Under the direction of the City Council on June 9, 2020, staff reviewed the City’s current training program to determine how best to enhance the existing training program with "implicit bias" topics.

To incorporate training on these topics for the City’s civilian employees, Council Members, and Commissioners, several training providers and training courses were reviewed (Attachment A).  Staff evaluated training courses with the primary consideration on the relevancy of the topic, type of training (on-line courses or in-person workshops, interactive participation or passive), efficiency of implementation and cost.

One company, Shift HR Compliance, has been identified to provide the most relevant, quality, interactive, and cost effective on-line training.  The course specifically identified is titled “Unconscious Bias In The Workplace” and is described as follows: “Introduces the important concept of Unconscious Bias and explores the impact of such biases on employee’s work environment.  Awareness-building activities help learners understand that we all have biases, and teaches strategies to interrupt and neutralize these biases, guiding learners to be better employees, co-workers and friends.  This course focuses on moving beyond awareness-building.  Real-life interactive scenarios provide practical experience in making conscious decisions to move beyond bias.”  This module can be integrated into the City’s existing Learning Management System with Target Solutions, and can be implemented quickly and efficiently.

Everfi Training’s course “Uncovering Unconscious Bias” is comparable to Shift’s course in relevancy but the cost is over $10,000 higher and is based on a flat rate.  Kantola Training Solutions course “Diversity & Inclusion: A Step-by-Step Guide to Employees” does not specifically address the implicit bias topic, is too general and is similar to some of the courses already offered by the Orange County Employees Consortium, through which our employees already receive training.

It should be noted that the Garden Grove Police Officers receive training on biased-based policing and racial profiling while in the academy, as it is required by the California Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST), and participate in re-training every five years under the California PC 13519.4(a).  Several of our officers are POST certified facilitators on these topics.

Additionally, all Officers receive annual training on biased-based policing and racial profiling and bi-annual training in the areas of tactical communication (de-escalation), ethics and arrest and control techniques as required by POST.  Due to the fact that our City Police Officers are already required to take training through POST which covers topics similar to “implicit bias”, the training enhancement would be intended for all other City employees, as well as Council Members and Commissioners.

The estimated cost to purchase and implement Shift HR Compliance’s “Unconscious Bias In The Workplace” on-line course is approximately $3,500 to $10,000.  The cost is dependent on the number of participants, $18 per person for over 500 users or a flat fee for less than 500 users.  The City has seven (7) Elected Officials and forty-seven (47) Commissioners and approximately 500 civilian full-time and part-time employees.  The cost of this training has not been allocated in the new FY 20/21 proposed budget but can be absorbed within the FY 20/21 City Council’s Contingency Fund.

It is requested that the City Council:

• Provide Staff direction on the training implementation which includes "implicit bias" topics from Shift HR Compliance; and

• Authorize the use of City Council's Contingency fund to purchase Shift HR Compliance course "Unconscious Bias In The Workplace" training module for City civilian employees, Council Members, and Commissioners.