IDA Inclusion Education and Training

Challenge

IDA has redoubled its effort to drive positive change and to ingrain diversity, equity and inclusion into its workplace culture. Employees are required to take IDA’s annual Code of Conduct Training, which was developed internally. This custom program allows employees to connect lessons from real-life work situations. Employees gain a nuanced understanding of expectations of personal and professional conduct and when to report issues they encounter.

Actions

IDA employees are also required to take Peer Intervention Training presented by Alteristic, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping teams create social norms that ensure a safe, respectful and inclusive work environment. Alteristic developed a program specifically for IDA based on experiences shared during employee focus group sessions. The training explains how to use the Green Dot intervention strategy when responding to behaviors that could lead to harassment or bullying. The purpose is to establish a climate of mutual respect among employees and with sponsors.

IDA also offers employees the opportunity to attend the workshop MicroInequities: Managing Unconscious Bias (formerly MicroInequities: The Power of Small). The workshop — now mandatory for IDA leadership — is taught by Stephen Young, senior partner of Insight Education Systems, a management consulting firm specializing in organizational and leadership development. Participants learn to identify and manage micro-messaging in the workplace. Although difficult to identify and manage, micro-messaging exhibits unconscious bias and can affect recruitment, retention, personal performance, innovation and collaboration.

Outcomes

In 2021, IDA joined the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), which specializes in a science-based approach to growing soft skills that make change initiatives more effective. NLI partners with a network of labs to publish peer-reviewed research articles in organizational psychology to provide evidence-based resources, strategies and solutions. Through IDA’s corporate membership, all IDA employees have access to articles, podcasts, videos and other curated content on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics.

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