Sephora closes all US stores for diversity training after racial profiling allegation
The beauty chain Sephora is closing its US stores for an hour on Wednesday morning to hold diversity training for the company’s 16,000 employees, three weeks after R&B singer SZA reported an incident of apparent racial profiling at a Los Angeles branch.
SZA, who has said she has previously worked at Sephora, shared her experience in April, writing on Twitter that an employee named “Sandy” called security believing she had stolen from the store.
In a statement, Sephora said the training sessions were not created in response to the incident, but it “does reinforce why belonging is now more important than ever”.
The beauty chain, owned by luxury French fashion house LVMH, says it has been planning the training for over six months as part of its “We Belong to Something Beautiful” diversity campaign.
With its training, Sephora is following in the footsteps of Starbucks, which shut down its 8,000 stores for half a day in May 2018 to hold diversity training for its employees. Starbucks held its training in direct response to an uproar over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores in Philadelphia.
Incidents of racial profiling in US retail stores have been referred to as the “shopping while black” experience. Black shoppers are no more likely to shoplift, yet studies have shown that retail workers tend to believe that the typical shoplifter is black.
Though it may seem a bold step for a brand to close its doors for diversity training to try to mitigate incidents like racial profiling, experts are skeptical of the effectiveness of mandatory training.
“The research shows that diversity training doesn’t work,” said Alexandra Kalev, a professor of sociology at Tel Aviv University. In a study for the Harvard Business Review, Kalev andFrank Dobbin, looked through three decades of data and interviewed managers from hundreds of US companies. They found that diversity training can actually have a negative impact by reinforcing dangerous stereotypes.
A separate study published in April found that an online diversity training programme, which researchers created themselves, only had an effect on participants who were supportive of diversity in the first place and no effect on those who were not.
The results did not absolutely confirm the “trainings couldn’t work, but we did the best job that we could [in designing them], and it didn’t seem to work that well,” said Edward Chang, a co-author of the study and a researcher at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kalev and Chang agreed that if brands such as Sephora actually mean business when it comes to inclusivity, they will have to do much more than a one-hour training. Changing company culture and the decision-making process of managers takes time and serious effort from companies, they said.
Sephora said the one-hour training is just the start of a larger diversity initiative that includes the creation of “employee resource groups” and “social impact and philanthropic programs” and more inclusivity training for managers.
Shaun Gabbidon, a professor of criminal justice at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg who has researched racial profiling in US retail stores for over two decades, said that Sephora closing its stores – regardless of the training’s effectiveness – sends an important signal to customers that it values diversity.
“They need to let everyone know that everyone is welcomed and these types of behaviors won’t be tolerated,” Gabbidon said. “There’s still value in the symbolic gesture of it. It does send a message about its values.”
Melisa Slep, 31, who was shopping at a Sephora in midtown Manhattan this week said she saw the training as a sign the company cares about its customers. She has previously felt ignored by workers in the store, perhaps because she doesn’t look like a wealthy client, she said.
“I think it’s better to have it than not have it. But it’s a baseline from where they can continue to improve,” she said.
Other customers were more skeptical that an hour-long training would have a substantial effect on the company culture.
Kujege Thiam, 16, another customer, said inclusivity has to be learned over time, months or maybe years. The Sephora training doesn’t change her opinion about shopping there, she said, though she feels like she sticks out in the store.
“I notice, sometimes, looks [from employees] or sometimes feel like I’m being followed,” she said. “I guess that’s like every store, in a way.”
There’s still value in the symbolic gesture of it. It does send a message about its values
Sean Gabbidon