Intercultural training is increasingly being implemented across global organizations as a key component to their global mobility programs — and for good reason. When employees relocate on assignment, often the most significant change arises from being immersed in a new culture.

Intercultural training can take the form of sensitivity training, bridging language barriers, and demystifying biases and stereotypes, and can cover anything from the varying ways in which cultures conduct business, to the role of the cultural lens in our personal and professional lives. Understanding diverse cultural norms and behaviors, both professional and personally, can hugely enhance performance and international projects or assignments, and brings a host of benefits to the learner and the business. Intercultural training can help employees become culturally agile in a global business environment.

Here, we discuss four ways in which intercultural training can benefit employees and the business.

4 Benefits of Intercultural Training

1. A deeper cultural understanding.

Intercultural training helps employees understand the underlying drivers of various cultural behaviors, going beyond surface-level knowledge. While different customs are useful to know, they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fully understanding how to integrate oneself into another culture effectively, and to become more culturally aware within the workplace. Intercultural training aims to instead delve deeper into why different cultures exhibit different behaviors, problem-solving styles and ideologies. It’s important to understand how a culture works, as well as the social structures that underpin it. Effective cultural training programs focus on these key aspects to allow successful assimilation and cultural understanding within employees’ personal and professional circles.

2. Global workplace relevance.

Intercultural training doesn’t only benefit employees working internationally, it’s a huge part of general learning and development (L&D) in the workplace. With the benefits of technology and the ability to jump on a video call with anyone around the world, workplaces have now expanded to accommodate different cultures within a team. Most of us work in multicultural environments to some extent, and elements of culture will always integrate into our personal and professional lives, whether at home or abroad. Taking into account that some cultures may be more direct in their communication, for example, or recognizing different cultural worldviews, can also be beneficial to a positive work environment and even inspire creativity and drive innovation.  An awareness of other cultures can improve the way in which we conduct business, so it’s important to adapt to different ways in which people work in order to cultivate respectful relationships in the workplace.

3. Increased ROI.

There are misconceptions that intercultural training isn’t worth the time or budget. However, arguably the most costly price to pay is for compromised performance resulting from a lack of sufficient intercultural training. If an employee does not have the right tools to navigate new ways of working, then productivity and overall performance hangs in the balance. For example, if an assignee from the U.S., where business is often conducted in a transactional manner, has been relocated to manage a team in Japan, where business is built on relationships and hierarchy, then this lack of understanding can cause big problems. This also rings true for multicultural workplaces; for example, an employee from China may share constructive feedback privately to “save face” and remain respectful, as opposed to an employee from the U.K., who may share openly share constructive feedback in a group setting. It’s important to be mindful of these cultural differences to maximize success and productivity, both of which lead to increased return on investment (ROI).

4. Improved employee well-being.

Relocation overseas can be stressful for employees, and even managing basic needs like arranging accommodations, navigating public transport and figuring out where to buy groceries can be mentally taxing. It can take a long time to settle into this new environment, make friends and reconnect with hobbies. However, intercultural training can ease some of these common pressures, helping employees to focus on themselves and take away from the extra stress of having to navigate new and unfamiliar social behaviors. Similarly, in a multicultural workplace, intercultural training can cultivate an atmosphere of tolerance and respect among colleagues, helping staff to feel comfortable, at ease and accepted at work. Thus, intercultural training can help improve employee well-being and support a happier, more productive workplace.

Intercultural training at its core is about understanding, awareness and appreciation of the varying cultural behaviors across the world — but it doesn’t end with global relocation.

You can’t escape multicultural considerations. As the world of business becomes increasingly global, the benefits of upskilling your team with intercultural training will only increase in the future.