Bertelsmann Marketing Services | Liverpool, 01/17/2018

Prinovis UK Promotes Diversity Awareness

To reflect the ever-increasing diversity of its staff, Prinovis UK expanded its training program last year. An additional module now helps executives acquire skills and knowledge for working with teams of employees from different backgrounds, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations. Feedback from the first 16 participants has been excellent.

In the past year, Prinovis UK made tangible progress in increasing diversity awareness in the company. Liverpool's gravure printing services provider added a module dedicated to managing teams of people from different backgrounds, religions, cultures and sexual orientations to its 12-month Leadership Excellence program. The subsequent feedback from the 16 participants was outstanding, with everyone confirming that the module had helped increase their understanding of various aspects of diversity and how they can promote new approaches to inclusivity in order to get the most out of every member of the team.

´Participants also reported a better understanding of the unwitting but frequently occurring phenomenon of “unconscious bias” and its impact on the wellbeing of the affected employees. All respondents indicated that they had acquired new tools and knowledge to help them manage diverse teams – and perhaps as importantly, every single participant said they now felt more confident about dealing with the topic of diversity.

More Cultural Competence Required

The additional module was designed by Prinovis UK together with Skills 4, a company that claims to be one of the U.K.’s leading providers of gender diversity initiatives. The module is designed to equip managers with the skills to demonstrate innovation, leadership, forward-thinking in working with diverse teams while fostering understanding and building rapport. The module also covers topics such as unconscious bias, stereotype threat, the need for effective communication, and the benefits of diverse teams. The rationale for introducing the measure was the fact that the workforce is now becoming increasingly diverse. In conjunction with more extensive legislation on diversity and inclusion, this requires companies to have more cultural competence.

The partnership between Prinovis UK and Skills 4 began in 2013 with a Career Development program for female employees identified as having potential to progress in the company. Reviewing the benefits of the programs so far, Vicci Tatton, HR Director at Prinovis UK, says “The feedback from the delegates was great but the real impact was seen in the promotions and leadership journey of over 50 percent of those who were on the course in the following few years.” Prinovis UK’s Leadership Excellence program was nominated for the 2017 Training Journal Awards, which honor outstanding staff training initiatives.