Any company looking to function in an international market needs to be sensitive about the cultural and family needs of their community. Opening a business in a new country and becoming culturally sensitive to the global business society means being ready to adapt your practices based on the customs and personal practices of those you work for and with. Not only do you have to prepare for any new cultures you do business with, it’s also important to remember that the world has become a great melting pot and where you meet someone does not dictate what their culture will be.
What this means for both local and international businesses is that the best way to stay competitive is to have a flexible set of HR policies capable of adapting to any culture. This is especially important for companies looking to hire top talent in a highly contested international job marketplace. Top talent is scarce and they’re often choosing to work for the companies with the more accommodating packages to offer.
Holiday Leave
With the holidays so recently behind us, most people are starting to rethink their current employment package. All too often, businesses will set a holiday leave system that makes sense to the founders but may not be accommodating for all family traditions and situations. It’s considered incredibly narrow-minded these days to offer days off for Christmas and Easter without considering the holy days of other religions for employees who don’t share the majority’s religious beliefs or culture. Instead, be open about the root-culture of the founder and company, then make sure your HR policies are welcoming to all religions and needs for respected time off.
The best way to do this is to determine how many holiday days you’re willing to provide and let each employee build their own holiday calendar that the company will do their best to respect, understanding that each of these days has personal significance and will probably be spent with family. This also allows parents and less-religious employees to optimize their yearly schedules for things like matching their children’s school calendars to be home at the same time.
From time with the kids to respecting alternate religious holidays, even those not in mid-winter, this ability to choose and personalize a holiday schedule is both unique and incredibly empowering for top talent in the global hiring market.
Days Off
Another major sticking point is days off. If your employees can be expected to work weekends, which days they take off can have a personal significance. It’s a good policy to respect your employee’s religious believes pertaining to Sundays or Sabbaths and, with a little policy-balancing, you can extend the same courtesy even to your less religious employees. Let the staff each choose one day of the week that you won’t call them in. Most will choose their holy day or a weekend day, but the ability to choose is very persuasive when hiring new talent.
Respecting Religious Restrictions
Another interesting way to make your workplace much more welcoming to international and multi-cultural employees is to go out of your way to respect the annual religious restrictions. Practices like Lent and Ramadan ask believers to give up something for a period of time. Other restrictions include religious dietary restrictions, prohibitions against certain activities like drinking, and sometimes even wearing certain colors during a time of the year. By showing support for these practices and making them easier on religious followers, you can make a truly culturally welcoming workplace.
An example of this might be providing Suhoor (a hearty pre-dawn breakfast) and plenty of fresh water during Ramadan, having Kosher and Halal meal options for company-catered lunches, and having no-meat options on Fridays.
Keeping it Balanced
Finally, the key to a universally rewarding set of international HR policies is to make sure everything is balanced. While everyone can choose their own holiday days, make sure they all have the same number of days to work with. Let the staff each choose one weekday to be their special no-call day, and try not to favor one cultural set of policies over another where possible. Rather than creating a bland one-size-fits-all policy, a culturally flexible HR design allows your staff to be vibrant, unique, and equal and there’s nothing more appealing to international talent than the ability to be yourself among multi-cultural peers.
The Network Editorial Team
