Each year we require our associates to complete Health Equities training to ensure they understand the racial disparities of our members. However, we recognize the need to offer additional options to increase associates’ cultural competency. By providing more training, our associate family will have a better understanding of the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, encourage more thoughtful collaboration, and ultimately improve the care of our members.

We identified gaps in our diversity training and examined how they might affect our members and associates.

• Training vendors were vetted and selected based on whether or not they could provide training that could fill the gaps.
• Diversity and Inclusion training was piloted and feedback was collected to determine if the selected training and learning platforms were effective.

In March 2018, we piloted a new training called Building an Inclusive Workplace for Leaders, which is offered in-person and virtually for all people managers. This training program underscores the business imperatives for leveraging the cultural backgrounds, personal characteristics, and unique experiences of all employees to truly promote and benefit from an inclusive workplace. 

In May 2018, we offered a new executive level training called Managing Inclusion to vice presidents and above. There were two sessions scheduled and we anticipate on having additional session added before the end of 2018.The Managing Inclusion program provides leadership tools that enable managers to engage their teams’ diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to create an environment that fosters innovation, respect, and strong business outcomes. Upon completion of this course, managers can immediately implement best practices with their teams. 

In addition to new executive level trainings, we contracted with Lynda.com®, a leading online learning platform, to provide additional options and courses around diversity and inclusion for associates at every level in the organization. 

Ky'a Jackson