CVS Health Training Asks Employees to Make a ‘Personal Commitment Plan’ to ‘Mitigate Bias’
A recent CVS Health employee training encouraged staff to understand their privileges and to make “a personal commitment plan” to “mitigate bias,” according to a new report.
“Understanding your privileges and how to leverage them so we can support others is a key component in being an active ally,” CVS employees were told on an online call, Fox Business reported.
“Allyship is the act of advocating for as well as supporting communities other than your own,” the instructor said. “So being an ally means that we’re aware of our own identities as well as the intersectional identities of others. We’re recognizing and actively mitigating bias, and we’re modeling inclusive leadership behaviors.”
Employees were asked to complete a “personal commitment plan” listing ways they will “take specific action” to “mitigate bias” and “practice conscious inclusion” in the next five days, five weeks and five months.
“Making those measurable commitments is an important step to actually making sure that you are moving forward in this journey,” the instructor said. “Wherever you currently are in the journey. We all have room to grow.”
Slides from the presentation offered guidance on how to practice “allyship,” including “seeking to learn about and understand the needs of marginalized people,” according to the report.
The presentation also told employees in leadership roles to “prioritize promoting diverse talent” and said that senior directors and above would “formally or informally” mentor one diverse mentee a year.
The news comes days after journalist Christopher Rufo reported on a CVS Health training that told employees to circle their identities from a list of options that included race, gender, sexuality and religion and to then reflect on their “privilege” during a discussion with coworkers.
The report said examples of privilege, according to a checklist in the training, included celebrating Christmas, having a name that is easy to pronounce and feeling safe in your neighborhood at night, Rufo said.
CVS Health is reportedly holding a “conscious inclusion workshop” that aims to teach employees to hold each other “accountable” for non-inclusive behaviors as part of a nearly $600 million committment to address racial inequality, according to an earlier Fox Business report.
