Diversity, and What We Can Do With It
Over the years, diversity has developed to become an increasingly component of a successful organization. It allows for a variety of different perspectives and ideas, higher levels of innovation, and higher employee engagement. Especially within the past few years, with the rise of remote and virtual workspaces, the feasibility of global teams has bolstered tremendously.
However, these different perspectives and personalities can also bring cultural frictions which can pose issues to a team in the long run. Therefore, many organizations have their employees participate in cultural sensitivity training programs that help employees learn about their differences among each other in order to improve communications and teamwork.
Here are some ways to help you and your team to improve your cultural awareness within your organization…
Establish an organized and structured strategy to drive change. This involves communicating the importance of cultural sensitivity to all employees. In addition, employees must understand their roles and responsibilities in maintaining a psychologically safe and open-minded environment.
Create mandatory training courses. You can create your own courses, or use an existing set in order for employees to remain accountable through assessments at the end of each lesson. These lessons can include ethical standards training, reviewing the importance of gestures, and more.
Create a recognition system that engages employees. You can send a company-wide survey that gets a gauge of how your employees feel about the inclusivity of the company. Or, you can schedule discussion groups periodically in order to create a space for employees to voice their opinions and perspectives.
There is no doubt that these programs should not be overlooked. Raising awareness of these cultural and linguistic nuances will help your employees cultivate stronger long-lasting relationships with others from all over the world. If your team is in need of professional cultural sensitivity training, feel free to reach out to our team of experts at DCLS!