It is the latest addition to an already plethoric offer. On May 30, former minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem launched Inclusiv.tv, a subscription-based video-on-demand platform dedicated to diversity and inclusion topics. On the menu, a catalog of fifty hours of reports and documentaries, intended to help, according to the press release, to “overcome sexism, racism, homophobia, or even prejudices linked to disabilities or appearances”. The price of the subscription is close to that of the streaming giants, at the rate of 5.99 euros per month. “It’s not at all the same gesture as subscribing to Netflix, it’s a committed gesture,” says Najat Vallaud-Belkacem.
Its streaming platform does not have quite the same target. Besides individuals, Inclusiv.tv aims to attract companies “who wish to acculturate their customers, employees or partners to their societal commitments”. In this area, too, it is embarking on a market that is already busy: in recent years, thanks to the rise in power of requirements linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR), so-called “inclusive” training courses have multiplied. . The offer is as abundant as it is diverse: business schools, associations, coaches or specialized companies; online or face-to-face; on the subjects of gender equality, racism, LGBT-phobias, disability, or all of them at the same time. In this large catalogue, not everything is equal… And the effectiveness of these training courses is sometimes called into question.
Evolution of the legislation
To understand this attraction for inclusive training, you have to travel back in time and look across the Atlantic. At the end of the Reagan era, while conservatism was in full swing in Washington, consultants forged the concept of “diversity management”. Their goal: to avoid lawsuits by respecting the quotas induced by positive discrimination, but also to profit from it. “Pressed by law and morality to fight against discrimination, companies have developed their own diversity strategy: valuing differences (of gender, origin, age, diploma, etc.) and dealing of employees would make it possible to attract talent, conquer new markets and stimulate creativity”, observes sociologist Laure Bereni in her book Virtue Management. In short, she summarizes, “diversity means business [la diversité, c’est du business]”.
Similar concerns emerged in France in the 2000s. They were supported by several employer figures, such as Claude Bébéar, founder of the Axa company and the Montaigne Institute, who, through initiatives such as the diversity charter, pushed this American-style concept of equal opportunity. The following decade, the development of issues related to CSR and the evolution of legislation forced companies to get up to speed.
Variable costs and durations
The training market flourished in response, boosted by a favorable global context. In 2023, it should be around 30 billion dollars, according to an analysis by the start-up Fact.MR, market research specialist. If the United States still dominates it, Europe has also opened up to it. “In France, the market has developed over the past ten years, confirms sociologist Laure Bereni. Companies are trying in particular to meet the legal obligations of raising awareness of discrimination among recruiters.” From 20 employees, for example, they must employ at least 6% of people with disabilities.
A simple search on the Internet reveals this outbreak. The Cegos organization offers, for example, a two-day training course, face-to-face or remotely, for an amount of 1,495 euros, in order to “understand the legal framework in which the diversity and inclusion approach falls”. Goalmap, a company specializing in well-being at work, has in its portfolio “inspiring conferences around disability” or aimed at “clarifying the criteria of discrimination”. Its prices are only available on estimate, but the company claims on its site to have Google, BNP Paribas, or even the Ministry of Justice for customers. “It is above all the large groups that lend themselves to the exercise, because they are the heirs of the diversity charter”, analyzes Maria Giuseppina Bruna, professor of management, director of the inclusive business and CSR chair. from Ipag Business School. In this multiple offer, the schools are not left out: his own establishment offers, for example, a “diversity training” lasting one day, costing 1,000 euros net. This is also the case of HEC and its four-day “diversity” programs for the price of 5,400 euros.
Signal Virtue
Some companies have decided to embark on the adventure of training produced in-house: the consulting firm PwC, for example, offers ten hours of online courses to all of its employees, “from the president to the trainee”, explains Pauline Adam -Kalfon, partner responsible for inclusion and diversity of PwC France and Maghreb. In addition, other, “more targeted” training courses on specific themes are provided by associations or specialized service providers. “We want to show our employees and our customers that we are an inclusive company, where everyone has the same opportunities as long as they share the values of the company”, she says.
But don’t think that PwC is doing this out of sheer humanism. “It’s not just a question of morality, it’s also and above all a question of performance”, insists Pauline Adam-Kalfon. Internally as well as externally: PwC makes no secret that the efforts made on inclusion and diversity – on which the company willingly communicates – are one of the means of enhancing its CSR score. “These courses are popular because they are a good way to improve the image of a company, analyzes Laure Bereni. They are relatively inexpensive and are an opportunity for the company to display its virtue. It is their main effect with governments, non-financial rating agencies and employees”
Questionable effects
But are these efforts tangible for employees? Nothing is less sure. In their work Getting to Diversity, researchers Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev attempted to answer the question. Compiling data on anti-discrimination training programs and dispute resolution procedures in more than 800 American companies over the period 1971-2002, in order to study their effects up to 2015. The result obtained is troubling: these systems generally did not benefit the people they were meant to help. “Many of these programs focus on reducing unconscious bias, explains to L’Express Frank Dobbin, professor of sociology at Harvard. But it never lasts very long: two or three months after training, studies show that this reduction has disappeared and does not translate into behavioral changes.”
In France, if aggregated data are lacking to measure the extent of the phenomenon, experts in the field point to a similar pitfall. “Diversity training brings together many concepts encompassing ‘benevolent’ or ‘responsible’ leadership, which is a good start, but remains imprecise, points out Thierry Rayna, professor of innovation management at the Ecole polytechnique. of a few hours of seminar, what does the company put in place to welcome people different from those it is used to? Although progress has been made in recent years, the figures available do not give a truly positive answer: according to the observatory of discrimination in hiring, carried out by Ifop for the employment site Meteojob, 74% of employees claim have already witnessed at least one form of discrimination. Social diversity at the highest level of companies is also not looking good: only 38% of French leaders have parents who were not CSP+, according to a McKinsey/Club du XXIᵉ siècle study. They are 72% among the leaders of foreign nationality.