Respectful Workplace Training: Creating A Culturally Inclusive Environment

Our in-depth research on global corporations across many different cultures found one common thread: No matter what differences may exist in cultures, people everywhere want to be treated with dignity and respect.

The core interactions where employees decide if they are being treated respectfully are their conversations with their immediate supervisor. Fundamentally, people can’t feel valued if they don’t feel heard.  Well-intentioned, good people still may communicate poorly, and the consequences can be catastrophic – to the relationship, and to the organization.

Creating a respectful workplace requires a total commitment on the part of the organization and its leadership. (See our consulting solutions for Cultural Inclusion, and our leadership training to support that effort.) Improving the communication skills of supervisors is a key element in that strategy.

Our Respectful Workplace approach is different from traditional “diversity training” in that it equips supervisors with the knowledge, skills, confidence, and commitment to have a different conversation with employees and with each other.  These important, crucial conversations are the connecting tissue that build and sustain an organizational culture in which dignity, respect, and valuing others are dominant threads.

Supervisors who create a respectful workplace help your business achieve important benefits:

• Increased employee engagement
• Reduced employee relations issues and grievances
• Being seen as an employer of choice
• Retention of valuable talent
• Increased alignment with corporate values

Respectful Workplace Training Training highlights:

• The elements of a respectful workplace
• What supervisors do to ensure an environment of mutual respect, irrespective of culture
• How to recognize and avoid stereotyping in the workplace
• How to set standards for behavior and communication that support company values
• How to address inappropriate behavior and get commitment to changed behavior
• How to resolve conflict when cultures clash in the workplace
• How to maintain ongoing trust and respect in the workplace

Respectful Workplace Training Methodology

Participants in Respectful Workplace spend most of their workshop time in practices with coaching and feedback in P2P Videolabs™ – AlexanderHancock’s trademarked process for rapid development of business communication skills. They bring their own real situations to use in the practice sessions, and gain insight and skills through customized exercises and case studies.

Respectful Workplace Training Customized Solutions

To ensure that training is not just an “event,” but instead produces enduring results, we customize Respectful Workplace to fit your unique situation, business strategy, culture, and people.  After discussion with you and other experts within your organization, we select the emphasis, specific skills to be developed, key learning points, exercises, and case studies for practice to create a solution tailored just for you.

Respectful Workplace Training Applications

The following are some of the ways our clients have used custom versions of Respectful Workplace:

• To align the workplace with corporate values
• To create a respectful workplace model that can work internationally as well as in the US
• To equip supervisors to manage increasingly diverse employee populations
• To respond to issues raised on employee surveys
• To enhance the professional skills of first-line supervisors and strengthen emotional intelligence
• To address work units within a company where employees have complained about being treated disrespectfully
• To address areas or work units that employees perceive as hostile work environments

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