Questions to ask a Prospective Diversity Trainer and That Trainers Clients

Questions to Ask a Prospective Trainer

How long have you been a diversity trainer?
— Experience is no guarantee of quality, but it’s a plus.

How did you attain cultural awareness and proficiency? What experiences influenced your cross-cultural skills development?

What organizations like ours have you trained for? How were they like ours; how were they different?

What exactly did you do for those organizations?
— Listen for specifics. If they aren’t there, they may not exist.

What problems did you encounter? How did you handle them?
— Be wary if a trainer claims there were no problems.

What measurable results were realized?
— Ask yourself if it was worth it.

What do you need to know about the trainees before you begin? How will that information affect your presentation?
— Answers will tell you something about how the candidate customizes training.

Describe your training methods and style.

What could cause changes in the contract after training has begun? What are the possible cost implications?
— Ask for examples.

What sort of environment do you aim for in a training session? How do you go about achieving it?

What experiences have you had with trainees who became hostile or abusive to you or other trainees? What did you do?

What do you do with trainees who convey by word or actions that they think diversity training is a waste of their time?

Would you customize training because of our industry/mission, size, educational level of trainees or ethnic groups? How?

What are the responsibilities of the client? Of the trainer? Of the trainees?

What would we need to do to get the most out of a contract with you?

What experience have you had with XYZ problems?
— Here, you want to specify your problems, such as homophobia.

How did you find him or her?
— This may give you a clue as to their objectivity, and may give you another person to check with.

What were your needs?
— Listen to how specific they were.

What did the trainer do for you?
— Get specifics, from project definition through design, training, evaluation and follow-up.

In what ways did the trainer help you understand your diversity needs and deal with them?
— For example, did the trainer identify issues that had been overlooked? Did the trainer improve upon the proposal?

Tell us about your working relationship, such as their availability and responsiveness, their punctuality, reliability and candor.

What indicators did you have of the trainer’s sincerity? Ethics?

Would you hire him or her again? If so, what would you do differently?
— This could point out trainer weaknesses, or tell you what it takes to work well with that trainer.

What do you know now about selecting a trainer that would have helped you make a better choice?

Source: “Consumer’s Guide to Diversity Training,” The Times Mirror Company and The County of Los Angeles, Commission on Human Relations.