Unlocking Workplace Potential: Fostering Inclusion through Evidence-Based Training

UCAR/NCAR Equity and Inclusion (referred to as UNEION) is the organization’s flagship diversity, equity, and training (DEI) program, which has trained over 250 employees since 2015. UNEION’s aim is multi-pronged: (1) to cultivate and foster a welcoming and inclusive work environment; (2) to serve as a strategy to address systemic challenges, such as the retention of Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) employees, and (3) to equip people to be upstanders in the organization through bystander intervention. Consisting of peer ‘lead learners’ who facilitate four units over eight modules through a flipped classroom model, cohort participants explore topics around inequity, identity salience, privilege, gender, race, as well as practice intervention techniques in order to raise awareness, increase senses of belongingness, provide a space to build community, and to mitigate harm when appropriate.

With the completion of twenty cohorts, UNEION’s evaluation results demonstrate statistical significance in which the program successfully increases participants' ability to identify toxic workplace discrimination, take responsibility to improve workplace culture through intervention, and continue to learn about DEI topics. UNEION cohort alumni continue to be active through quarterly community gatherings, town halls, and workshops in which they provide critical and on-going insights related to organizational culture, policies, and procedures; thus, equipping the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion with in-real time feedback around the organization. As such, UNEION serves as a model and best practice with re-shaping organizational culture and providing tools so that others may become change agents in their own communities.