How to Set Up Cultural Competency Training – The Essential Guide

Cultural Diversity in the workplace has grown more than ever. Thanks to ever-growing technology to make remote work a reality than just a wild dream. This diversity can be either a boon or a bane to the employees’ productivity. It can easily disrupt teamwork and collaboration if not addressed properly. But on the other hand, if employees understand and respect each other’s cultural differences then they can achieve an unprecedented level of synergy. The more your employees empathise with one another, the more productive they can be. Therefore, Cultural Competence is of at most importance now than ever at the workplace.

What is Cultural Competence?

Cultural Competence is your organization’s understanding and knowledge of the different cultures and perspectives within their workforce. It can also be deemed as a measure of your employees’ ability to work with people from different ethnicity, religion, and nationality.

In this age of technology and communication, global work is very common in workplaces. So, equipping your employees with this important skill is of utmost importance. To make sure this does not backfire, it is necessary to understand your employees cultural background before equipping them with knowledge and skills which are vital to work at a global scope. This is what is called Cultural Competency Training.

Cultural competence training list:

Training for Diversity in Workplace

It is important to increase cultural competence on a global level but having the employees understand and respect the diversity within the local workplace is crucial. To do this, it is mandatory to understand the cultural differences present within your employees and train them to be compatible with one another before taking cultural competency to a global level.

Conducting Diversity Training Programs will also be worthwhile when you are at it. Diversity Training Programs helps employees be more aware of their unconscious bias and other barriers to diversity and inclusion. Diversity Training Programs help remove the unwanted friction between employees which they might not even be aware of. And Diversity Training is a core part of Leadership Training which we will touch upon later.

Global citizenship training:

There is no better way to train your employees for global cultural competency than by teaching them about the cultural differences at a global level. This type of training will help them understand the cultural differences at a global level and to work effectively by improving the cross-cultural work environment. This training can cover a wide array of topics such as communication styles in various cultures, business etiquettes, marketing skills and mannerisms.

The employees should also be taught to conduct self-assessments of their behaviour when they are working along with someone from a different culture. A good example might be the varying levels of physical distance and contact during a professional interaction from culture to culture. If an employee routinely engages physical contact like touching someone’s arm, then he/she must be trained in such a manner that they realize their boundaries as soon as possible and adapt to it. Encouraging the employees to have open discussions about such matters with their team members will prove helpful.

Leadership Training

Leadership Training plays a crucial role in improving the Cultural Competency of your employees. As some of the hot topics that will be covered in the Leadership Training program are communication, motivation, positive mental attitude, feedback reception, and Diversity Training. This training is a natural ground to understand how to move and work with people from varying cultural backgrounds.

On top of this, the employees will also be trained on emotional intelligence which plays a dire role at improving the Cultural Competence at the company. Understanding all this will not only improve the employees’ Cultural Competence but will also enable them to be more productive on the global work-ground. This type of training will also enable the employees to communicate more effectively with culturally different people from themselves.

Training in Mannerisms

One of the major differences when it comes to culture is in the mannerisms. Professional mannerisms in certain cultures are very casual and will usually be neglected but, in some cultures, they are deemed in a formal way and such people will be offended if they are not approached in a well-mannered way. So, it becomes quintessential to train the employees in these grounds as well. The employees should be trained on both aspects, moving in a casual cultured environment and in a very formal cultured workplace. In fact, this should be given higher precedence if the employees are going to work on-premises rather than remotely.

These are the top takes which should be kept in mind while organizing and conducting a Cultural Competency Training program within your company. Cultural Competency is very important and should not be taken lightly. It not only enables your workforce to move with vigour on international fronts, but it also makes them highly productive and collaborative along with themselves.

If you do not want to go through the hassle of creating a training program for your employees but still want to improve the Cultural Competence at your company then we have some good news for you. Cultural Intelligence Center is a research-based organization which specializes in improving the Cultural Intelligence of companies. Their methods go far beyond the typical approach as they are heavily focused based on ground-breaking research that is made in this field. They do not offer a one package which fits-for-all, instead the approaches and the techniques used is tailor made for each individual organization based on two decades of research in over 98 different countries. They have a wide range of tools, workshops and resources that will cater your organization.

Latest research has found that a Culturally Competent workplace does not only increase productivity among the employees but also creates a happier workplace which the employees will look forward to daily. It also improves the understanding that employees have between each other thus reducing conflicts and the chance of one. This makes it even more crucial to take it seriously.