Diversity initiatives are increasingly an important part of an organization’s strategic plan. At this point in time, the value of diversity is not debated. What is in consideration is how companies address the challenges that come from having a diverse workforce. Diversity training is one way for organizations to help prepare their employees for a multicultural and diverse workforce. Diversity is as broad as the many ways people differ in personality, demographics, and experiences.

Issues of diversity related to race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation and more each have unique challenges that diversity training must address in order for the company to work effectively. Personality, or deep-level diversity, is the individual difference in people associated with how they think, feel, or behave. A combination of nature and nurture affects how people think, feel, or behave in an organizational context. Internal dimensions of diversity, like age, race, ethnicity, are those characteristics that are immutable, and over which we have no control. These often get the most attention in diversity research and diversity training.

Making employees aware of differences based on these categories is important, but organizations must take care in explaining why understanding these differences and how they impact employee behavior is important. The third dimension of diversity is the external dimension. Religion, education, hobbies, military service, marital status, and parental status are just a few of the items that influence a person’s interests, careers, and friendship networks. These different experiences and beliefs are at the core of most workplace conflict, but they are also at the core of creativity and innovation.

Diversity training benefits employees when they are taught how to constructively manage differences. The last dimension, the organizational dimension, includes factors such as whether or not you are in a collective bargaining unit, where your department resides, how much seniority you have, and your job title. Companies regularly use cross-functional teams to work on assignments, and the different workplace perspectives can create conflict for the team. However, from different, unique perspectives, the organization gains more creative and innovative solutions. Just as with the external dimensions, helping employees deal with conflict and differences of opinion is important in diversity training.