4 Best Strategies for Managing a Multicultural Team


Be Aware of Holidays

If you’re from the U.S., you wouldn’t ordinarily expect to have to work on Thanksgiving or New Year’s Day. You should know which holidays around the world affect your team; whether or not they’re based in the same physical office as you. Don’t expect your remote employees to be available on important holidays like Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Chinese New Year, etc. If you’re all physically located in the same office, be willing to give them time off to be with their families or to fulfill their religious obligations. Don’t try to force them to work on what might be the equivalent of an important holiday for you.

Make the Effort to Understand

Employees will appreciate it if they see that you’re making an effort to understand them, even if you don’t change your management style. In a physical office, they might be in the minority, which can lead to feelings of isolation. Establishing a rapport helps; employees are more invested in staying where they feel that their perspective is valued. On our remote team, I make an effort to talk to my developers about what they do for fun, and I encourage them to take vacations and time off. We also sometimes play video games in our off-time together, and laugh at innocent things I know won’t offend them.

The marketplace for talent in business is global, even for small businesses. Not only do employees from other cultures add value through work, but their differences can also add important perspective that can help your business adapt to changing market conditions. While employees shouldn’t expect their employers from different cultures to bend over backwards, employers might find that a little understanding and rapport can go a long way towards making these employees feel welcome, increasing both their engagement and the likelihood that they’ll continue working for you.http://hubstaff.com/

–written by Jared Brown

Jared Brown is a freelance developer, Purdue grad and co-founder of Hubstaff, a time tracking tool for remote teams. Unlike other time trackers, Hubstaff makes it possible for managers to verify that their team is working efficiently. It has dozens of time tracking integrations to handle payroll, accounting and invoicing all from one tool.

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