Don’t let your DEI training create a hostile work environment

Employment lawyers and HR professionals who provide workplace training may worry whether their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training is sufficiently engaging or effective. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently highlighted another question for organizations to consider: Could your DEI training lead to a hostile work environment claim?

Highlights from recent guidance

It’s no secret that DEI is a major focus of the second Trump administration, with multiple Executive Orders having been issued by the White House targeting DEI efforts. Recently, the EEOC weighed in with a guidance document entitled “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work.” The guidance follows the earlier announcement in a press release by new EEOC Acting Chair Andrea Lucas that her “priorities will include rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination.”

Neither Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 nor the EEOC defines “DEI,” but the guidance states that “DEI initiatives, policies, programs, or practices may be unlawful if they involve an employer or other covered entity taking an employment action motivated—in whole or in part—by an employee’s or applicant’s race, sex, or another protected characteristic.” In a series of questions and answers, the EEOC advises workers on what they should do if they believe they’ve experienced DEI-related discrimination and when a DEI program may run afoul of federal anti-discrimination law.