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Ask HN: Has anyone experienced workplace training that made a difference?

58 pointsby smilesndalmost 7 years ago
My friend in infosec was asked to review a app that is suppose to train people to identifying and eliminating bias in the workplace. It made me wonder if things like sexual harassment training, sensitivity training, inclusion training, and diversity training actually makes a difference in the workplace.

31 comments

ohthehugemanatealmost 7 years ago
I work for Microsoft, and I&#x27;ve been consistently impressed with the trainings we get.<p>My first experience was the required business ethics training. It was a Netflix style (and netflix production quality) mini-series. I had originally planned to just let it run in the background while I did real work on a different desktop, but it honestly pulled me in. There was the occasional awkward line, but they had good actors who sold it. You actually care about the characters and their conflicts. The company just announced a second season, and there are honest to goodness water cooler rumors about it. Is John gonna get fired? What about the obvious chemistry between the two sales team members? Really, it was shockingly engaging.<p>Then I did the diversity in hiring training video. I rolled my eyes in advance of the inevitable American hyper-sensitivity (I&#x27;m in Europe, we do a lot of eye rolling at you guys lately)... And then actually learned a ton about unconscious bias in research, hiring practices to try and avoid it, and some of the things that would have tripped ME up. It definitely had an impact on how I interview candidates.<p>After that I had my first onsite training. An afternoon of diversity and inclusion, involving a group of improv artists trying out different scenarios&#x2F;approaches, and leading frank discussion with the audience. I discovered that I&#x27;ve internalized a fair bit of racism in my home environment (as the victim), and it really made me think about how to create a more visibly safe environment for potential LGBTQ people on my team.<p>Training at MS has been fantastic; I&#x27;m honestly looking for some follow-up courses in our leadership series, and some others. So it IS possible to produce good, engaging, and meaningful corporate training courses.<p>All you need is the resources of Microsoft to do it. :)
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squirrelicusalmost 7 years ago
I had diversity training once that didn&#x27;t suck. The HR presenter opened by showing three slides with pictures and asking the question &quot;is this a diverse group of people?&quot; for each slide<p>Slide 1: a group of ~20 white males in suits together in times square<p>Slide 2: three Kenyan olympic medalists standing together in uniform<p>Slide 3: a stock photo with a dozen men and women of various races and dress talking in an office conference room<p>The HR person then said &quot;The answer to all of these questions is &#x27;Yes.&#x27; here at <i>company</i> we value the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of each and every one of our employees. We encourage all of you to offer your suggestions and feedback, and bring your unique perspective to bear in your work here.&quot;<p>I was blown away. Never once has HR made me feel more valued and empowered.
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ThrustVectoringalmost 7 years ago
It doesn&#x27;t matter if it actually makes a difference. These sorts of training seminars are marketed and sold to <i>executives</i> so that they can claim that they&#x27;ve done something about a problem. Whether or not they work is <i>completely immaterial</i> to whether or not companies buy them - all that matters is how it looks in various lawsuits.<p>&quot;We&#x27;ve had racial sensitivity training and fired the offending manager&quot; can be the difference between settling a discrimination lawsuit relatively cheaply and getting taken to the cleaners in a civil case with legs.
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martythemaniakalmost 7 years ago
Sure. At my first tech job where I was an intern, we had a general intro, which included harassment etc. One of their points &quot;Perception is reality&quot; has stuck with me for many years.<p>This is just one example. A lot of this material is useful not just for not getting fired, but also for getting along and getting stuff done better.
decasiaalmost 7 years ago
Once I went to a sexual&#x2F;workplace harassment training at a little college while I was doing my postdoc. The guy doing it was very experienced and down to earth (which helps). And one thing he said really stuck with me:<p>&quot;This training is not about telling you not to harass in the workplace. You already know that. It&#x27;s about learning how to handle harassment cases sensitively if they come to your attention.&quot;<p>Needless to say, workplace harassment does happen, so it&#x27;s good to at least understand your institutional options, should they become relevant.
blakesterzalmost 7 years ago
My last job was in a power plant and we had weekly safety meetings that covered everything from IT to First Aid and everything in between. I&#x27;m scared to death of being on ladders ever since they covered people falling and wrecking themselves on ladders. The first aid stuff more or less helped too, though I&#x27;ve not had to use it.<p>I think everything that stuck (actually made a difference) only stuck because of repetition. We had meetings once a week and eventually came back around to the same topics.
DIVx0almost 7 years ago
I&#x27;ve gone through some &quot;company culture training.&quot; At first I thought it was a good way to waste two days and was resentful because it was required training. However, even with that poor mindset I gained several key insights from it and I&#x27;m glad I was forced to go.<p>With that experience in mind now I approach all company training in a more positive attitude. Sure most of it is useless but every so often there is something to gain so might as well make the most of it.
rm_-rf_slashalmost 7 years ago
I’m neither German nor a forklift operator, but this video answered every question I’ve ever had about why warehouse safety is such a big deal.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-oB6DN5dYWo" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=-oB6DN5dYWo</a><p>(Warning: bloody. Campy, funny, but bloody)
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88e282102ae2e5balmost 7 years ago
I did see a video that explained how to correctly handle high pressure gas cylinders, which did teach me some critical things on not getting myself or others killed.
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EnderMBalmost 7 years ago
It&#x27;s not strictly workplace training, but I once worked on a small website for an occupational physiotherapist, and as payment he came to my employers office and helped out with a load of health and safety stuff.<p>We went over the standard stuff, like foot rests under desks, but he also checked our posture, helped us find more comfortable ways to sit, and recommended different chairs to people that had back issues.<p>It sounds silly, but I only spent ten minutes with him at max. From that ten minutes:<p>* I learned how to sit so that my posture is correct. I&#x27;m yet to have any back issues after a decade of programming, so it&#x27;s worked well so far!<p>* My bosses were told that employees should move around for at least 5 minutes every hour. This in itself was fantastic, as it forced people to get out of their chairs and interact with each other.<p>* Those that needed foot rests were given them, along with arm rests, suitable mice&#x2F;keyboards, etc. Since I did some freelance stuff at home at the time, he suggested using a trackball either at work or at home to switch things up. I still have that trackball mouse, and it helps with the stress that constant mouse-use puts on your hands.<p>* He recommended those with bad backs to a specialist shop that deals with special office equipment. My boss, who had suffered with a bad back for years, switched his chair to what was essentially a spring on wheels, and his back got better every week. A few months later, he was playing football for the first time in years.<p>It&#x27;s not strictly training, for a minimal amount of time he offered a service that helped more people than a lot of standard office&#x2F;workplace training. A few years later, at my old workplace we brought a similar person in at my recommendation, and the benefits were visible all over again. If you&#x27;re a manager, and you&#x27;re thinking of getting some new equipment in, or are thinking about health and safety, I definitely recommend this.
KineticLensmanalmost 7 years ago
Workplace training in general can obviously make a difference. My technical skills have improved as a result of such training. Non-technical training has also helped me not to kill people or end up in prison (e.g.relating to safety cases for aerospace systems and legislative compliance). With respect to the softer subjects you mention, the (albeit limited) training I&#x27;ve received hasn&#x27;t changed my own behaviours fundamentally, but has certainly made me understand what to do when issues arise in the workplace (e.g. how to deal with a colleague who is displaying inappropriate behaviours. I&#x27;ve had to deal with this once).<p>Whether an app is the best way to provide such training is a different question.
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mchannonalmost 7 years ago
Unfortunately this type of training is like advertising- a good chunk of the money spent on it is wasted, but they can never figure out where or how large the percentage is (or needs to be). But we still have, and even live by, advertising.<p>You can&#x27;t say it never worked even once for a trainee. It probably works with some of them. But for some it also kills productivity and incentivizes job flight when your trainees could be working productively and enjoying their jobs.<p>It&#x27;s a bit like the death penalty- say for the sake of argument that having a death penalty on the books, in locale X, deters 10% of all murders there. Is 10% enough to call it a deterrent or not?<p>In terms of my personal experience, I learned some things in the compulsory sessions I&#x27;ve had to attend in various workplaces, but I don&#x27;t suspect I&#x27;d ever have been a problem to my employers without them. A few people I&#x27;ve sat next to in this training still &quot;offended&quot; even after attending (or signing in then leaving) the courses.<p>In the end, I suspect it&#x27;s mostly a cost-saving CYA measure, which mitigates damages when the company is inevitably taken to court (&quot;You mean to say, Ms. HR director, that you never created a mandatory training program, not even a handbook?&quot; &quot;This is why, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client deserves 3x $50M instead of $50M, for the horrors he&#x2F;she had to endure working at company X&quot;)
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ronald_raygunalmost 7 years ago
Yes - when I was at BigTechCo, we had training to basically not write legally sensitive things in emails, and to schedule in person meetings with the right people. This habit has stuck with me.
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itronitronalmost 7 years ago
I think that sexual harassment training makes a difference in most organizations. All the training really needs to do is define terms (i.e. harassment, assault) give examples of how they manifest, and tell the employee what is tolerated and what they should do. That is the baseline and it establishes the threshold for what is tolerated at the organization.<p>My only gripe with sexual harrassment training is that it focuses too much on the subtle&#x2F;annoying harassment stuff and doesn&#x27;t prepare people for dealing with an actual sexual assault.
arandr0xalmost 7 years ago
I&#x27;ve had a generic harassment training, not specifically sexual, but one thing I hate about all those trainings is how infantilizing they are. They all had some &quot;gamified&quot; aspect to their horrendously simple multiple choice questions (the answer is always &quot;talk to HR&quot;), they presented simplified situations with no real shades of grey, and they assumed the employee had the intellectual level of a five year old. I&#x27;ve heard about workplaces with real harassment, I&#x27;m not sure why we can&#x27;t use those examples instead of a scripted version that wouldn&#x27;t be out of place on a Saturday morning cartoon.<p>On a different tack, I am part of an allegedly marginalized group. I would love if they replaced the infantilizing trainings with videos and podcasts featuring people from my group talking about technology, talking about their careers in technology, and dressed in a wide variety of professional attires and not just what is stereotypical for my group. But then they&#x27;d have to do that for every allegedly marginalized group and I&#x27;d spend half my week in diversity training. So I&#x27;d prefer if they let me code. If my coworkers need to be babied in order to not commit crimes on work premises, maybe they shouldn&#x27;t have been hired in the first place.
DEADBEEFC0FFEEalmost 7 years ago
Absolutely, yes. I have received many different training courses and I remember some and a few have changed my behavior.<p>Quality - be mindful and consistent about how dates, numbers are written and records are kept.<p>Bullying - behavior may make other people feel uncomfotable in way I cannot see.<p>Privacy - what PII data is and isn&#x27;t.<p>Mental Health - don&#x27;t joke about it, generally 10% of people are suffering. Look for signs, come from care.<p>Information security - don&#x27;t share creds, don&#x27;t leave machines unlocked, be mindful about what I click.
brentjandersonalmost 7 years ago
I&#x27;ve been to sexual harassment training, sensitivity training, and some management training retreats. I agree that some organizations may use them for HR compliance or to defray lawsuits, but they can help. I found these trainings helped me understand the impact of effective leadership. Although not always the most interesting trainings, they can and do make a difference.
walshemjalmost 7 years ago
Well I recently went to a conference on the subject of disabled work place issues.<p>And the move to the social model of disability instead of the medical one was an issue that I had not really considered and I found interesting - I am disabled BTW (of the invisible kind)
PhasmaFelisalmost 7 years ago
It might work for people who mean well but generally don&#x27;t realize that their behavior is not acceptable. I knew an Eastern European gentleman who constantly complimented women on their appearances, whether or not they were conventionally attractive (&quot;No, no, you are not fat! You are <i>strong!</i>&quot;), which makes me think he meant well, but it still came off as creepy and weird.<p>Of course that guy kept losing jobs for it. :-&#x2F; I don&#x27;t know if he ever really learned. So I dunno.
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pkteisonalmost 7 years ago
I was once sent to a training where they suggested we consider that people interact in four specific different ways and tailor interactions based on the recipient. It has seemed useful in future interactions to have a few more examples to draw from than generic &quot;tailor your pitch&quot; advice, but it&#x27;s also somewhat concerning when I think about it because it&#x27;s company training which is basically encouraging you to assume, bucket and stereotype.
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gaiusalmost 7 years ago
One company I worked for was getting a lot of bomb threats so they sent a few of us on a week long course on IEDs. That was probably the most interesting workplace training I’ve done. A different company had Global Leadership Skills training which was probably more in line with what you meant, that really focused on different colloquialisms and how to avoid misunderstandings. They had some examples of expensive mistakes that had been made.
FearNotDanielalmost 7 years ago
Yeah... once when I had a retail job as a student, they showed us this anti-theft security video. I learned some very effective techniques on how to recognize store detectives, how to get away with shoplifting, undetectable ways to steal cash while working as a cashier etc etc... always made me wonder if they actually had in increase in staff crime, after revealing to us young innocents all the &#x27;tricks of the trade&#x27;.
eldavidoalmost 7 years ago
I&#x27;ve been to several technical trainings, including one at my last company on iOS, and some Goldman Sachs training on slang, their proprietary in-house language. I got almost nothing out of either.<p>I don&#x27;t think you can really learn how to code without just doing it. Someone may say it&#x27;s a &quot;learning style&quot; issue, but I&#x27;ve come to believe learning style differences are overblown when teaching &quot;method&quot;, e.g. cooking, dancing, programming, drawing, how to play an instrument. You can read all day about how to play a violin and still be garbage until you pick it up and play it.
ectosphenoalmost 7 years ago
Training generally falls into one of three bins:<p>1. Legally required training. 2. Training to prevent problems that have actually occurred at this business. 3. Training as a means of firing with cause.<p>People learning something new is just a bonus.
vibratoalmost 7 years ago
As far as I know the science on those kinds of trainings suggests they are ineffective or actually produce the opposite of intended effect. I haven’t dived deeply into the science but here’s a good start. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;inequality.stanford.edu&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;media&#x2F;_media&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;key_issues&#x2F;organizations_policy.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;inequality.stanford.edu&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;media&#x2F;_m...</a>
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m0lluskalmost 7 years ago
Working at a big company I got a manager who was not good with people so he got management training and it helped a lot.
finaliterationalmost 7 years ago
Not technical, but I was with a smaller company and we had two day offsite trainings for some managers (one of which was me) that I found very rewarding and impactful. Of course we were a more open and honest company than most so I think that played a huge part in why it helped.
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Bucephalus355almost 7 years ago
I’m in cybersecurity and recently had to go through employee-wide security awareness training. It was great and well done. However there was nothing forcing you to pay attention and you could skip through slides, so who knows how effective.
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dtx1almost 7 years ago
recently had a security basic seminar. &quot;basic&quot; in the sense that we learned how to do all kinds of code injections and how to prevent them. Very useful
chad_strategicalmost 7 years ago
Sergeant course, USMC. 2002<p>Neosho, Mo<p>Better than Boot Camp.
jacob9706almost 7 years ago
Short answer: No. Shitty people will be shitty people.<p>Longer answer: No 30 minute exercise is going to instill in someone that the behavior they have had normalized throughout their entire life by those around them is flawed. I mean have you ever tried to tell a C developer there are alternatives?
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