5 ways to use your professional development budget for DEI
Finding creative ways to fund equity and justice work is a skill we admire in the folks we work with - especially grassroots organizations! So we know that you often have to dip into professional development budget lines to resource critical work, but we also think that this is so narrow!
Very often, we find that professional development budget lines are used as a tool to access funding for DEI training because it is admittedly simpler to explain a three-hour training as professional development than a 9 month equity audit! Obviously, QuakeLab would love you to hop into our email and collaborate with us to do some exciting and innovative equity work, however if you’re at the stage where you’re working on a strong case for broader equity work and looking for movement within your current parameters, this is for you!
You can do a lot to address inequity using your professional development budgets, let’s jump right in!
Who is actually developing professionally?
This is a favourite for us because it doesn’t actually require using your budget, but rather investigating it! Professional development is a fascinating element in the multi-approached way we see marginalized folks get sidelined for upward mobility. Additionally, we know there is a throughline between upward mobility, discrepancies in compensation and the presence of marginalized folks in positions of power and decision making. So, it would probably be a good idea to understand:
Who is actually using their professional development budget?
Is there a clear correlation between the kind of professional development a person accesses and opportunities for mobility (promotion, new projects, more autonomy, etc.)?
Are specific people (identity groups) not getting the opportunity or access to professional development? Here you’ll want to figure out not just whether folks are using their budget, but if there are interesting identity patterns in those who are accessing it, or even know it's available.
This is a fantastic starting point and will open up room for you to dig even deeper into how your organization is defining professional development, how much employees know about what is available, and whether what is available is accessible!
Get access to the tools + resources you need
Ok, now let’s start spending some of that cash! We often hear about the ways in which DEI practitioners in house, DEI committees and individuals are super excited and motivated to make tangible equity changes - but don’t feel confident in their knowledge and expertise. This was a huge factor in creating our subscription platform Learning Lab.
Learning Lab is an online space filled with toolkits, evaluation metrics, events (hybrid), and industry specific resources. This QuakeLab subscription service will give you the tools and resources you need to move this work forward in your organization. The yearly cost of the membership will allow you and your team to better budget and plan over the course of years using your professional development budget!
Close gaps in the start up costs of new immigrants in the workplace
Over the last few years, QuakeLab surveys have been revealing some fascinating patterns about equity, the world of work and the specific systems and structures that make up that world of work. We call one of these patterns the “immigrant start up cost’. This is essentially the monetary and non monetary investments new immigrants especially have to make even before they step into the market. Often, these investments are driven by the very real desire to make themselves as attractive as possible to Canadian employers, who have a well documented history of undervaluing non-Canadian experience. This sometimes looks like new immigrants who have a relatively strong command of English or French pursuing further language training, or seeking out accreditation to translate their expertise and certifications for a Canadian market.
New immigrants are then coming into your organization having spent a tonne of money and time on professional development, but they’ve had to do it out of pocket, and this investment isn’t guaranteed to open doors for more senior positions or higher compensation (for a number of other equity reasons)!
Finally, in 2021/2 we saw some incredible shifts in the labour market around the discrepancy between the number of available jobs in Canada and the number of people available/qualified for these positions. This tells us that the labour market can anticipate a need to better and more strategically invest in professional development and internal skill building to meet the labour needs that won’t be slowing down anytime soon.
Your professional development budget can be an interesting and effective way to reduce this start up costs:
We know new immigrants are spending a lot of money and time on French/English second language training but aren’t being compensated more or better. Close this gap by highlighting French language training as a perk/professional development offering within job ads and pitching potential new immigrant employees;
As you build those strategic professional development and internal learning offerings, tap into data around where new immigrants are spending the most resources (eg. accreditation, language skills, etc.) and ensure these are a central part of your building;
Ensure you are properly assessing and identifying where new immigrant employees have already spent resources (even before they joined your team) and explore where that upskilling is properly reflected in their compensation and mobility and where some course correcting may be necessary. This is especially important in sectors where other languages are considered a valuable asset for frontline staff, however they are not compensated better for having these additional language skills, and this skill is not considered valuable or necessary for more senior positions.
Clearly define the link between skill building and mobility
Not so long ago we made the case for performance management as an equity issue. Here’s what we know: Unclear and ambiguous performance management that doesn’t indicate what informs promotions is going to detrimentally affect women, new immigrants, and neurodivergent folks. If we can all agree that professional development is meant to upskill members of your team for the benefit of the organization and employee’s career trajectory - then it's clear that professional development is an important part of the performance management equation. Clarity around what kind of professional development is available, how to access and use it, and how it may inform mobility and performance management is indeed an equity question!
Actually make time for PD
We know things get busy and the first priorities to get dropped are the non-essential activities. But that title ‘non-essential’ can get really complicated. Usually on that list is DEI, communications, and employee growth and development. However, based on everything already outlined in this article, minimizing employee growth and development is not net-neutral when you consider that marginalized people have to fight tooth and nail for growth and development on a good day, leave alone when their mobility and growth is considered ‘non-essential’.
We see over and over a discrepancy between availability and accessibility. Professional development might be available indiscriminately, however if more junior members of your team have no time to use this aspect of their compensation they will not use it. If women and marginalized people are not being considered for promotion in spite of skill building the do, they will not use it.
The availability and access to professional development should be considered an equity question because we know in most organizations and industries, the more senior you go in ranks, the less diversity you find.
How are you getting creative with DEI resources?