Cultural Sensitivity Training In The Workplace

Need to put together cultural sensitivity training in the workplace but unsure how to get started? Finding the time to put together delicate but vital training programs can feel like an overwhelming task.

To give you a starting point, we will share what our Cultural Sensitivity Training Template looks like so you can get this vital employee training program off the ground.

We'll also dive in and share the benefits of cultural sensitivity training so you can truly understand the importance of building an inclusive company culture and diverse workforce.

Cultural diversity vs cultural sensitivity

Unsure what the difference is between cultural diversity and cultural sensitivity? It's not uncommon to feel confused at the blurred lines between the two terms.

Cultural diversity doesn't just refer to the nationalities, it can also refer to cultural differences such as; gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and much more.

Cultural sensitivity training gives you the skills to learn and understand other employees from a different culture to your own, giving all involved cultural awareness. This helps people learn about other employees from different backgrounds or ethnicities in an open and understanding way to avoid judgment or resulting in employee resolution conflicts.

Benefits of employee cultural sensitivity training programs in the workplace

There are many employee cultural and sensitivity training benefits, so we will share some to help you understand that cultural awareness training and cultural competency are key for a thriving workplace.

1. Create a thriving workplace your employees will love

Implementing cultural sensitivity training from the beginning of the onboarding process is crucial to make sure you start new hires off on the right track. It doesn't only show respect for the company culture; it shows respect for every single employee in the business, which will set the standard and tone for new employees to understand quickly.

2. Focus on acceptable and unacceptable behavior

One of the best benefits of cultural sensitivity training is to clarify the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. When you have cross-cultural training in place which conducts clear outlines of the policies and procedures of the company, employees will understand how to prevent bullying behavior and employee conflict, for example.

You might like to challenge employees during the cultural sensitivity training and help them understand that it goes beyond cultural diversity by raising awareness of perspective and communication skills. This in turn will help employees understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the workplace.

3. Help employees speak up when needed

Managers and the Human Resources department won't know if there are any cultural sensitivity issues in the workplace if no one speaks up about it. During the cultural sensitivity training, it's essential to train employees to raise questions and concerns when they see any cultural differences that would be a cause for concern.

It's key to make sure your online training program clearly states what employees need to do to report employee conflict or any cultural sensitivity issues. This can be anything from harassment, discrimination or anything that would make you question how an employee behaves towards another member of staff that isn't with integrity and respect for a safe workplace company culture.

4. Help employees gain self-confidence

While employees might not like to make diversity and inclusion issues worse in the workplace, it's the HR Manager's and team leader's role to ensure all employees grow with confidence while working for the business. During the cross-cultural training programs, each employee must be given space to voice questions and challenge preconceptions and stereotypes in the workplace.

Giving clear examples of the boundaries for various cultural differences will allow staff members to gain confidence and reassurance during the diversity training.

5. Improve communication skills

If you don't implement cultural sensitivity training in the workplace, you'll run the risk of having many diversity & inclusion issues to sort out. Ultimately, employee training programs are implemented to set the guidelines for company awareness, company culture, policy, and procedures. These vital pieces of employee training are usually given to new hires during their onboarding place. If you've not organized this yet, it's not too late!

Help improve communication skills in the company by gaining exposure to employees to learn about how they can grow with the business and with the team around them.

How to use our cultural sensitivity training template

Now you can see why cultural awareness training programs are vital for all companies, we'll give you a helping hand to get started with putting together the training for your team.

Our Cultural Sensitivity Training Template is ready for you to use, customize and edit as you please. Feel free to add your own copy, delete or add more screens, add your company branding and images and present a polished and professional training program to your employees.

Here's what's included in our online training template.

Start with a welcome screen

We start all training templates with a welcome screen to help employees focus and know that they'll be working through a modern training program that won't be sending them asleep anytime soon.

We've built this screen using the simple Text & Image Screen. Feel free to change up the text and image if needed. We recommend putting a time frame on this screen, so employees know how long they'll need to dedicate to completing it. You'll also want to add in a few highlights for what the training will look like.

What is cultural sensitivity training?

Using another Text & Image Screen, we highlight what cultural sensitivity training actually means. This is a good starting point to be transparent with your employees to know what the training means before diving into it.

Importance of diversity

We've used the Image+ Screen to highlight the importance of diversity. Click on the + to reveal bite-sized content for each benefit. You can change the content and add or delete some benefits if needed.

Unconscious bias

On the next screen you'll find an explanation for unconscious biases. We're asking the employees to think about their own preferences and how they could affect others by giving them action steps on what they can do to be more aware of their thoughts and actions. We've used the Image & Text Screen to highlight it in a straightforward way.

Cultural differences

We come to cultural differences next, which is a breakdown of the different types an employee might be aware of. It's key to let the employees know there isn't one specific right way to understand different cultural groups.

Cross-cultural communication

We then break down what cross-cultural communication means by explaining the terminology, which is especially perfect if your company operates across multiple countries. We're breaking up the content to reveal some cross-cultural training considerations by using the XXX screen.

What does our company do to be inclusive?

It's important to let your employees know the company's best practices to create a cultural identity and diverse workforce. We're highlighting this vital screen by using the Slideshow Screen. This screen will force your employees to click to each slide to reveal the content.

What can you do as an individual?

Towards the end of the training, give your employees a call to action, so they know what they need to do to gain cultural awareness and use effective communication going forward.

Check your understanding

We think it's essential to end your training with a quiz so you can make sure your employees will fully understand to be proactive in the workplace. After taking the cross-cultural training, they must interact effectively with different cultures, cultural values, and cultural backgrounds.

You might like to ask questions about different scenarios they might be faced with and how they would react. Hopefully, this sensitivity training will help them answer each question with ease.

40 more training templates to check out

You might like to check out our 40+ team training templates to help you train team members anywhere in the world with online training.

Some of our most popular templates include:

• Company Onboarding
• Diversity & Inclusion Training
• Product Launch Strategy
• Sales Playbook
• Talking To Customers

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