Unconscious Bias Training Program

What we made

Unconscious bias training program

The issue

The client needed a hyper-specific management course that learners could relate to on a tight timeline.

Project highlights

Utilized scenarios to create something relatable and impactful
Animated characters were utilized to better reflect the diversity of the client’s workforce
Supplemental job aids were also created for long-term reference and use

The issue

The Issue: Delivering content in an impactful way

With over 10,000 global employees, our client knows a thing or two about managing different types of people. So, when they approached ELM about creating a new eLearning course for managers, they naturally came with plenty of content, great insight, and a specific idea of what they wanted in mind. It was left up to ELM to develop a delivery system that helped managers learn how to address unconscious biases at work, while offering tips on more effective management on a more granular level than past training efforts.

Instead of broad advice or ambiguous leadership platitudes, the client was clear that their new management course should be hyper-specific. ELM knew that their learners should be able to see themselves in the material and experience key scenarios to practice their management skills before heading back to their teams. Armed with this information and a tight deadline, ELM set to work to create something relatable and impactful on a shorter-than-average delivery timeline.

The journey

The Journey: Real people, real scenarios

The key to effective bias training is to first address the problem with traditional training modules. In the past, actors were often used to portray scenarios; those actors, unfortunately, didn’t always reflect the true diversity of the workforce. By designing the client’s training around illustrated and animated characters, ELM was afforded the opportunity to create characters that better reflected the company’s unique, 10,000-person strong workforce. ELM intentionally chose to create characters with different skin tones, genders, weight, age and backgrounds, offering full consideration for employees that may have felt unseen in past iterations of training.

After creating characters, ELM’s animation lead worked to wrap the training in a familiar storyline that learners would recognize. The client’s tight timeline meant that the project went from concept to deliverable in a lightning-fast four week without sacrificing any of the polish or thought that employees have come to expect from their training material.

The outcome

The Outcome: Branding matters

Chances are that anyone can recognize the client’s branding. The clear shapes and bright colors are a staple of their reputation, so naturally the company wanted management training to follow suit. It’s a matter of offering employees a consistent experience and setting the tone for the entire organization. While ELM didn’t have the typical timeline to create animations that were to the exact level of the client’s past branding and marketing, ELM designers were able to simplify the design process and create training that matched the look and feel of past programs. By sticking with simple shapes, directing focus via font, and utilizing bright, approachable colors, the final product assimilated beautifully into the existing training offerings, even though it was created by ELM.

The final product was a fully realized 30-minute course that was broken into smaller microlearning modules. Each short module walked learners through different scenarios they might encounter as managers. After reading through the best practices and interacting with the module, users were then led through knowledge checks to get instant feedback on what they’d learned. ELM also designed breakout job aids that learners could access whenever necessary without having to experience the entire module over again. It made for a more personalized experience where learners could direct where they spent most of their training time.

The client was thrilled with the final product, and for good reason: The project came in on a tight timeline and utilized all of their carefully-developed management material. ELM was able to deliver a polished, high-end training program that looked and felt like the client’s existing efforts by using the tools in their design arsenal, all while building management training for an impactful approach to banishing unconscious bias and connecting on a global level.

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