Despite the majority of employers providing diversity training for some members of their HR team, four out of 10 employers are not confident that their HR teams are kept sufficiently up-to-date on equality legislation to perform their jobs.
This is according to XpertHR’s 2011 diversity training survey, which also found that some organisations blame funding issues and a lack of support from senior management for inadequate training on diversity issues.
Organisations were keen to keep HR up-to-date on changes brought about by the Equality Act 2010, with seven in 10 organisations having already provided training for HR and 21% planning to do so by autumn 2011.
Charlotte Wolff, XpertHR training editor and author of the report, said: “Given the prominence of legislation in this area and the breadth of its coverage, ensuring HR has the right levels of expertise in equality law is vital.
“Employers that are not offering and encouraging training and development in this area could face major issues, and potential claims of discrimination in the future.”
Indeed, when examining equality training for employees across the organisation, the survey found that 80% of organisations who provided this had seen benefits from doing so.
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The XpertHR diversity training survey gathered results from 103 employers.
For more information on the Equality Act 2010, view XpertHR’s guide.