An engaging approach to diversity
Workshop Design & Delivery / Evaluation & Assessment
Summary: Pelican’s training specialists were engaged to design and deliver ‘inclusion and diversity’ training to over 400 managers and supervisors across all areas of Viridor’s operation.
Tell me more
Viridor is a UK recycling, renewable energy and waste management company focused on the water and waste management industries.
The challenge
Viridor has a large number of staff from different countries, cultures and different religious beliefs. The potential reputational and financial impact of not ensuring staff understand and practice inclusion in the workplace, is huge.
Pelican was briefed to engage staff as the business went through a transformation initiative, supporting the new appraisal process and minimising the risk of legal challenges in a multicultural workforce.
The Pelican approach
The first step was for Pelican’s team to familiarise themselves with Viridor’s ‘company purpose and values’, appraisal documentation and existing policies. This would help the tailor the training to the company’s specific needs.
To ensure the business is seen as ‘leading from the front’, Pelican recommended that the first workshop was with Viridor board members, training was then cascaded to management levels below. A ‘Tool-Box’ training kit was created for managers to provide training to their supervisory staff. This was in the form of a 10 minute PowerPoint pack with briefing notes.
The workshops themselves took a highly interactive approach, using quizzes, workplace-based scenarios, questionnaires and role-playing activities. The sessions were split into six sections; understanding equality and diversity, what we mean by equality and diversity, barriers to equality, challenging unacceptable behaviour, developing cultural and social awareness and promoting equality and inclusion.
Following the completion of the project, Pelican recommended that Viridor assess the overall impact of the training on the business by evaluating the immediate impact on a personal level, repeating this evaluation after 3-6 months, and looking at the overall impact on the business.
The results
The immediate feedback on workshops was positive. Based on the end of workshop evaluation sheets Viridor confirmed that the inclusivity message was well received, accepted and understood by all participants.
Don’t just take our word for it…
“Feedback from the delegates was outstanding… Workshops were well paced and pitched correctly with a variety of activities to ensure attention was held. We will continue to work with Pelican and I have no hesitation in recommending both the company and Cheryl to others.” – Chris Whittle, head of training and development, Viridor Waste Management.
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