Prejudicial thinking is a natural part of the human mindset. Implicit bias is negative, stereotypical thinking that comes from the subconscious mind. Your company should adopt implicit bias training in all departments. Employees working in sales and human services should be trained in how to identify their own internal biases and counteract them daily.
Challenging Implicit Bias Through Learned Techniques
Through implicit bias training, your workforce can better deal with the fraught diversity issues that we all face in the modern workplace. By actively improving your corporate culture, you can potentially avoid damaging lawsuits in the future. With proper training, your employees can recognize problems with your organization’s hiring and promotion decisions. A recent study found a large percentage of employers make hiring decisions that are tainted by prejudicial thinking.
Further Benefits of Sensitivity Training
Implicit bias training can be applied in a variety and situations and contexts. Not every fraught workplace situation can be predicted in a formal training program. Instead, bias training provides your staff with generalized guidelines for treating others with sensitivity. Successfully completing an anti-bias program does not require any specific skill set. Ultimately, any person with good intentions and an open mind can succeed in eliminating internal bias. Well-designed bias training gives you a new way of thinking about people. As we learn to treat members of disadvantaged groups with respect and empathy, we may gain important new perspectives on ourselves.
The clinical research on workplace bias is starkly illuminating. This research shows that counteracting implicit bias can lead to greater job performance throughout all levels of an organization. Training classes should play a prominent role in your efforts to increase social justice and create a more supportive workplace. By training your employees to be less negative, you can make the most of the human resources at your disposal
