Kendal Callison, director of International HR for Tableau Software, holds the Human Resource Management Professional (HRMP) and Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) credentials from the Institute. Recently, she shared her thoughts on navigating cultural differences in the workplace for an article, ‘Avoiding Culture Clashes in International Business,’ in the Winter issue of our Certified magazine. Below is a case study she shared with us about how she was able to create an effective working group from a team of people from across the globe and from multiple cultures.  

 

Lesson Learned: 

A Case Study in Creating Effective Communications for a Disperse, Multicultural Team 

By Kendal Callison, HRMP, GPHR 

Director of International HR 

Tableau Software 

 

I supported a large, multinational group with representatives from the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America, who would meet face-to-face once per quarter.  After a series of ineffective meetings, which most often digressed into conflicts on various meeting topics and attempts at related resolution, it became clear that there needed to be an intervention of some kind.   

 

I felt the ineffective meetings and not accomplishing team goals were symptoms of an underlying issue related to differences in culture and styles of verbal and non-verbal communication. I’ve learned in my years in the field of international HR that cultural differences can pose significant challenges to multinational corporations, as all nationalities reflect unique characteristics that must be understood (including deadlines and value placed on time), and knowing what to do is as important as knowing what not to do. 

 

In this particular situation, I wanted to: 

·explore the role of verbal and non-verbal communication in working with others across cultures 

·explore roadblocks to inter-cultural effectiveness 

·consider perspectives and skills that strengthen relationships 

 

I chose to focus on a teambuilding session and began with a comparison between:  

·North America  

o we grow up focusing on work experience (think of the young ages we were when we had lemonade stands, started babysitting, taking our first jobs) and gain experience in acting independently, planning, managing time and money 

o we have expectations to negotiate tasks, time and budget 

o we tend to be willing to take personal responsibility and to seek assistance as necessary 

·almost the entire rest of world 

o   stronger group and relationship orientation 

o   more formal and less outspoken 

o   slower to trust and less optimistic 

o   less confident and willing to take individual responsibility 

o   less tolerant of risk 

o   non-verbal communication is at least as important as verbal 

o   different amount of touching and eye contact 

o   distance between people while engaged in conversation 

o   motions and signals differ 

o   tone of voice 

I then focused on what business functions are influenced by culture… 

  

·planning, organizing, leading, decision-making, motivating, negotiating  

·meeting style 

·customer service 

·conflict resolution 

 

…as well as how communication preferences are influenced by culture: 

 

·direct – indirect 

·explicit – implicit 

·informal – formal 

·public – private 

·analytical – intuitive 

 

In doing this research, I learned and shared with the group a potential way to increase our team effectiveness could be to focus on three main areas during our quarterly meetings: 

 

·Listening (receiving messages from others) 

·Delivering (sending messages to others) 

o   Speak slowly, use textbook English without slangs, idioms or sarcasm  

o   Regularly summarize and confirm understanding 

o   Recognize non-verbal clues to understanding / perspectives 

·Email (written communication) 

o   keep it brief  

o   be mindful of participants whose first language is not English 

o   organize for clarity  

o   attach appropriate background information 

o   focus on reporting and confirming rather than debating and discussing 

o   don’t: 

§  use slang, idioms, sarcasm or make jokes 

§  expect an instant response 

I also identified effectiveness of delivery modes: 

 

·Email 

·voice mail 

·phone call 

·video conference 

·face-to-face 

 

On a scale of low to high as it relates to: 

 

·strength of relationship and rapport 

·importance of message  

·telling and reporting versus listening and discussing 

 

I took my findings to the team and asked that they implement my recommendations for how we communicated with one another. With this increased awareness and once the team started using the new tools to communicate more effectively and  respectfully, we found quick success because we were able to accomplish real work that was impactful to the business instead of constantly being mired in conflict and misunderstandings. 

Ever since Marissa Mayer announced that Yahoo employees must start working in the office, there have been endless stories about why she made the decision, what was behind it and whether telecommuting is better/worse than working in an office.

Holly Culhane, SPHR and contributing columnist to the Bakersfield Californian, recently wrote that every company and every circumstance produces a different answer to the question of whether employees should be allowed to work from home. In her article, she outlines the steps a company should take when determining whether to set up a telecommuting policy.

Read her article for great advice!

 

HR Certification Institute
 

What does human resources look like at a global hotel giant? And how is certification valued within it?

The HR Certification Institute recently visited certified professionals at the Arlington, VA.-based Interstate Hotels & Resorts, a global firm managing 370 hotels from the United States to China.

What we learned was that at Interstate Hotels & Resorts, human resources is leading the business.

At Interstate, the senior VP of Human Resources is also the assistant general counsel for the organization. Not only does this mean that HR is a critical member of the company’s steering committee, but it adds weight to the strong “culture of compliance” that human resources fosters and drives across the organization. At Interstate the HR team is also closely aligned with operations. This is critical for a company that believes its employees should receive the same level of service and support as the guests that stay in the hotels.

The organization, spread out over nine countries, has 26,000 employees, or Associates as they are called. And in fact, the company is growing so quickly overseas that the organization’s human resources team now has a global HR presence with representatives permanently based in China and India.

During our meeting, where we were lucky enough to visit with six certified professionals, we also learned how valuable certification is within the organization. Annie Dremstedt, SPHR, who oversees labor relations, says that a few years ago there was a push for certification within the human resources department and money was added into the budget to accommodate this professional development. She says that certification is valued and seen as a benefit within the organization. Even when hiring new staff, certification is a highly coveted credential.

Nigel Williams, PHR, SPHR, and director of Talent Management, says that human resources always has a seat at the table during growth discussions. He says that human resources is a key voice during acquisitions and takeovers and provides essential guidance when operational, legal and financial decisions are being discussed. He shares that having a HR presence during such critical decision-making processes lends credibility to the entire human resources function and builds a stronger, more cohesive company.

As Interstate shows, a diversity of perspectives when solving complex business problems can be a valuable asset to any organization and additionally, can reinforce the value and contributions of the human resources team.

How is human resources contributing to client satisfaction within your organization?

HR Certification Institute

These days, 90 percent of HR recruiters say they check candidates’ online profiles as part of the screening process, and some employers now consider lack of Facebook participation to be somewhat of a warning sign when they screen potential employees. In a recent Forbes.com story, Kashmir Hill writes: “Anecdotally, I’ve heard both job seekers and employers wonder aloud about what it means if a job candidate does not have a Facebook account. Does it mean they deactivated it because it was full of red flags? Are they hiding something?”

That is because, according to a related post on Mashable, it is considered “normal” to be on Facebook, and, therefore, “abnormal” not to have a page. With more than 955 million individuals and businesses on Facebook today, some employers question why a person does not have a profile… Was it deleted for offensive posts, or is the person trying to hide something?

Today, many psychologists say Facebook activity reflects a healthy social life. What does your HR department consider “healthy” when it comes to Facebook? Do your recruiters check online profiles, such as Facebook?

Let us know here….

HR Certification Institute

When you talk to most HR professionals and ask them to define what is HR, you are likely to get a response that is similar to “HR is about the people” or “HR is about the greatest asset of any organization which are the people”. When we asked Kojo Amissah, SPHR, HRMP, MBA from Ghana to define what HR is, he provided an answer you don’t hear every day from most HR professionals. “HR is about the business to the extent to which you can utilize people to obtain business goals. Kojo Amissah supported his answer by explaining the reason why businesses do focus on the people that work for them and why it is a priority to ensure employees are happy, satisfied and motivated. Simply put, “organizations want people engaged to help achieve business goals. That is why employee satisfaction is so important”.

He provided a great analogy that compares employees to the customers in which the organization serves. Many of us ensure that when we encounter our customers that we treat them with respect, kindness and before ending our engagement we make certain that all of their needs were met. Kojo asked us to think about why we take such care and spend so much energy on making our customers happy. Not a hard question at all. We want our customers to have a great experience so they will be repeat customers and tell all of their friends about the service and/or product we are offering coupled with the great experience they had.

Companies do the same. To ensure that they continue to attract the best talent, keep the best talent and have a reputation for doing so, organizations must work hard to make their employees happy. The end results impacts the business’ bottom line. Kojo believes that HR is put in place to ensure employees are happy and well engaged so in turn they will do more for the company. He suggests that HR leaders combine satisfaction with performance. It will allow them to better measure success. When linking HR to people alone it is almost impossible to measure performance but linking the people with business goals will provide HR with a more tangible gauge.

What do you think about Kojo’s perspective and definition of HR? Let us know how you define HR and how you believe your role in the organization ties to business goals?

HR Certification Institute

HR professionals travel back in time to talk to their younger HR self. Dr. Cristina de-Mello-e-Souza Wildermuth also known as Dr. Cris, wrote an insightful article in the June issue of Certified which stemmed from a question she posed to her LinkedIn HR group, Linked: HR. What advice would you give your younger HR? Dr. Cris complies the responses from HR professionals who had some great advice for their younger and less experience self as well as those new HR professionals entering the workforce.

The article includes tips such as balancing work and life, connect to others, find a mentor, follow you passion, have courage and keep on learning. Each advice is accompanied by lessons learned. This provided a great foundation for where the advice stemmed from. The lessons were a great touch for identifying why the advice given is so important to ensure a successful HR career.

Anyone entering the HR field or is still diligently working to achieve their career goals, I wish I knew: HR professionals give advice to their younger self is a great read. You can obtain an electronic or request a copy to be mailed to you by visiting www.hrci.org/certified. Enjoy and begin implementing advice from your HR peers who have been there and done that.

HR Certification Institute

Welcome to the launch of our new blog, 1:1. Over the past year, the HR Certification Institute has had great opportunities to connect and talk with certified HR professional from all walks of life, working in an array of industries and contributing their HR know how in many different sectors of the profession. It has been more than astonishing to learn and hear about all the game changing and revolutionary impacts our certificants are making. In addition, we have learned a great deal about some of the major challenges facing HR today and the innovative solutions for change and growth implemented by HR professionals and the companies that support.

This blog is a platform used to share all that we have been hearing from HR professionals like you. We could not keep this valuable information to ourselves. We are certain that you will not only be able to increase your knowledge and gain incredible insight by connecting with your HR peers through this blog, but you will also find a space to allow your voice to be heard.

1:1 is a space for you to exchange ideas, talk through your concerns and reinforce the influential powers of HR. Join us as we meet, learn from one another and share top of mind topics that are evolving the face of HR and the professionals that define its impact on the business.