BUILDING CROSS CULTURAL COMPETANCIES AND MANAGING
TALENT
Session Notes
Why Recruit Diverse Talent?

Diverse backgrounds = variety of qualifications; we need to see beyond
our own cultures and find talent from different backgrounds.

It’s important for employers to realize that diversity will help them and
they will benefit from a more productive workplace
What are some Common Barriers/Issues for Cultural Diversity?

Language is the primary struggle for many new immigrants

People are too hesitant to address diversity issues because it’s
“uncomfortable”

Sometimes unintentionally attitudes are developed towards certain types
of people, and they don’t feel it’s a problem unless you show them their attitude is
wrong.

Recruitment strategies look for skill and talent; policies of company itself
needs to be examined to ensure that recruitment is inclusive and not posing
barriers to certain groups.
What do we mean by building “cultural- competencies”?

Communicating in a way that all people can relate to; awareness leads to
knowledge and skills which all eventually lead to behavioral change

Competency = the ability to relate and understand cross culturally

Awareness of “the experience” of other’s cultures; awareness of different
practices in other cultures; building ways to work together
How do you build “cultural-competencies”?
Training & Awareness-Building

What are companies doing? Training around diversity and awareness;
Support comes after accepting and acknowledging diversity; between and within
Cultures and even within co-workers.

Must make diversity training important and engaging so people want to do
these training

Organizations need to confront and deconstruct skewed views of
discrimination and diversity at work. Need to be aware these views/discrimination
exist!

Employers/staff/organizations need to do a better job to take what is
different and foreign and understand how others interpret, view and conceptualize
things.

We need to get out of our comfort zone; take risks and explore new things.
Give different cultural ideas, staff a chance!
Build better relationships between Staff and Clients

Creating partnerships/mentors/networking opportunities for all staff can
help co-workers better understand one another. The better people know each
other, the more open and understanding they will be of each other.

A better understanding of diverse clients will help organizations see the
value of having “diverse” workers on their team. Staff from these cultures will be
able to offer insight about particular client groups and help develop innovative
strategies and ideas to connect with them. T his will help raise their “value” to the
team.

Employers should take the time to get to know their employees on a
personal level; this is useful for retaining talent.

Employee retention is highly effective if staff can connect effectively. If
these connections happen (either through mentoring, partnerships, team-work,
staff events, etc) then staff will be more accepting of differences.

Provide opportunities to optimize on skills and talents of diverse staff;
give them a special project to work on.

Create a database of people’s diverse skills. Use this database to draw
upon skills of employees to work on diverse projects
Management and Enforcement of a “Diversity Vision”

Your company/organization needs a vision for instituting initiatives to
enhance diversity in the workplace; if it’s your mission, it becomes a real idea for
change.

If people at the top put diversity as the forefront, those below will follow.
Lead by example.

But if plans are to hierarchical or “top-down” it is no good. Enforcement
needs to occur on every level of the organization. Lead by example.

Good attitudes should be exemplified by the managerial team so that
employees under that team can follow the same attitude.

In bigger corporations; the middle managers needs to make this happen:
enforce diversity and ensure people are fitting in.

It’s the managers responsibility to ensure new employees are fitting in and
their needs are being met efficiently and effectively.
Structural Accommodation- Small things are as important as the Big things

Big things and small things in accommodating diversity can make a big
difference in the workplace; For example including cultural foods in kitchen
spaces, time off for religious holidays , prayer spaces accommodating different
religions…

Reporting systems can be more diverse; in native languages rather than
just English

For differing abilities organizations need to include things such as special
buttons in elevators, interpreters for hearing impaired.

Modern times have new issues about diversity and accommodation (
LGBTQ is growing; washrooms that accommodate transgendered)

Models are never truly universal, always miss certain groups
Communicating Needs and Setting Expectations

Non verbal communication is important to effectively respect different
cultures; don’t look down on people that may not look you in the face, in some
cultures it’s disrespectful to stare at people in the face; Don’t see that as a
weakness but rather a difference that needs to be accommodated

Body language should be inclusive

Expectations must be set and not just assumed: setting boundaries and
expectations at the beginning of a job will help prevent problems and improve
performance. When expectations are not clearly defined it is considered a
“communication” problem on the part of the new employee/immigrant, when
really it was a miscommunication of expectations.

Continual feedback is important to make sure performance goals are met
and that the employees questions, needs and concerns are being met.

Space/ welcoming attitude is needed to talk freely and openly about
diversity issues

Bringing problems to the table and addressing them is the best way to
enforce diversity in a workplace

Target specific cultural related issues and create policies to address them
Tools for Measuring Success

Importance: the overall experience of working at the company improves

Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Feedback from staff

Happier employees

Increase in productivity