Fostering DEI through education in the modern workplace

A comprehensive guide

Fostering DEI through education in the modern workplace

This guide outlines key steps and strategies to enhance your organization's education benefit programs to ensure a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment.

In this guide, we'll cover:

→ Strategies for leveraging education to increase DEI outcomes

→ Measuring DEI impact from education benefits

→ How to build a culture of lifelong learning and inclusion

Accessible education fuels DEI efforts while driving the business forward.

Despite DEI efforts in the workplace being under fire, it’s more important than ever to build and support diverse teams, focusing on equity and inclusion in policy and culture.

Why? Creating more equitable access to opportunity is the right thing to do –– and it enhances company performance on all levels, from innovation to improved decision-making and positive employer brand.

Among the initiatives aimed at promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), education stands out as a powerful tool that drives systemic change by supercharging professional development and career mobility.

An inclusive education benefits program or platform not only supports employees at every level in their pursuit of education but also becomes a strategic linchpin in addressing systemic barriers and promoting equitable opportunities.

Chapter 1: Strategies for leveraging education to increase DEI + how to overcome challenges
Chapter 2: Measuring the impact of education on DEI
Chapter 3: Building a culture of lifelong learning and inclusion: Why this is the future of workforce education

Chapter 1

How to leverage + integrate education to support DEI

In this chapter, we'll cover:

→ 7 benchmarks for talent development that drive DE&I

→ 5 ways organizations and leaders can build a culture of opportunity

→ Steps to gaining financial buy-in from leadership

Integrating DEI into company culture is more than signing a check to a charitable organization.

To truly dismantle barriers, foster inclusivity, and empower individuals from all backgrounds, companies must diversify their talent at every level of the organization, not just the frontline.

One of the most powerful tools to do so is to provide equitable access to education.

By strategically designing educational programs to enable access for all employees — not just those who can afford to front the money for tuition — organizations can create an inclusive culture centered on equity and enable all individuals to grow their careers.

Many education benefits are currently missing the mark on equity and access. Here are seven DEI benchmarks for your talent development programs.

7 benchmarks for talent development that drive DEI

Access: It’s crucial to eliminate policy, administrative, or programmatic barriers to enrollment in education benefits programs. Additionally, ensure that programs are designed to accommodate working adult learners who may bear family and community responsibilities.
Alignment: Effective talent development programs prioritize skills that are durable and relevant for the future of work. It's also essential to tailor programs to build skills that align with business strategy. These considerations make the program more valuable to the individual and the business.
Agility: With the average half-life of skills decreasing rapidly, organizational agility becomes imperative in the execution of company strategy. This means that employers need to help their employees continually learn new skills — and fast. This investment in skills development ensures not only survival but also sustained growth and relevance in today's evolving landscape.
Affordability: 40% of Americans can't cover a $400 emergency expense, let alone the costs of tuition, books, and other fees. By facilitating direct payment between employers and academic providers and reducing or relieving learners of financial obligations, employers make their programs more accessible to all employees, not just those in corporate roles. This approach ensures that financial constraints don’t block opportunities for professional growth. Check out this guide for further insights on best practices for designing innovative education benefit programs.
Assistance: A dedicated team of coaches who deeply understand the employer-funded programs being offered – and how those programs align with corporate talent needs – can go a long way in supporting employees and thus driving outcomes from your talent development program.
Analytics: If you want to create equity, you need to measure the outcomes of your efforts. That means tracking the demographics of employees who participate in your talent development program — as well as outcomes such as promotion rates and job changes to ensure you’re creating career and economic mobility.
Activation: Employees need to know about the education benefits program to use it, so program marketing campaigns are key to driving program participation. Executive sponsorship, or when executives actively promote the value of the program, can also help encourage program adoption.

For more information on these benchmarks, check out a more comprehensive DEI strategy framework.

Overcoming challenges in integrating education into DEI initiatives

When integrating an education benefits program that amplifies DEI initiatives, organizations sometimes struggle to get buy-in from leadership — both financially and culturally.

The solution to a lack of cultural buy-in is to instead create a culture of opportunity.

Guild’s Chief Opportunity Officer, Terrence Cummings, listed the five ways organizations and leaders can build a culture of opportunity in his recent post, Want to stand out to potential employees? Establish a ‘culture of opportunity.’

5 ways organizations and leaders can build a culture of opportunity

Design for the marginalized: Only 42% of frontline workers see their company’s DEI efforts as effective. Organizations need to double down on the fundamentals: equitable and transparent recruiting, hiring, pay, performance practices, and related policies.
Secure the foundation: No one can achieve their best without a baseline of support. It’s critical to pay at least a living wage and provide health care access, childcare support, transportation support, and more.
Unlock learning: Build an environment where adding new skills is cultural, not situational, and embed learning into every aspect of your organization. Invest in your workforce through education, upskilling, and training with a dedicated budget toward future-oriented skills and programs. To learn more about how Guild is partnering with Fortune 500 organizations to do just that, click here.
Cultivate connection: Great organizations will create space for mentors, sponsors, and coaching. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are a great avenue to foster these connections and relationships while building community and feelings of inclusion.
Pave the pathways: For people to access growth opportunities, they must know the path, and get access to the playbook on how to follow that path. Providing an education benefits program that is rooted in career pathways is essential for opening the door to career mobility.

When company leadership isn’t bought into DEI, highlight the ROI of the program.

If leadership isn’t eager to make the investment in education, organizations can look to engage them by taking a data-driven approach that highlights the ROI and positive impact of the accessible, equitable learning opportunities.

Here are some steps you can take:

7 steps to gaining financial buy-in from leadership

Articulate value proposition: Communicate the value proposition of the program and highlight how it addresses specific pain points that leadership cares about — such as improving talent attraction, retention, and employer brand.
Present a strong business case: Develop a comprehensive business case that outlines the financial implications, including potential return on investment (ROI), cost savings, and revenue generation. Provide concrete data and projections to support your case.
Highlight competitive advantage: Showcase how this initiative gives your organization a competitive advantage. Illustrate how it differentiates your employer brand by keeping the company at the forefront of industry trends.
Outline implementation costs: Clearly outline the costs associated with implementation. Break down the initial investment, ongoing maintenance expenses, and any training costs. Be transparent about the financial commitment required.
Emphasize scalability: Demonstrate the scalability of this initiative by highlighting how the initial investment contributes to long-term workforce agility and talent acquisition.
Showcase success stories: Share success stories or case studies from other organizations highlighting the impact of tuition assistance programs on DEI. Provide evidence of positive outcomes and benefits.
Involve stakeholders: Involve relevant stakeholders early and often in the process. Engage key team members, department heads, or end-users in discussions to gather their input and address any concerns.

Our career mobility champion’s toolkit can help you build your case and engage the right people the right way.

By following these steps, you can build a compelling case that demonstrates the value, feasibility, and strategic importance of education benefit programs and their impact on DEI, increasing the likelihood of obtaining financial buy-in from organizational leadership.

We can help. At Guild, we help leading employers provide education and skilling that empowers their workforces to build the careers they want by filling the roles employers need.

Request a demo to learn more about Guild’s method and impact.

Chapter 2

Measuring the impact of education on DEI

In this chapter, we'll cover:

→ KPIs that assess the impact of education benefit initiatives on DEI efforts

→ Case studies and success stories

When it comes to DEI, track the metrics that indicate real change.

Measuring the impact of education benefit programs on DEI efforts is essential for organizations to assess their effectiveness and make informed decisions for improvement.

By collecting and analyzing a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures, organizations can comprehensively assess the impact of their tuition assistance initiatives on DEI efforts, enabling them to refine strategies and continuously improve their commitment to fostering an inclusive workplace culture.

7 KPIs that assess the impact of education benefits on DEI

When it comes to measuring DEI, be sure to look beyond vanity metrics. While you should still track participation and NPS scores, it’s even more important to keep tabs on key performance indicators (KPIs) that reveal more systematic change.

Retention and advancement rates: Analyze retention and advancement rates, particularly for underrepresented groups, to assess whether education initiatives contribute to increased opportunities and career progression.
Participation rates: Monitor participation rates in education programs across different demographic groups. Identify any disparities and assess whether the programs are accessible and inclusive for all employees.
Leadership and management changes: Evaluate changes in leadership and management to determine if there is increased representation of individuals from underrepresented groups. This can be a tangible measure of the impact of education initiatives on DEI in leadership roles.
Benchmarking against industry standards: Compare your organization's DEI progress with industry benchmarks to gain insights into how it performs relative to others. This external perspective can help identify areas for improvement and innovation.
Long-term tracking: Recognize that the impact of education benefits on DEI may take time to manifest fully. Implement long-term tracking mechanisms to assess sustained changes and improvements over an extended period.
Qualitative case studies: Develop qualitative case studies highlighting individual success stories resulting from education initiatives. These narratives can provide context and depth to the quantitative data, offering a comprehensive understanding of the impact on employees' lives and experiences, while providing visibility that can inspire others to take advantage of education and talent development programs.
Employee satisfaction: Measure changes in overall employee satisfaction through surveys and feedback mechanisms specifically designed to capture sentiments related to DEI initiatives. Read our blog for more on the metrics that matter. An increase in employee satisfaction scores can indicate a positive impact of education programs on the workplace environment.

Walmart accelerates equity with tuition-free education

Walmart’s LiveBetterU program, in partnership with Guild, offers a generous catalog of tuition-free programs to their associates in business-aligned areas such as data analytics, cybersecurity, engineering, and more.

Walmart measured that Black hourly associates who participated in the program were 87.5% more likely to receive promotions than non-participants, while white associates were 80% more likely.

Walmart found that Black hourly associates who participated in the program were 87.5% more likely to receive promotions than non-participants, while White associates were 80% more likely.

To learn more, read this report by Lumina for a full case study on our partnership with Walmart.

Chapter 3

Building a culture of lifelong learning and inclusion

In this chapter, we'll cover:

→ How to cultivate a culture of lifelong learning and inclusion

→ The impact of AI on the FOW + DEI

Inclusive learning is the future of workforce education.

Integrating continuing education into organizational culture promotes a dynamic, inclusive, and forward-thinking workplace where employees are continually learning and growing alongside their organization.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that education plays a pivotal role in fostering this culture of lifelong learning and inclusion. Educational opportunities empower individuals to acquire new skills, stay ahead of industry trends, and further their personal and professional growth.

By providing accessible and diverse educational opportunities, organizations break down systemic barriers and create an environment where employees from all backgrounds can grow and contribute meaningfully, fostering a sense of both belonging and equity.

The impact of AI on the future of work + DEI

It’s clear that AI is top of mind for most employers, and we all know that generative AI has the potential to completely transform the jobs we know today — and quickly.

According to McKinsey Global Institute, it is estimated that a whopping 30% of hours spent on tasks today could be automated — a trend which will only be accelerated by generative AI.

This means that if your business can figure out how to train your employees quickly, and more importantly — equitably — you stand to gain tremendously.

If your business can figure out how to train your employees quickly, and more importantly — equitably — you stand to gain tremendously.

While AI is expected to impact the masses, AI training programs are typically only accessible to white-collared “high-potential” employees, leaving frontline workers behind.

Guild’s research on the AI training landscape reveals that more than half of the available AI education programs require a bachelor’s degree and they’re designed for either engineers or executives.

Bottom line? While there is a serious gap between the current AI training that exists today – primarily for white-collar “desk” workers — and the 82% of Americans that are in frontline roles and could benefit from AI, there is also a serious opportunity for employers that choose to open the AI floodgates for their entire workforce.

“We’re about to see a major disruption in how everyone works, and I do think that the frontline population will be impacted most.”
Bijal Shah, Interim CEO, Guild

Closing the equity gap in AI skilling is not only the right thing to do, it is critical to stay competitive when we inevitably hit the “productivity plateau” in the not-so-different future.

Check our comprehensive guide for more on how employers can equitably get and stay ahead of an AI-powered future.

Integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into the fabric of your organization is not just a nice to have, but a need to have.

In the face of ongoing, rapid changes — AI, declining birth rates, an aging workforce, global unrest — prioritizing inclusive, accessible learning becomes a key strategy in growing a diverse workforce that can help your business thrive.