Following the publication of the results of Globalization Partners’ 2020 Global Employee Survey, Nicole Sahin, the company’s CEO, takes a look at some of the benefits of setting up cross-border teams and encouraging cultural diversity within the workplace. She also explores some of the most common issues that businesses face when seeking to create the inclusivity that their global workforce needs to thrive.
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SubscribeDid you ever get the chance to participate in a school exchange programme when you were younger? If you were fortunate enough to have done so, you’ll probably remember what a positive experience it was and how much you learned about different cultural values and new perspectives on life. If you’re lucky, you might even have made some life-long friends and are still in contact today.
These are experiences that we, as adults, can take into the workplace. Global teams with a rich mix of cross-border members have the potential to be stronger, more productive and more innovative. But, there is a caveat—teams with a higher number of international employees have specific requirements that need to be addressed. Understanding what those are will enable them to thrive and deliver the kind of results that their employers expect.
Globalization Partners’ 2020 Survey ‘How Inclusion and Diversity Impact Distributed Global Team Members’, suggests this means creating an atmosphere that respects and fosters cultural diversity. This could include the regular use of at least two different languages for business and ensuring employees working in satellite offices feel as connected as people in the organization’s HQ. Indeed, one of the key lessons to learn from our study is that successful cross-cultural team development does not start and end with a hire—it needs to be based ongoing understanding and respect.
Without giving these issues serious consideration, businesses looking to improve cultural diversity and cross-cultural working—with only the best intentions—may unwittingly create a situation in which its global employees feel disconnected, undervalued and misunderstood.
The language of connection and trust
The number of languages spoken to do business in a company is a good indicator of its diversity and the effectiveness of its cross-border team structure. We found that 85% of companies whose employees describe themselves as diverse use more than one language for business—while 71% of companies use between two and five languages for business.
You don’t need to be a psychologist to appreciate that speaking to international team members in their language—or at least not expecting them to speak the language used at their company’s HQ all the time—is a compelling and effective way to work across borders and to show individuals how much you value and respect them.
Workers whose companies used more than one language for work were 11-16% more likely to feel connected to their organization. Likewise, those workers were more likely to report that their voice mattered. It is interesting to note that there seems to be a sweet spot for companies who employ between two and five languages for business and that the multiple language benefit tapers a bit for those using more than five languages. This may come as a result of communication barriers creating a sort of “Tower of Babel” effect, with a lower likelihood of employees speaking more than two or three languages fluently and a greater opportunity for communication barriers to present themselves.
A measured amount of multilingualism definitely improves trust between colleagues and between international staff and senior management. It could be one reason why almost eight out of ten respondents from diverse companies said that they trust their leadership team. Trust in leadership is hugely important to the health of an organization. Our study found that employees who trusted their senior management were three times more likely to stay at their present company and half as likely to leave. By contrast, companies flagged as non-diverse were two and a half times more likely to distrust senior management—22% said that they did not trust all or most of their leadership and 33% said that they only “somewhat” trusted them.
Happiness is relative: HQ vs Satellite Offices
Cross-cultural understanding is good for employee happiness too—more than three times more employees in diverse companies said that they always felt happy at work. In contrast, employees at non-diverse companies were four times more likely to report never being happy at work. This is a jump from 2% to 8% and may seem small but just a few unhappy employees within an organization can have a significant effect on company culture. Think of it this way, across a team of 30, that’s two people who are not bought into the projects they’re working on, or broader company aims.
Troublingly, our survey revealed that employee happiness levels are not consistently high across companies. Employees working at a corporate HQ tend to have a better experience than those working in satellite offices. This is a critical issue to deal with across all employees, but it is particularly important in the context of fostering good relationships with culturally diverse team members—most of whom are statistically more likely to be working in satellite or remote offices.
Looking further into these findings, only 12% of workers at HQ admit to feeling unhappy at work (saying they are not often or not at all happy). That number rises to 20% for remote office workers and doubles to 24% for those working in the field or at home.
Cultural diversity and integration
Our study found that employees who said they work for diverse companies were more likely (38% vs. 29%) to say those companies often struggle to align with and be sensitive about local cultures than employees who worked for non-diverse companies. Perhaps that’s why nine out of ten employees from diverse companies said they think their companies would benefit from regular assistance from outside experts in local and regional culture, hiring, and accounting practices—and 31% said their companies already engage with such experts. Even in non-diverse companies, 74% of those surveyed acknowledged the need for such experts.
Without addressing these issues, the benefits that were supposed to come about from cross-border team working are negated. Indeed, our study suggested employees felt that the more they engagement they had with their global peers, the more they felt their company was struggling to understand their local culture. So instead of walls coming down, barriers go up, and everyone retreats into their local silos.
This is also evidenced in our study, which found more than half (55%) of those who interact every day with global peers said they often experience struggles. In comparison, a majority (39%) of those who rarely interact with global peers said this is never a problem for them. This provides tangible proof that building up a culturally diverse workforce does not automatically lead to a more integrated cross-border way of working. Instead it can lead to isolation and disconnection, and even foster resentment for colleagues, management and the business as a whole.
What can I do to improve cultural understanding and foster local talent?
We’d suggest that there are two critical areas that international companies should focus on if they’re looking to make a capitalise on this enthusiasm. First off, businesses should prepare their teams for the increased complexities of cultural diversity. Ninety per cent of survey respondents told us that their companies are culturally diverse. Still, two thirds of them say their companies are struggling with that diversity.
Secondly, businesses should focus on understanding the employee experience outside headquarters. Our study shows a significant disconnect for many workers outside headquarters—who statistically-speaking are more likely to be diverse in their makeup. If companies want to continue to earn their international employees’ enthusiasm, they would be smart to conduct internal research to understand their relative experiences. This will help them find more meaningful ways to incorporate their voices and earn their trust.
As global teams grow, it will be more important than ever that companies understand and accommodate a diverse range of global team members. This will help them retain local talent and maintain their competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
About Globalization Partners
Globalization Partners enables you to hire in more than 170 countries within days, and without the need to set up costly international subsidiaries. You identify great talent anywhere in the world, and we put them on our fully compliant global payroll—lifting the burden of global corporate tax, legal, and HR matters from your shoulders to ours. Globalization Partners: we make global expansion fast and easy.
To download your copy of “How Inclusion and Diversity Impact Distributed Global Team Members,” please click here or contact our local in country experts.
