Cultural Competence in the Workplace

What is cultural competence?

Cultural competence refers to the ability of employees in a workplace to work smoothly with coworkers from various cultural backgrounds. A culturally competent company is a psychologically healthy environment that embraces diversity in all forms.

As you know, cultural diversity in the workplace should be your priority as a manager or leader. It’s crucial for a harmonious work environment because:

• It creates a sense of belonging and thus an environment better for employee well-being.
• Exposure to fresh perspectives and different points of view enhances your workers’ creativity.
• When employees feel celebrated and embraced instead of tolerated, you get higher retention rates.
• A diverse workforce boosts productivity.
• Your company’s growth is likely to happen more quickly with cultural diversity.

The 4 components of cultural competence

Before diving into the best practices to make your workplace culturally competent, let's look at the primary elements of it. 

1. Awareness of your cultural worldview

Naturally, many workers already have a strong worldview. But it's likely filtered through unconscious biases or certain beliefs toward other cultures. Becoming aware of and successfully identifying these biases is the first step toward a more open-minded viewpoint.

2. Attitude toward cultural differences

As a result of those closely held beliefs, employees are likely to react to cultural differences in different ways. Again, these attitudes are born from the fact that workers come from various backgrounds. Training and educational programs can help broaden awareness and create better understanding between employees from different backgrounds. 

3. Deep knowledge of different cultural worldviews

The third component of cultural competence in the workplace is knowledge. Learning more about how people from certain backgrounds perceive workplace elements can help workers achieve more fruitful communication channels. Such elements include (but aren’t limited to) management style, problem-solving skills, employee engagement, etc. 

4. Cross-cultural skills

Finally, you can’t reach perfect cultural competence on the past three factors alone. Being able to communicate with respect, celebrate the success of others, and continually broaden your awareness helps create inclusive environments.

What are the benefits of having cultural competence in the workplace?

Cultural competence is a crucial part of how to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace, and that manifests in dozens of ways in the workplace. Here are some of the major areas. 

1. Increased appreciation for other perspectives

Working in an environment that embraces different beliefs allows workers to broaden their horizons. 

With that comes the benefit of appreciating other perspectives without prejudice. This level of open-mindedness can introduce new ideas to your business, which promises growth in unique ways.

2. Enhanced creativity and more diverse ideas

Since your teams will welcome fresh perspectives, there’ll be room for more creativity among them.

A healthy, inclusive workplace doesn’t shut down new ideas. Having a solid base of diverse ideas and thoughts can help you solve work-related issues in new and creative ways.

3. Improved listening and communication

With cultural competence, everyone is ready to listen to their coworkers without judgment. This minimizes the chances of misunderstanding and promotes harmonious interactions.

Healthy communication is linked to employees’ well-being, which is essential for a positive work environment.

4. Collaboration and teamwork

With improved listening and communication, it’s only natural to expect a boost in effective collaboration and top-notch teamwork. Being in a place with good team collaboration leads to better decision-making and employee engagement.

5. Job satisfaction and employee retention

An inclusive work environment yields higher employment engagement, which is directly associated with job satisfaction. With everyone in the workplace feeling appreciated and seen, you can help improve retention.

Turnover is disruptive and expensive for an organization. A study found that the cost of losing an employee is around 33% of their annual salary.

6. Meeting the needs of diverse customers and clients

A workplace that promotes diversity in every department is more capable of dealing with clients from different backgrounds. 

Having your customers feel like their needs are understood and met enhances the customer experience.