How to Develop Cultural Competency in the Workplace
Thousands of wonderfully diverse ethnicities, religions and cultures have been present since the dawn of time, yet our world hasn’t always been so accepting of them.
While it’s important to be aware and understanding of diversity in everyday life, we encourage you to extend your cultural competence to the workplace.
What is Cultural Competence?
Cultural competence is your ability to communicate effectively with individuals that vary greatly from yourself, whether that be ethnically, religiously, socially or culturally.
It is about your ability to make employees and clients feel understood, welcome and included.
Cultural competence can turn the workplace into an open space, where colleagues can come together and relate to one another despite their differences.
Why is Cultural Competence Important?
Think of the workplace as a diverse residential neighborhood with unique ethnicities, religions and cultures from all corners of the globe.
To be wholeheartedly aware and understanding of these cultural differences will greatly benefit your workplace in a variety of ways.
Your company will attract talented individuals, increase employee retention and cultivate a productive and collaborative environment.
Cultural competence impacts each and every part of your company. Promoting a comprehensive atmosphere that recognizes, values and incorporates differences in culture is a foolproof way to ensure your company’s success.
How You Can Develop Cultural Competence at Work
Active Listening
The practice of active listening requires your full attention. Rather than listening to respond, you are listening to understand.
This practice reduces the risk of miscommunication and shows others that you genuinely care about what they are saying. Active listening promotes mutual respect, empathy and an open mind.
Empathy
In order to connect with others, it’s important to have empathy. Empathy promotes harmony and understanding. Empathetic employees are able to build strong relationships with their colleagues because they acknowledge and admire their differences.
Creativity
Sometimes it takes more than one noggin to solve a complex problem. Cultural competence breeds creativity and collaboration, allowing issues to be resolved quickly and effectively.
Appreciation
Exposure to diverse world views fosters an appreciation between unalike individuals. Employees that are culturally competent are more willing to work with others regardless of their differences, because they know that the value of one’s work is a reflection of their capabilities.
Self-Awareness
Religion, sexuality, color and gender, among many other factors, influence the way we view and comprehend the world around us. In order to reduce our cultural biases, we must be aware of these influencing factors.
How Your Work Can Improve Cultural Competency
Evaluate Your Company’s Current Position
As of this very moment, where does your company stand with regard to cultural competence?
Are there practices and policies in place that foster diversity and inclusion?
Does everyone have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their leadership skills? In order to better understand your company’s current position, create an anonymous employee survey. This will allow for honest feedback to facilitate necessary change.
Bias Training
Eliminating biases is one of the most effective ways to increase cultural competence. Biases prevent us from forming valuable relationships in the workplace.
These preconceived notions can lead to a toxic work environment that limits a company’s success. It is important for employees, leaders and human resource departments to be rid of their biases.
This may look like attending a workshop, implementing more inclusive policies or having an office-wide discussion.
Inclusive Hiring Practices
Working in a homogenous atmosphere severely impacts the ability to become culturally competent.
The first step is to advertise job openings so that they can be seen by a diverse audience.
Utilize job boards that have a wide reach, make it clear that these job opportunities are open to everyone and recruit from a diverse pool of candidates.
The second step is to ensure that underrepresented employees have the same opportunities that lead to success within the organization.
For more information on recruitment, check out our article, “Best Practices for Inclusive Job Postings”.
Psychological Safety
If employees do not feel psychologically safe while at work, productivity, communication and attendance will decline.
A psychologically safe environment fosters trust, strong interpersonal relationships and a general sense of responsibility.
Conflict can be a huge barrier to psychological safety, so it’s important to have practices and policies in place that can effectively address and de-escalate conflict of all natures.
Compensation Based on Experience
Oftentimes our biases impact the compensation we offer to employees. Regardless of ethnicity, religion or culture, employees with the same level of education and experience should be offered the same compensation package.
This will attract talented individuals, increase employee retention and improve job satisfaction.
Prioritize Cultural Competence with Education
This may seem obvious, but educating yourself and your employees on the necessity of diversity and inclusion is paramount to cultural competence.
Research and provide resources that cover implicit and explicit biases, collaboration across cultures, inclusive leadership and action plans for harassment and discrimination.
Strengthen Cross-Cultural Relationships
If a company does not know the history behind it’s audience, does a company actually know its audience?
Successful companies provide products and services that speak to the actual wants and needs of their audience.
This is due to an established cross-cultural relationship between a company and its audience. This allows a company to genuinely connect with consumers and receive feedback that informs quality products and services that benefit all parties involved.
The Cultural Common Ground
We live in a rapidly diversifying world, but building a culturally competent workplace takes time.
Without cultural competence, a company is more likely to have a homogenous workforce lacking diversity of thought and creative problem-solving skills.
Commit to bettering diversity and inclusion initiatives that will attract and retain diverse employees and clients, in order to create a cultural command ground.