Many brands have created in-house training and intensive courses on diversity, focusing on what the concept means from not only a racial standpoint, but other diversity factors that often result in equity gaps.
"Continuous listening and education is key to securing positive and systematic change," says Annie Wu, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at H&M. Since joining the fast fashion retailer in 2018, Wu has assembled an internal D&I collaborative forum where colleagues across the organization can share knowledge, discuss challenges, and support the implementation of the company's D&I strategy.
Over at A&F, employee education has become central as well. Per Royal, the company launched Courage Conversations, an hour-long course for executives and associates meant to "create an accessible and non-judgmental learning environment where people can make mistakes" in an effort to promote awareness "about people from many different cultural backgrounds and experiences."
Similarly, Shawn Outler, Chief Diversity Officer at Macy's, launched a 12-month program called Mosaic aimed at strengthening the leadership skills for "a select group of top talent managers and directors who have self-identified as being of Black, LatinX, Native American, and/or Asian descent." At Nike, Mayo also implemented a mandatory D&I training as part of the company's leadership curriculum.
