders can evaluate results individually or enterprise-wide and use insights to create and implement future training programs or retool those protocols already in place.
Making it Count
Ideas are only as good as the actions you take as a result.
If you want your gender equality and staff training programs to make a real difference in your company, you must lead by example.
Paying lip service to gender equality is no more effective than building your business building with a cardboard facade.
Be a force for equity and inclusion in your industry. The greatest aid to equality in any business is education.
Go through the training yourself, exhibit behaviors that promote equity, and be consistent in how you design and implement strategies, programs, and procedures.
Creating a progressive, enlightened business environment may not be easy, but the effort is worth the ROI in terms of staff and customer satisfaction.
