Fire and Rescue Services Diversity & Inclusion Training
We are working with Fire & Rescue Services up and down the country on a range of training initiatives designed to help challenge the assumptions, stereotypes and unconscious biases that are limiting the diversity profile of a whole workforce…
Through custom-made people development solutions, we are supporting Fire and Rescue Services to increase diversity and champion inclusivity. Using your diversity data as a benchmark, we will work with you on positive action that supports your Service to reach your goals for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. We work across all levels of the organisation from the Strategic Leadership Team to front-line and office staff, facilitating strategy and planning sessions, reviewing and embedding policies and procedures, delivering Diversity & Inclusion awareness training or workshops that focus specifically on Unconscious Bias or Recruitment and Selection.
See what we did for Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service…
Programmes Tailor-Made for Fire & Rescue Services
Diversity and Inclusion Training
The programme, pitched for all levels of staff, highlights that these are issues are of great importance for all of us, no matter what our role. Participants gain practical knowledge, skills and awareness to practice and champion fair, inclusive, non-discriminatory practice. Most importantly, it helps everyone to become confident in dealing with what are often sensitive topics.
By the end of the programme participants will:
- Recognise the benefits of Diversity and Inclusion within their Service and understand why they should be actively practiced at work
- Appreciate the benefits of a Fire & Rescue Service where dignity and respect are the norm for all
- Be aware of Equality Law and understand how it applies to them all
- Understand Diversity and Inclusion in the context of organisational values and policies
- Be able to recognise inappropriate and discriminatory behaviours, but most importantly, to know what to do!
- Discover the impact of Unconscious Bias and micro-inequities, and how to moderate their effects on relationships and decision-making at all levels
Unconscious Bias Training
There is a clear relationship between unconscious bias, prejudice and discrimination:
- Our unconscious bias can lead us to develop and rely on stereotypes about people
- A reliance on stereotypes can in turn lead to prejudice
- A reliance on prejudice can in turn lead to discrimination
Our fast-paced, experiential workshop will demonstrate how Unconscious Bias can happen and will equip staff at all levels with skills, understanding and practical, usable strategies to guard against it. This ensures a genuinely fair and inclusive Service where people are selected, developed and valued solely for their skills and abilities. This programme aims to engage participants to gain a real understanding of Unconscious Bias and to take steps to minimise the adverse effects of bias. As well as a workshop-style event, we offer additional enhancements such as forum theatre learning events using actors, e-learning, Unconscious Bias testing, and toolkits for managers to really embed the learning.
Unconscious Bias in Recruitment & Selection
Failing to put robust strategies in place to protect the recruitment and selection process from Unconscious Bias will limit diversity and unknowingly shape company culture. This programme uses interactive elements and activities to explore how unconscious bias impacts on recruitment and selection, focusing on key concepts of bias, such as Comparison Bias, Confirmation Bias with a particular focus on Affinity Bias, and seeing how these play out in attitudes, behaviours and decision-making processes in recruitment. Using interactive elements, activities and facts and figures that will surprise, this programme also delves into how our micro inequities.
By the end of the programme delegates will:
- Understand the filters through which we view and interpret ourselves and other people in the context of recruitment and selection and day to day interactions
- Appreciate how unconscious bias can adversely affect judgement and decision making and negatively impact on selection in every stage of a recruitment process
- Experience what micro inequities are and how they can influence performance and decisions
- Learn how affinity bias affects rapport building and the effectiveness of a recruitment interview
- Contextualise to your organisational norms and processes
- Take away practical hints and tips to guard against unconscious bias in recruitment and selection
Interviewing Skills Training
Many managers are expected to carry out or contribute to the recruitment and selection process and this programme includes all the essential areas to enable them to do this. The content of this programme leads delegates through the process of conducting interviews, selecting the candidate, and finally, making the offer. The underlying thread of ethics, legislation and moral obligations underpin the process to make the package complete. Delegates will leave the programme with the confidence that they can make a significant contribution to the process and manage it in full if that is a requirement of their role.
They will also:
- Be able to comply with the legislative and ethical issues that impact on the recruitment and selection process
- Understand the importance of a structured and unbiased recruitment process for getting the best person for the job
- Understand how to present the interview questions in a fair and unbiased way, knowing how to phrase probing questions for clarification
- Practice skills and techniques for successful interviewing and selection of candidates
- Make sound recruitment decisions