Taking flight: 63,000 people on a DE&I journey
Delta is on a mission to lead the airline industry through the inclusivity of its culture and its customer service.
Delta Air Lines is a US organization with an international workforce serving customers from every corner of the globe. DE&I sits at the heart of the company’s business model.
Delta Air Lines is a US organization with an international workforce serving customers from every corner of the globe. DE&I sits at the heart of the company’s business model.
Building a comprehensive DE&I training
Delta’s DE&I team planned an ambitious training program that would connect DE&I to the daily experience of employees – empowering colleagues to interact in more thoughtful, engaging ways with each other and their customers. The challenge was how to deliver impactful training content to tens of thousands of people working across a large number of locations and in different types of roles.
A four-part training experience was created, featuring two live virtual sessions and two e-learning modules. The training introduced new concepts and ways of talking about issues such as unconscious bias. A key focus was positioning DE&I as a competency – then showing employees how to translate that mindset into better real-world relationships.
“It's our brand's responsibility to drive change, and it's the charge of Delta people to bring that mission to life.”
Creating impact across the organization
The barriers were logistical. Scheduling and tracking the volume of sessions took discipline and smart use of technology. The unexpected factor was Covid-19, and the aviation industry was one of the worst affected during the pandemic. Delta used their agility to reshape training delivery to fit a very different world.
In just a few months, the training saw an 85% uptake – a remarkable figure for a non-compulsory program. Employee feedback on their learning experience has been highly positive. To measure impact, new questions were inserted into the quarterly employee survey. By tracking participation, Delta could also compare the data of those who had taken the training from those who had not.
The results so far have been striking. Employees feel like they belong more, and they have the confidence to speak up and use their voice. Delta customers are seeing the impact too—colleagues are earning praise and gratitude for applying their DE&I training to real-life situations.
Connecting the world through DE&I
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75,000
employees globally
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52
Operations across US and in 52 countries
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85%
63,000 employees trained, 85% uptake to date
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