DEI

Last year US companies paid experts $3.4 billion dollars to come in and train employees on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). It has its roots in the 1960's civil rights movement and has grown to include gender, sexual orientation, religion and country of origin. Virtually all Fortune 500 companies offer diversity training to their employees. Yet surprisingly few of them have measured its impact. That's unfortunate, considering evidence has shown the diversity training can backfire, eliciting defensiveness from the very people who might benefit most. And even when the training is beneficial, the effects may not last after the program ends. An extensive study of 10,000 employees revealed the following. We found very little evidence that diversity training affected the behavior of men or white employees overall—the two groups who typically hold the most power in organizations and are often the primary targets of these interventions. Even though companies realize that this training is not effective, they do it for the appearance of doing something. This is what is called in today's vernacular, virtue signaling.