A workplace that champions cultural inclusion is one where an environment of support, respect and high level of acceptance exists among colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds. This is a recognition of people’s cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as the distinct contributions and perspectives that individuals bring to the table as a result of this.
In an increasingly globalised world, it is no surprise that teams are also rapidly becoming multicultural. Of course, there are some challenges to leading high-performance multicultural teams including managing multiple polarities, circumventing language barriers or balancing out different working styles rooted in cultural specifics.
But, when teams take steps to implement cultural inclusion, they also see massive benefits to performance levels for individual employees, and collective successes and outputs.
Benefits to cultural inclusion
- Collaboration and engagement: Culturally inclusive workplaces build a sense of belonging among employees which is a very important aspect of engagement in teams. When people feel invested, they are more open to collaboration, better outputs and cohesion.
- Innovation and creativity: Different perspectives and experiences tend to spur innovation and make teams come up with creative solutions. This can lead to higher innovation revenues. It also creates unique opportunities for gaining a competitive edge.
- Recruitment and retention: Removing discriminatory practices from the recruitment process gives companies access to a wider pool of qualified candidates. However, it is not enough to hire people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Employees need to feel safe and valued, which is enabled by inclusive policies and behaviours that support multiculturalism and diversity.
- Profitability: Organisations with inclusive workplaces often see a positive impact on their bottom line. One important factor behind this is that a culturally diverse workplace tends to attract better skilled employees and holistically-rounded teams who can prove efficient in complex problem-solving and better productivity and revenue.
Cultural inclusion may be the invisible barrier to creating the high-powered performance culture that you are envisioning. Make it a priority today with internationally benchmarked policies, inclusion studies and training interventions. Write to us at hello@serein.in today.