I’ve said in other posts that the more you understand the people you work with, the easier it is to work with them. Learning to understand cultural diversity is essential for everyone. Communication is critical in any well-run business but it isn’t always easy when you are dealing with a culturally diverse workforce.

Language as a barrier to communication is one of the many topics discussed during any diversity training workshop, such as the ones I lead for businesses around the world.

How important is it to you that your employees understand what is expected of them? It should be pretty important if you want to have a successful business. Good communication not only affects the efficiency of your business, it impacts on the well-being of your multicultural employees. Everyone needs to understand safety regulations, emergency procedures and how to use safety equipment.

Here are some strategies to overcome language barriers in a culturally diverse workforce:

In the last blog, I gave [I’ve given] you two strategies for overcoming language barriers in a culturally diverse workplace. A multicultural leadership workshop will provide you with many more communication strategies.

I’ll tell you about two other strategies that will help you manage your diverse workforce and build an atmosphere that encourages open communication.

Provide English instruction: You can’t assume that the people working for you will have the resources needed to learn English. If they are new to the country they may lack money to pay for the class or they may be unable to find transportation to the class. A manager who respects the cultural diversity of his employees will support efforts to learn English; provide instruction on the job site and arrange the schedule to allow time for “homework.” Many states will subsidize these classes as part of a workforce development initiative. Support and encouragement is important; most adults find it difficult to learn a new language and will lose interest quickly.

Knowing your customer is critical for a good marketing campaign. And you really need to do your homework if your target audience is a minority group. A business that wants to tap into the multicultural sector of the population has to be sensitive to cultural differences that drive spending habits.

That means dropping stereotypes and investing time and money in some research. There are research groups out there who gather information about how people in minority groups like to spend their money. According to a Forrester Research report, “there is more to reaching minorities than understanding demographic differences.”

Culture is more than skin color. It is a complicated mix of race, language and religion. It is influenced by immigration experiences and “cross-cultural” marriage. Ethnic identity affects cultural practices, beliefs, and even dress and eating habits. And just to keep it complicated, no matter the ethnic background people are all influenced by age, gender and income.

Minority groups represent a huge part of the North American population. There are 39 million Hispanics in the United States surpassing African Americans as the largest visible minority. In Canada South Asians are now the largest, outnumbering Chinese by a half million.

So why are marketing campaigns still missing the mark with our multicultural populations? In a survey carried out in multiple languages the Solutions Group of Canada found that 52% of people said that they rarely saw advertising they believed was intended for them.

The problem seems to be a combination of corner-cutting and fear that something might be perceived as racist.

A smart business person understands the importance of a productive and efficient workforce. Business experts insist that your employees are your biggest investment.

If you are a manager of a culturally diverse workforce you will have to make an effort to understand what motivates your employees and makes them happy. This requires an understanding of cultural differences; your employees will have many different values and traditions.

A culturally diverse workplace could include people from many different Asian and Latino cultures. I use these two examples only because they represent large numbers of immigrant workers. The following advice can be applied in most situations.

In my last post I said that a culturally diverse workplace has people with many different traditions and values. Managing diversity in the workplace requires you to be sensitive to differences while still being fair to everyone.

One characteristic that is quite common to different cultures is the importance of personal relationships. Your employees may be from countries where life was not easy. A strong family and close friends might have been needed for survival; family and friends are first priority, work a distant second.

Here are two more strategies for managing diversity in the workplace.

Imagine you came into work this morning and found your desk moved from its spot by the window. Now you’re facing a wall by the elevator. Your reaction? Some might be okay with it; most of us would be confused. Why were you moved? Is the boss trying to get rid of you?

If the boss had used a change management approach you’d know what was going on and you wouldn’t waste your morning asking questions and trying to get over the shock caused by the change.

Now imagine that you are new to both the organization and the country. Within a multicultural workforce there may be several people coping with many challenges. Hopefully your organization has a program to help with language barriers and culture shock. Mentoring a newcomer with someone who “knows the ropes” is one effective strategy.

It’s important to have a change management plan, especially for a multicultural workforce, but who creates the plan and who carries it out?

Change management plans are carried out by a team. Even a small business needs more than one person “on board” for change to be successful.

The change management team is the group of key people who come up with a strategy for change. Someone from each department should be on the team. The team’s main role is to manage the “people” aspects of the change. This team will make sure that important information gets communicated to everyone.

Remember that communication is very important for a multicultural workforce. Have information booklets printed in the languages used by your multicultural workforce. Then have small group discussions with a translator present to answer questions and address concerns. Members of the team will be the “go-to” people for everyone else; they are the ones who keep up the momentum when challenges arise.

Big changes within a company are most likely to succeed if a change management team is created. I talked about that team’s role last time. There are many people, not part of the team, who also have an important role in change management.

Change takes time; this is especially true with a multicultural workforce. Senior managers and other “upper” management who are already looking past the change and into the future may forget to practice patience with others who are just beginning the change process. Executives need to get in-sync with employees and become a visible, and vocal, “cheerleading” squad. Lack of leadership is the main reason change fails, even with a solid change management plan. When a multicultural workforce sees the “big bosses” actively committed to the change they are reassured that this change will be a good thing.

When a member of a multicultural workforce has a question, who do they go to for answers? Their immediate supervisor will be the one to communicate information about change.

Six months ago you became part of your company’s change management team. Now it’s time to assess whether or not the changes were successfully implemented. If something went wrong, there are two places to look at first.
If the change management team did its job the transition was step-by-step with plenty of two-way communication between management and its multicultural workforce. Goals and objectives were clear; everyone accepted the change and carried out their responsibilities flawlessly.

Things never go according to plan.