Mixed views on diversity training, but AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE IS KEY

To retain diverse employees, 19 percent of PMPs said their companies create cultures that value workplace diversity, found the 2018 PCT-NPMA Workplace Diversity Survey.

Thirty-nine percent of PMPs said their company has done a good job providing training programs that promote multicultural understanding and 71 percent said their company’s policies and procedures discourage discrimination.

Eco Choice Termite & Pest Control has “a zero-tolerance policy” of discrimination, said Emilio Polce.

If you let employees or customers bully or be offensive to each other, “then you’re fostering a culture of unacceptance and anti-diversity. Nobody wants to come up with a diverse idea because they’re afraid of ridicule,” said Billy Olesen, Chuck Sullivan Exterminators.

A registered member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, Olesen recalled having a civil sit-down with a supervisor who unknowingly made a comment offensive to Native Americans. “If nobody ever says anything, nothing’s going to change,” said Olesen.

A culture of inclusiveness can weed out those who don’t embrace it. “We try really hard to immerse people in the Sprague culture from the very beginning and if it doesn’t seem like it’s a good fit then those people naturally just work themselves out because it’s such a strong culture here,” said Leila Haas.

According to the survey, 25 percent of PMPs said diversity training is an important tool in meeting company goals; 85 percent said their companies did not conduct this training in the past 12 months. Nearly a third (32 percent) said that diversity training is an example of political correctness gone wild.