Springboards Blog

Most HR leaders I’ve met are well aware that the increasing diversity of the workforce is driving demand for cross-cultural training and development. But company management isn’t always equally aware. And today, to compete in the talent marketplace, professional development efforts must not only address the needs of multicultural employees, but also help managers to understand the language, cross-cultural, and communications challenges that an English-speaking and often American business environment presents to those from other cultures. 

Have you ever avoided giving feedback to a foreign national employee for fear of appearing prejudiced or insensitive? Managers are obliged to provide thoughtful, candid feedback as a core component of professional development. Yet managers, often representatives of the dominant or “majority culture,” may not always feel comfortable or confident in addressing foreign national employees with regard to cultural disconnects. They may not be fully aware of how misunderstandings related to social and behavioral differences can lead these employees to disengage. As Professor Erin Meyer put it: “Stereotyping people from different cultures on just one or two dimensions can lead to erroneous assumptions. Even experienced, cosmopolitan managers often have faulty expectations.”

Building a Strategic Follow-up to Year-end Reviews

For many companies, the midyear period is a time for employee evaluation and goal-setting, typically resulting in a “from-now-to-year-end” roadmap. Ideally, managers and human resource leaders work together to establish an open-dialog environment in which employees are actively encouraged to share thoughts on their progress, challenges, and goals…and how they see the rest of the year unfolding. Managers, advisers, and HR staff should all come away from these conversations asking--