IDear Workforce-I Why Recruit From Other Cultures

Q

Here are a few reasons why corporations seek employees from other cultures:

1) Generally speaking, people from one culture tend to be more similar to other people from that culture than to people from a different culture. Whew, a mouthful. Anyhow, the if you have only people from one culture in your corporation, the result is you could have a lot of people who think alike.

2) When you have a multi-lingual staff, it can be easier to communicate with customers and vendors of various cultures and languages. Cultural knowledge can also help when doing business globally.

3) It can be good media relations. For example, say a corporation talks about diversity, but everyone on the top management is white. The media (perhaps rightfully so) might look at that corporation with a skeptical eye.

4) It can be good customer relations — customers sometimes prefer interacting with a multicultural staff. Example: A Muslim customer calls a food company to inquire about what a product is made from. Sometimes it helps to be able to speak to someone at that food company familiar in that culture.

5) It deepens the pool of potential hires.

6) It can make the workplace more interesting.

SOURCE: Todd Raphael, Online Editor for Workforce, April 28, 2000.

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