It’s 2021. Technology and globalisation have transformed how business is executed opening doors for new opportunities. The most notable trait of this is the exploding interactions between people around the world. Thus, it won’t be a sin to say that understanding diverse cultures is certainly the key to survive in this cutthroat globalisation era.
Businesses today are fast realising the significance of cultural intelligence aka CQ or Cultural Quotient to manage the diverse workforce in today’s increasingly volatile and cross-cultural business landscape. Working with colleagues, business partners or customers calls for high CQ levels. In other words, cultural intelligence is the ability to work and coordinate effectively with a diverse group of people coming from different cultures.
Now when one talks about workforce management, the very first thing to strike in our heads is ‘HR’. That being said, it is one of the most crucial roles of HR professionals to ensure a cross-cultural workplace for all the employees in an organisation.
Here’s how HR can go about it:
1. Harness the Power of Technology
Nurturing CQ becomes a complex task if the majority of the workforce is global. Adding to the dilemma, there is a steep rise in the number of contracts and remote employees.
HR leaders and managers ought to leverage technology to the fullest. A cloud based HRMS software is one of the best tools that can help especially when it comes to managing remote workforce and maintaining a connected staff.
Technology can be of great use to connect the workforce and foster a cross-cultural work environment. It enables both the management as well as the employees of a company to communicate and maintain the human touch despite of the physical distance.
Read also: 6 Must-Know Tricks to Manage a Remote Workforce
2. Impart CQ Training
Organise seminars and training on political, economic and cross-culture patterns. It is one of the most proven ways to persuade employees when it comes to adapting and understanding diverse cultures. Also HR and business managers need to understand that working with people coming from diverse cultural backgrounds makes it extremely important to preach appropriate behavioural and communication styles. Training your people on these key parameters would assist them in communicating in a more effective way with clients, colleagues and peers.
3. Have Policies that Respect Diverse Cultures
Yes, HR department is the best to do this. When your company has a cross-cultural staff, it is important to include their festivals and other occasions in your celebration calendar. In fact, HR should devise the engagement activities in such a way that instigates optimum participation. HR department ought to include policies and rules that respect diverse cultural differences.
Benefits at a glance:
1. A highly connected and productive workforce
2. Multi-cultural and contended staff
3. Improved customer satisfaction
4. Improved retention rates
5. Powerful engagement
Conclusion
To ensure that every employee carries the same core principles and values, education is the single-most-important factor that can help. Remember optimum cultural intelligence can assist a business to promote strong collaboration and boost workforce productivity as well as employee happiness.
To know how cloud-based HR software can multiply your CQ levels and help manage a remote workforce effectively, contact us here. You can also drop us a mail at sales@pockethrms.com or give us a shout out at Facebook or Twitter.
Disclaimer: All the information, views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and their respective web sources and in no way reflect the principles, views or objectives of Pocket HRMS.
