Veronica hired a number of international MBA graduates from strong U.S. schools. Her company's global high potential program spent good money to recruit just these kinds of employees because of their cultural competence. But all is not well. Retention rates are terrible and these culturally competent people are flaming out or getting cherry picked.
Then there's Esteban, a Filipino who joined a year ago. His department is up in arms and the department manager wants to fire him. Apparently he takes an hour and a half nap every day.
Discussion
First Veronica needs to determine what the problem is. Are there other issues here and the naps are just the most obvious difference that's bugging people?
She needs to talk to Esteban's manager. Talk to anybody who has contact with this guy and can talk confidentially about him: his mentor, the HR manager, the director of the global high potential program.
Then examine what resources are available. Perhaps an external consulting group who can provide cultural competency training. In this example, there's confusion specifically about the Filipino culture. It's a common practice in the Philippines, even in high profile global organizations, to take a siesta in the middle of the day. Determine if there are cultural competency issues present — it may not be the only component of the problem, or as obvious as the tradition of siesta. In this case study, the employee also had some habits which were of concern, but the naps were the thing colleague seized upon.
Communicate to Esteban those things that are part of your 'local' corporate culture. Look to do this from the start with all new hires. Explain and give coaching to everyone about the things that are part of your business' culture.
Follow these steps:
Identify the problem.
Identify who can give you answers.
Look for resources and stay in communication.
Don't make assumptions about the cultural competency of your employees, even if they come from abroad or are multilingual.
back to top
