Being culturally aware is vital in todays world

Employers from all corners of the globe have recognised the importance of intercultural skills and awareness, with 60% saying that being able to work effectively and productively with people from different cultural backgrounds is essential for the success of their orgranisation, as revealed by a new Ipsos Public Affairs poll.

The results came from surveying a whole range of employers from the public, private and non-profit sectors including organisations in the US, UK, UAE, Jordan, Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Indonesia. With an increasingly global workforce and the internationalisation of companies, effective and meaningful communication between cultures is more important than ever. Despite the demand for culturally aware employees, employers have expressed a lack of intercultural skills being developed in education. Increasing your skills in this area then could be the key to unlocking a whole range of employment opportunities, with research indicating that when applying to jobs, those who can demonstrate that they have intercultural skills in addition to formal qualifications would have an advantage. Further to this, employers recognise intercultural skills as keeping teams running effectively 40%, and building trust and relationships with clients 35%.

But what does being culturally aware mean? According to employers 44% consider it to be having the ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints, 35% this it’s demonstrating respect for others, and 28% view it as having knowledge of a foreign language.

Intercultural skills then could mean the difference between big business and losing that big client. The lack of cultural awareness can cost businesses dearly in today’s international business culture, so make sure your company and employees are aware of the culture factor when doing business and working together.

At Creative Word we are experts in culture and intercultural communication and fully understand that a knowledge of cultural awareness and diversity is essential to companies whether you’re a small company or an multi-national corporation. We offer a range or services from culture to language and everything in between, including cultural trainings, intercultural communication, translation and interpreting services. For more details check our courses pages.