Creating conditions in the company

In order to bind foreign employees to your company in the long term and create trust, the efforts of all those involved are required. We are happy to support you in developing strategies for attracting and retaining foreign employees and specialists and in establishing a lively welcoming culture in your company.

Welcoming culture in the company

If your corporate culture is also a welcoming culture, you will be an attractive employer for skilled workers from abroad.

What does a welcoming culture mean? You create the framework conditions to support your foreign employees in their integration into the company and society. Your measures are not only aimed at newly recruited international specialists, but also at existing employees. After all, a welcoming culture can only be implemented if everyone in the company is actively involved. Give your existing team the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns and involve long-term employees in the onboarding process.

Welcoming new employees properly creates the basis for cooperation. A foreign specialist not only chooses a new employer, but also a new country, a new society and a new culture. Whether they feel welcomed and accepted as people is a decisive factor in ensuring that skilled workers stay.

Expanding the welcoming culture in your company means seeing the employment of skilled workers from abroad as an enriching added value, understanding the integration of new employees as an opportunity from which everyone can benefit, and promoting these values both internally and externally.

The development of a welcoming culture must be tailored to your company's specific situation. To do this, select measures that suit your company. However, there are a few success factors when establishing a welcoming culture that you should take into account in your individual planning and implementation. These include above all

Sensitizing and training your managers
preparing your existing staff for the integration of people with a different cultural background
a general openness to dealing productively with cultural diversity

Before recruiting specialists from abroad, it is advantageous to carry out an open analysis of your current company situation. This analysis will help you to identify risks and avoid unnecessary costs. It is worth involving and clarifying questions and concerns of the existing team in advance. In larger companies, it is best to commission a project group consisting of representatives from management, the HR department, the specialist departments with personnel requirements and, if necessary, the employee representatives.

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SELF-ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST

An important part of a good welcoming culture is also the comprehensive topic of "onboarding", the "onboarding" of new employees.

“We know that the success of a region depends on the people who shape it.” Theresa Bleikamp | Recruiting & personnel marketing HELIOS Klinikum Aue

"Successful and sustainable integration of foreign specialists is an essential part of our recruiting strategy. We know that the success of a region depends on the people who shape it - and that these people can come from all over the world. We are delighted to be working with the Welcome Center Erzgebirge to create a strong, diverse and sustainable community in our region."

Creating intercultural competence in the existing team

Intercultural competence is the ability to deal respectfully with people from other cultures, to accept differences and to find common ground. It is an indispensable basis for the international success of a company.

The prerequisites for successful cooperation in international teams are empathy, understanding and cultural sensitivity. Knowledge of other cultures' ways of thinking and acting is indispensable. You can expand the skills of your workforce in intercultural workshops or training courses. Knowledge about the different values of the countries and cultures of this world is imparted and questions about how to deal constructively with cultural differences are clarified.

If your workforce has or acquires a high level of intercultural competence, the integration of employees with a migration background can be more successful and sustainable.

You are welcome to use our various events and offers to develop or expand your intercultural competence or contact us. We will be happy to name intercultural experts for individual training courses.

Intercultural competence - the most important topics

Understanding of time

Different cultures have different views on the subject of time. In monochronic cultures (e.g. Central and Northern Europe), time is usually experienced as measurable and linear. The motto "time is money" applies, whereby efficiency and punctuality are important. In polychronic cultures (e.g. Southern Europe, Arabic cultural area), time is perceived more as a synchronous cycle. The quality of interpersonal relationships is more important than strict time management. Networking and small talk are particularly important, while structured schedules and deadlines are dealt with more flexibly.

Physical contact, gestures & facial expressions

While Italians often gesticulate animatedly with their hands, expressive body language tends to be avoided in other countries. While kissing on the cheek is common in some cultures as a greeting, the Japanese prefer a slight bow. In Western cultures, direct eye contact is often seen as a sign of openness. In Asian countries, eye contact that is too intense can be perceived as challenging. When we give a thumbs up in Germany, we usually want to show that everything is okay. In parts of Australia, Africa and Russia, on the other hand, this gesture is considered an insult. If you know the intercultural differences, you can avoid misunderstandings and communication problems.

Building and maintaining relationships

In people- and relationship-oriented cultures, such as in China and the Arab world, building a personal relationship is very important for working together. Business relationships are based on personal trust. Building relationships requires a lot of time and attention. In fact-oriented cultures (e.g. Germany, USA), the focus is primarily on the tasks, the topic and the goal orientation.

Hierarchy and employee management

In simple terms, there are two different styles worldwide: the hierarchy-oriented style and the style with the flattest possible hierarchies. Countries that tend to have flat hierarchies include Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Canada and, to a lesser extent, the USA and Germany. What counts here is what you can do and not who you are. In hierarchical cultures, on the other hand, it is taken for granted that certain people are placed above others. Independent work is often not particularly pronounced here and employees wait for explicit work instructions from their superiors. In India, for example, hierarchy is extremely important. Dealing with lower-ranking people can often be done in harsh tones.

Working and management styles

In Germany, a cooperative management style usually prevails: the management explains the goal and the employees follow independently without everything having to be constantly monitored. In other countries such as Russia, on the other hand, employees are often used to a strict structure, like in the army. They want specific instructions and strict controls are required. If you want to lead international teams, you should change your leadership behavior to "culturally adapted" and lead according to the situation so that each employee receives the appropriate guidance and support.

Communication

The range of communication in different cultures varies between "low context" (messages are expressed very directly) and "high context" (messages tend to be embedded in larger contexts and have to be deciphered "between the lines"). Germans, for example, communicate extremely directly, whereas the Japanese, for example, are extremely coded.

Behavior while eating

A few special features as an example: In the Arab world, it is polite to eat a lot. If you are really full, you should refuse three times with thanks, but with emphasis. In China, it is perfectly acceptable to eat loudly; smacking your lips is normal here. In Brazil, the cutlery order is exactly the opposite of that in Germany. The food is cut first, then the knife is put aside and the bite-sized pieces are eaten. If you are aware of cultural differences, you can also ensure a good atmosphere at the table.

Holidays and religious specialties

It is valuable to keep international holidays in mind when interacting with colleagues or employees from other cultures. Taking them into account when planning annual leave is very helpful for good work organization with an international workforce.

Minimize language barriers

If German is your company language, it is particularly advisable to support your international specialists in learning German. Recognizing communication barriers for employees with German as a second language is very important. These can be formal texts, for example, which require a lot of background knowledge, or informal conversations with rapid changes of subject, unclear pronunciation or dialect.

If you remove these hurdles in a targeted manner, your foreign employees can familiarize themselves more quickly, the quality of work is ensured and fluctuation can be reduced.

Information on this topic can be obtained from the "Fachstelle Berufsbezogenes Deutsch" or the "Netzwerk Unternehmen integrieren Flüchtlinge

Tips for minimizing language barriers

Language flyer for technical terms in different languages

Warning and information signs in various languages

Visualize work steps with pictograms

Use simple and correct language

Use short sentences with precise information

Implement mentoring system

To make it easier for your new employees to join the company, sponsor or mentor systems are helpful. Here, your new employee is assigned a person who is familiar with the company processes for a certain period of time.

The aim of such a program is to reduce the induction period, support social and personal integration and reduce cultural misunderstandings and conflicts. Mentors are not responsible for the technical induction of the new employee. Instead, they should provide information about the processes in the company and the prevailing etiquette. They act as an intermediary between the new employee and colleagues from their own or other departments. With a successful mentoring system, your new employee can internalize the corporate culture more quickly and develop a strong bond with the company.

The Welcome Center Erzgebirge offers you support in training welcome-coaches. You can find more information on mentor training in our calendar of events.