Published on: July 8, 2025 at 3:57 pm
Most large organizations have diversity training for employees, but only a few actually have diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) objectives. Far too many organizations think of DEI as a check-the-box compliance exercise rather than a way to boost employee performance and well-being. But organizations that prioritize DEI reap benefits, according to Academy of Management Scholar Quinetta Roberson of Michigan State University.
Roberson acknowledged that there is little quantitative data to support the effectiveness of diversity training in organizations. A notable exception, however, is McKinsey’s 2023 “Diversity Matters Even More” report, which found a “39% increased likelihood of outperformance for those in the top quartile of ethnic and gender representation versus the bottom quartile.” In addition, McKinsey found that the performance of companies lacking diverse representation is likely to be 30% lower on average than their more diverse competitors.
“Part of the problem is that a lot of DEI training is implemented and used from a compliance perspective, so if there are any problems, leaders send people to do diversity training, so it gets rid of the vulnerability for the organization, rather than thinking about what diversity training was originally designed for and intended to be,” Roberson said. “It’s to change attitudes and behavior.
“People’s attitude to DEI is very sticky, because by the time they go through diversity trading at work, they’re who they’re going to become as people—they’re like adults, fully formed individuals,” she said. “So saying that you’re going to change their attitudes is a tall order for something that may be two hours or four hours a day at the most.
“Research on active learning says, in order for training to be effective, people have to be involved and engaged in their own learning process—I can’t come to you and say, ‘You’re going to take X, Y, and Z,’ but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be engaged in it or motivated to learn.”
