Case study summary: Garmin Europe, manufacturers of satellite navigation hardware and wearable smart technology, partnered with PETA to deliver cross-business awareness of diversity and inclusion.
Background:
Garmin needed a training programme to embed awareness of diversity and inclusion and bring value to the business’s desire to maintain and develop trust and commitment from its employees. It was important for any learning intervention to support Garmin’s vision and values, as well as its defined strategy to ensure all employees have clear visibility of anything with the potential to impact business success and continuity.
Garmin placed great emphasis on the fact that it had never fallen victim to any issues relating to diversity and inclusion. As a result, it felt that the implementation of a focused programme would be critical to mitigating the potential for problems to emerge due to ignorance or misunderstanding around the diversity and inclusion employment laws.
It was clear the employer required clarity on where the lines have to be drawn in terms of behaviour with colleagues, customers, partners, and suppliers alike. Furthermore, it was agreed that HR was carrying the bulk of the knowledge and understanding of equality, diversity, and inclusion and that this alone could not mitigate the potential for misplaced behaviour which might damage the business.
Action taken:
After consulting the client, PETA created and delivered a series of 90-minute virtual and interactive briefings covering the practical and legal aspects of diversity and inclusion. This training acknowledged the diversity of Garmin’s workforce and the differences in individual staff members’ skills, backgrounds, beliefs, and preferences. Particularly important was the emphasis placed on drawing a relationship between the subject matter and relevant Garmin policies.
With some 400 office and warehouse-based employees to cover and where speed of roll-out was as important as a quality solution, the interactive briefings were delivered to approximately 50 people per session over a period of three weeks. Each briefing placed real emphasis on ensuring that every individual could model the business policy of promoting equality of opportunity and treatment in the workplace. These sessions were underpinned by a focus on the Equality Act of 2010.
Following delivery of the eight sessions there were still a number of employees needing to be briefed. As a result, Garmin and PETA engaged in further discussions and ensured that a briefing session be recorded and made available to all of these remaining individuals, with the recording then representing an excellent source of update and refresh material to be used solely within the business and to ensure maintenance of critical diversity and inclusion education.
Results:
Overall feedback from employees was very positive and the business voiced great satisfaction with this response as well as the energy of the sessions delivered by PETA. Garmin had emphasised not only the importance of subsequent commitment to evaluating behaviour and knowledge application, but also business outcomes and results emerging. Some 80% of employee responses to an internal Garmin survey conducted after the training were positive, with just 13% of the responses neutral and 7% negative. Through its work with PETA, Garmin now has a very solid basis for maintaining emphasis on equality and diversity and is firmly acknowledging that this will ensure greater success and a motivated workforce.
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