May 2013 - July 2013
Check out the
Out & Equal blog!
Join us for these great upcoming learning opportunities:
Town Calls
(Calls start at 12pm Pacific for one hour)
Classroom Trainings/Events June 16-19 - Society for HR Management (SHRM) annual conference (Chicago, IL) - Out & Equal booth at 2420! Stop by and register to win a 2013 Annual Summit Registration
Out & Equal University Online Training *All courses will be recorded and available on demand after the class date OEU Core Course Bundle is still available through live and recorded webinars! Take Building Bridges, Dialogues on Gender Identity, Developing Allies and Building Employee/Business Resource Group Value for one price in 2013!
Featured Out & Equal University Archive Course
How do you encourage allies in your company and get them to think about LGBT workplace equality? You can purchase licenses for archived Out & Equal courses or provide training through your Learning Management System (LMS). A cost effective way to expand the LGBT workplace equality conversation in your workplace. Contact Pat for more details! Discounts for 5+ licenses.
Current Research [Out & Equal webinars and classroom courses are usually submitted to the Society for Human Resources Management's Human Resource Certification Institute. Check to see if you can receive continuing education credits for your participation.]
Trainers' Corner Thursday, May 16, 10:00am Pacific for 60 mins Monthly Trainers' Forum Webinar Moderated by Pat Baillie
Upcoming dates for Trainers Forums:
Monday, June 24 (new date/time) at 10:00am Pacific
Wednesday, July 10 at 1:00pm Pacific
Become an Out & Equal Certified Trainer and join the Trainer's Network
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Monthly Insights
Thoughts from Pat Baillie, Director of Training & Professional Development
Over the last three years, Out & Equal has expanded and improved the workshop selection process for the Annual Workplace Summit. We have added a great platform called Proposal Space that allows presenters to enter their workshop, reviewers to rate and comment on the workshops and then allows for final updates and approval for inclusion in the programming in workplace inclusion. This year, we identified 15 tracks that relate to LGBT workplace equality and had over 150 proposals to review. We have selected 35 reviewers this year who represent diverse sectors and organizations and they are divided into the 15 review committees. The review committee for each track is led by an Out & Equal staff member and many hours were spent reviewing and providing recommendations for the 90 workshops that will be presented this year. One of the most valuable aspects of these committees is the final review committee meeting to go over the scores. As Director of Training, I sit in on most of the meetings to get an overall perspective of not only the workshop selection process but also what the current trends and concerns are regarding the work we are doing. It is another opportunity to learn and be sure we are asking the right questions and providing the best educational program for ERG members, allies, HR professionals and executives. This year was no exception. One of the things we talked about in the bisexual track committee was the concept that if you are bisexual and are out, when you change partners from say a same sex partner to an opposite sex partner, you have to go through a transition in the workplace. There are a set of expectations that we have when we work with someone and when there is a significant change in their life, we, as co-workers, experience that change and how we react sets the tone for the workplace and our relationship. We have talked about transgender employees and transitioning as if that wasn't something that happen to us as LGB. Our shared common experience can be a tool we can use to ensure reach out support each other. Another concept came out from both our most recent Town Call on children with LGBT parents and the General track committee meeting. We have heard amazing stories of how children are standing up for their parents and facing their own issues around coming out in school and in their lives. We talked about the fact that unlike allies who make a choice based on their knowledge or experience to support those who are LGBT, children are born into situations and navigate a different path then allies. It was suggested that as we grow as a community and our families or choice expand, we may need to consider adding another letter to the alphabet of diversity that is the LGBT community. All these deeper understandings are important as we see each other in our common ground but more importantly in our diversity. These are just a few of the concepts that will be part of this year's Summit in Minneapolis! Thanks for continuing to explore new concepts and finding solutions! Sincerely,
Pat Baillie
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Trainers' Corner
News for Out & Equal Certified Trainers
There are many types of education when looking at a global perspective. Adult education, also known as continuing education, is a broad term for the practice of teaching and educating adults. It plays a significant part in the lifelong learning. Children and young adults, are often mandated to go to school by law and are considered a means for many as advancing levels of achievement. Adult education can be considered as vocational education, personal enrichment, and, for some adults, remedial training in literacy and other skills. The techniques and tools for adult education are also very different from education for children, reflecting the different abilities, motivations, and needs of these students.
What is an interesting concept is that the idea of lifelong learning envisions citizens provided with learning opportunities at all ages and in numerous contexts: At work, at home, and through leisure activities. The concept began in the nineteenth century with an emerging need to educate the working class in certain vocational skills. Correspondence schools started in Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States during the mid-nineteenth century. Institutes also began to appear to train adults in technical skills as the century progressed. Today, community colleges, online training and distance learning are available to many around the world.
However, this is not true around the world. In some countries, even basic childhood education isn't available. According to UNESCO, 61 million primary school-age children were not enrolled in school in 2010.
Of these children, 47 percent were never expected to enter school, 26 percent attended school but left, and the remaining 27 percent are expected to attend school in the future. Studies have shown that in developing, low-income countries, every additional year of education can increase a person's future income by an average of 10 percent. Having the opportunity for learning more, no matter what the topic is, comes after our basic survival needs have been met and we see an opportunity to advance in our lives.
As we extend the target audiences we talk to about diversity and LGBT employees around the world, we have to remember that each person in our classes comes from a different perspective and background. There is also one key theory in adult education that says that people learn when they are ready. We may teach the same material for years but until someone can see how our training impacts them personally, we need to keep presenting positive images, providing information and modeling workplace behaviors.
To learn more and to share your questions/insights, please join us for our next monthly Trainers' Forum Webinar on Thursday, May 16
at 2:00 pm (Pacific). Contact Pat Baillie for more information.
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 Current Research
Study of the Month: Enhancing Diversity Training: Framing, Method, and Individual Difference Effects The "Study of the Month" column features LGBTA-related research studies conducted by members of the Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology (SIOP). SIOP is the premier membership organization for those practicing and teaching Industrial-Organizational Psychology, the scientific study of the workplace. For more information about SIOP, please visit www.siop.org. Although diversity training is a popular initiative in organizations, empirical research is needed to determine what makes it effective when it works and what makes it ineffective when it does not work. This field experiment sought to examine the focus of training (racial differences vs. LGBT individuals) and the type of training (perspective taking vs. goal setting vs. stereotype discrediting) as determinants of diversity training effectiveness. Results indicated that a focus on LGBT individuals may lead to less prejudice and more supportive behaviors toward this group, even when these outcomes are measured eight months after the training has taken place. However, these same effects were not found when examining the effectiveness of diversity training focused on racial differences. In fact, we found some evidence of a "backlash effect," such that individuals in the race-focused training actually displayed less supportive behavior towards African Americans when compared to individuals who participated in the LGBT-focused training. These results suggest that target-specific diversity training exercises may only be effective for certain stigmatized groups. Thus, rather than abandoning target-specific training altogether in favor of more holistic approaches, we should first seek to understand how exactly target-specific training operates for both visible and invisible stigmas. This study was presented at the annual Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology conference in April of 2013 by Alex Lindsey, Noah Levine, Eden King, and Mikki Hebl. For more information, please contact Alex Lindsey. |
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Out & Equal Workplace Advocates™ is a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
Out & Equal is committed to ending employment discrimination for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender employees. We believe that people should be judged by the work they do, not by their sexual orientation or gender identity. Every day, we work to protect and empower employees to be productive and successful-so they can support themselves, their families, and contribute to achieving a world free of discrimination for everyone.
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