As the ‘Future of work’ straddles between ‘hybrid’, ‘fully remote’ and ‘in-office’, one of the greatest challenges can be to manage employees who hail from many different countries, where the mindset toward careers, families, work-life integration, and boundaries can vary greatly. Understanding how to manage cultural differences can have a huge impact on your success in managing a global workforce.
Here are some tactics and strategies one can deploy to manage a culturally diverse and distributed workforce. Small steps will make a big difference to the company that’s growing in size and diversity, whether they are established corporations or a startup.
LEAN INTO YOUR CULTURE
Our cultural background shapes our worldview, how we interact with each other, and how we communicate and behave. As People partners, we should celebrate a diversity of personal cultures but work to establish a strong company culture that drives how our teams engage with each other, collaborate, work together, and also respect and trust each other.
Be intentional about the culture you want to build as culture is not going to build itself.
- Establish a shared vision, mission and value proposition and connect the entire company’s goals towards achieving this - Alignment is key!
- Education or creating a common ground through training should be the first step for most organizations, and then that can help incorporate more concrete policies and procedures for managing diverse workforces. Education can make you more aware and help reduce biases.
- Start small - Trying to start big or do things perfectly right off the bat can lead to excuses not to do them at all. Integrating more diversity may mean starting through small, manageable steps and finally building a work culture your employees would love to work in and stay in.
- Talking about small steps - Burnout is real! Having a diversity calendar and planning work, reducing the load around big festivals, and planning meetings carefully, not imposing deadlines over weekends, is something leaders should consider doing for their teams.
From one culture to the next, the differences in how workers approach their day can be astonishingly broad. What a strong work ethic looks like in one culture might be completely different compared to another.
- Celebrate the differences - Dedicate time to learn about each other, cultural differences, and celebrate how you are different as opposed to using the difference to separate yourself. Multicultural teams bring a lot of multiple perspectives leading to diverse solutions. That means your company can think of a problem from multiple dimensions, which can mean better outcomes for customers, vendors, employees, and your entire ecosystem. Being closer to the customer, in terms of geography, culture, or language, will fuel the company's growth. Think about Employee Resource Groups (ER’s) - a voluntary employee group that actively engages in education, awareness, sensitization, and can actively champion diversity through these initiatives.
- Don’t assume - One pitfall to avoid is making cultural assumptions, judgments, and generalizations. Don’t assume that you know things and ask for clarification from team members and employees alike; remember that asking questions and saying that you don’t know something is okay.
Walk the talk - When it comes to improving diversity, it has to be an intentional organizational priority. Clearly state your philosophy about diverse teams, put processes in place that encourage hiring from diverse backgrounds, have processes that promote diverse candidates, and have a plan for creating an inclusive atmosphere for everyone to bring their whole selves to work. Remember, good intentions can only take you so far, build good mechanisms to follow through!
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