In the wake of the Black Lives Matters movement and ongoing socioeconomic injustices, it’s critical that businesses take it upon themselves to play a larger, more hands-on role in educating employees about racial injustices in the workplace. It’s no longer enough for leaders to assume employee on-boarding checklists or annual training courses provide full disclosure and in-depth coverage of the subject matter. Nor is it enough to flash a few thirty minute videos on topics ranging from racial injustice to discrimination and what constitutes discrimination in the workplace and assume tacit understanding. 

Racial discrimination and injustice has overtaken society by storm, and if business leaders don’t proactively educate and have real conversations about these racial dynamics, we perpetuate and elongate the problem. Because studies have shown that employees identify strongly with their company’s mission and uphold similar values at home, businesses play a critical role in influencing the outcome of social structures. Here are seven ways companies can create actionable steps to improve the workplace culture and influence social structures for the better. 

Take your on-boarding curriculum to the drawing board. During these racially charged moments, it’s going to take more than a playbook to address modern forms of racism in the workplace — and your on-boarding curriculum needs to reflect it. While populating contractual agreements with a bunch of HR and legal jargon and having employees initial each section fulfills the legal obligation, it doesn’t adequately solve for understanding the effects and outcomes of racial injustice. Starting at the top, CHROs need to advocate for programs that serve employees by discussing real world problems and having difficult conversations that demonstrate the repercussions of racial biases and misunderstandings. They need to draw from current events and modernize the workplace guidebook rather than produce manuals from a decades-old approach. They need to create experiences that encourage action, understanding and dialogue.  

Move from a delivery to an outcome-based approach. By having difficult discussions, sharing real-life stories and encouraging action, you empower employees to stand up and do what is right when faced with any form of injustice. This requires education, ongoing dialogue and psychological safety within the workplace. Businesses need to move away from the ‘one and done’ approach, the idea that race is a topic you can easily just check off the list. Once an employee consents to the on-boarding paperwork, it’s not complete. You need to monitor workplace dialogue, action and inaction. You need to watch to make sure inappropriate comments are not made in jest. You need to be able to call it out when you witness it. Continue to educate and reinforce the message to ensure workers are living up to the core beliefs and values you set forth in your company’s vision and mission statement.

Provide access to resources and tools. It’s not enough to point employees to resources, but rather provide resources such as counselors, personal life coaches and mental health advisors who can educate them and talk about racial misgivings in confidence. According to Mental Health America, 18.5 percent of Americans are experiencing mental health illness, that’s equivalent to 45 million Americans and 4.4 percent are experiencing severe mental health illness — all of which can lead to devastating effects on their life and well-being. Raising awareness and making resources readily available can provide a way to proactively solve the problem before it gets out of hand. It can also mean the difference between life and death. 

Use the ‘playback’ technique. As with all-hands meetings and departmental QBRs (quarterly breakdown reviews), directors and group managers are instrumental in affecting change and influencing workplace behaviors. Taking time to break down and deconstruct some of the bigger ideas shows that you care about the well-being of your employees. It offers a moment for you to listen, learn and remain watchful of distress that can take a destructive toll on your employees left unaddressed. The “playback” tactic is one of the most underutilized, yet effective communications techniques that helps people understand and retain some of these larger discussions. If you take the time to invest in your employees, it will pay dividends in building humanity, trust and loyalty. 

Survey employees to gauge work-place sentiment. While discussing race and having difficult conversations can help build awareness, solidarity and higher emotional intelligence, it needs to be supported by feedback loops with employees to remain effective. With racial divide being a sensitive topic for companies and employees alike, getting to the root cause requires extra work, and soliciting employee feedback is one way to gauge sentiment and help steer the conversation. Employees need to feel safe in order to divulge their true sentiments and opening up the lines of communications in the form of an anonymous survey is a great way to start. 

Continue the race dialogue today, tomorrow and in the future. One of the common pitfalls of making race part of the discussion is that many companies embed these blanket statements into their on-boarding curriculum and assume they checked the box. Other companies who have the resources go further by inserting another chapter of the training program annually by making employees sit through more videos and then take online quizzes until they “pass”. While mandatory HR training comes week one on the job and annually thereafter, business leaders need to focus on the impact and outcomes of these training programs. In recent news, we’ve seen a number of “Karens” and “Kens” emerge, who have put pen to paper on HR forms only to render a worldview that completely shatters the core set of beliefs and values that their company regards so highly. These incidents along with many others underscore the systemic breakdown in society and the workplace, and it should lead companies to question the effectiveness of their training policies. 

Expand your worldview. You don’t always need to travel or go far to expand your worldview. You just need a little bit of time. As important as it is for companies to take a stand on race, it’s just as important to give your employees time to learn, reflect and grow on issues that matter. Companies such as Twitter, Lyft, Adobe, Target and a long list of others have announced they will honor and recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday while others such as ServiceNow offer it up as a ‘Day of Learning’. 

Schools like San Jose State University are also doing their part and making racial studies a mandatory curriculum for incoming freshmen. Making race part of the discussion and focusing on the societal impacts of race is central in creating a united front. Empower your employees by giving them the gift of time to elevate their understanding on topics dividing the nation. 

While it’s hard to believe racism is still an issue in the 21st century, it’s very real and front and center as we seek justice and overcome the brutalities George Floyd, Breanna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Dion Johnson and a long list of others. By making the topic of race central to an organization’s core values and beliefs and proactively educating employees, business can help quell the racial tension and divide.