Why Cultural Competence in the Workplace Matters and How to Strengthen It

What is Cultural Competence in the Workplace?

Do you know that “more than 3 out of 4 job seekers and employees report that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers?” (Source: Glassdoor). More than simply encompassing diversity and inclusion in the workplace, it is crucial that every employee irrespective of their background is respected and valued. This calls for encouraging cultural competence in the workplace.

A simple definition of cultural competence is that it is the ability of individuals to respect and value others in the workplace irrespective of cultural differences. In addition to recognizing and acknowledging cultural differences, understanding the conscious and unconscious biases and overcoming them is crucial.

Why is Cultural Competence Important in the Workplace?

When individuals belonging to different regions and cultures intermingle in the workplace, it becomes a shared environment with diverse perspectives. This demands the leadership as well as employees to possess cultural competence to advance shared prosperity. The major reasons why organizations should encourage cultural competence in the workplace are:

Encourages Global Business

Promoting cultural competence in the workplace is essential for strengthening global business as it enables smooth correspondence with international clients, partners, and coworkers while reducing misunderstandings due to cultural barriers. Moreover, it equips the organization to understand the varied global market trends and provide strategies to widen the impact and establish a strong brand value.

Fosters Mutual Trust

Mutual trust and respect are key components necessary for a welcoming workplace. According to PwC’s 2024 Trust Survey, “93% of business executives agree that building and maintaining trust improves the bottom line.” Building cultural competence in the organization can foster mutual trust, thereby improving the business. The understanding of diverse cultures opens doors to empathy and respecting diverse perspectives building trust and collaboration.

Attraction and Retention of Talent

Top talent in employees is a crucial factor for organizational success. Embracing cultural competence creates a sense of belonging in the existing employees and attracts top talent to the organization. A major reason for employee turnover is the feeling that their voice is not being heard and valued. When employees feel that their cultural backgrounds are respected it leads to elevated job satisfaction and retention. Furthermore, cultural competence forms a major aspect in employees advocating their employer, thereby attracting highly qualified candidates.

Prevents Conflicts

A culturally competent workplace prevents the arousal of many conflicts due to misunderstandings based on stereotyping. Employees communicate freely with their peers without any bias resulting in respectful communication and fewer disagreements. The workforce collaborates and exchanges meaningful insights establishing harmony while avoiding exclusion-based conflict.

Drives Creativity and Innovation

Recognizing cultural competence as integral to the workplace drives creativity and innovation leading to elevated productivity. According to a comprehensive survey conducted by Forbes Insights, it was revealed that “among companies with more than $10 billion in annual revenues, 56% strongly agreed that diversity helps drive innovation.” Individuals from diverse backgrounds possess unique viewpoints and skill sets leading to innovative solutions and fresh perspectives.

Enhances Decision Making

Enhanced collaboration and reduced bias in the workplace encourages inclusive decision-making. Cultural competence in the workplace enables individuals to prioritize objective facts and information over subjective perspectives. This minimizes the cultural influences in the decision-making process, leading to more thoughtful and effective outcomes.

How to Improve Cultural Competence in the Workplace?

Understanding the diverse benefits offered by encouraging cultural competence in the workplace, it is crucial to embrace it as everyone’s responsibility. Here are some of the most crucial strategies that organizations can use to improve cultural competence in the workplace.

Equitable Hiring

Ensuring fairness and equal opportunities in the hiring process disregarding cultural and ethnic differences promotes a well-capable workforce with diverse capabilities. This can be adopted by standardizing the interview by eliminating the conscious and unconscious bias. It ensures in creating a strong workforce where diverse cultures are represented and valued that recognizes and appreciates individual cultural differences. In addition, to attract a diverse pool of talent, organizations can include the ‘welcoming workplace’ nature in the job descriptions posted across varied platforms.

Cross-cultural relationships

Encouraging cross-cultural relationships within and outside the teams improves cultural competence in the workplace. More than the benefits of collaboration, this provides a unique sense of belongingness to the employees thereby improving the holistic work culture. Furthermore, organizations can encourage Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), ‘voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace aligned with the organizations they serve’ to enhance cross-cultural relationships in the organizations.

Incorporate cultural competence into policies

Another critical strategy that contributes to cultural competence in the workplace is to integrate it into the company policies. Most organizations incorporate cultural competence along with diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. For instance, Google includes Belonging as one of its core commitments with the mission ‘In a world where everyone belongs, anything is possible.’ Incorporating commitments such as diversity and inclusion policies, anti-discrimination policies, multicultural leadership policies, etc. encourages organizations to be advocates of establishing cultural competence equipping them best suited to the globalized business scenario.

Cultural Competency Training

To encourage employees at all levels to interact and establish rapport with their coworkers irrespective of cultural backgrounds, the most crucial strategy is to promote cultural competency training. The training addresses and resolves discrimination faced in the workplace due to unconscious bias, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. Through different training modalities and mediums, cultural competency training provides insights for effective interaction with diverse groups. The training equips the employees to recognize cultural beliefs, attain knowledge about various cultures and customs and how to avoid misunderstandings, practical skills, and open communication to establish successful global relationships.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, embracing cultural competence in the workplace is crucial to value every employee despite their cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Recognizing and acknowledging cultural differences, understanding conscious and unconscious biases, and overcoming them is crucial. In an organization, it is important to hold cultural competence because it encourages global business by reducing misunderstandings due to cultural barriers, fosters mutual trust and respect, attracts new talent and retains existing employees by creating a sense of belonging, prevents conflicts and disputes from taking place, drives innovation and creativity due to unique viewpoints and skill sets, and enhances decision making.

To promote a culture of harmony upholding cultural competence in the workplace, organizations can follow strategies such as equitable hiring practices providing opportunities for all, cross-cultural relationships within and outside the teams, Employee Resource Groups that are the voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace, incorporating cultural competence into policies, and cultural competency training to resolve discrimination faced in the workplace due to unconscious bias, stereotypes, and misunderstandings. The leadership can monitor the extent to which employees possess cultural competence and decide upon implementing relevant strategies and training for organizational success.

Infographic

Knowledge Check!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is cultural competence?

Cultural competence is the ability of individuals to respect and value others irrespective of their cultural differences.

What is cultural competence in the workplace?

Cultural competence is the ability of individuals to respect and value others in the workplace irrespective of their cultural differences.

Why is Cultural Competence Important in the Workplace?

In an organization, it is important to hold cultural competence because it encourages global business by reducing misunderstandings due to cultural barriers, fosters mutual trust and respect, attracts new talent and retains existing employees by creating a sense of belonging, prevents conflicts and disputes from taking place, drives innovation and creativity due to unique viewpoints and skill sets, and enhances decision making.

How to Improve Cultural Competence in the Workplace?

To promote a culture of harmony upholding cultural competence in the workplace, organizations can follow strategies such as equitable hiring practices providing opportunities for all, cross-cultural relationships within and outside the teams, Employee Resource Groups that are the voluntary, employee-led groups whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive workplace, incorporating cultural competence into policies, and cultural competency training to resolve discrimination faced in the workplace due to unconscious bias, stereotypes, and misunderstandings.