Getting Everyone on Board

Welcoming Culture

A sustainable welcoming culture promotes a working atmosphere in which skilled workers are willing to commit in the long term. Having mutual respect, being open, friendly and appreciating diversity are important core values ​​that are shared by the workforce, managers and the new arrivals.

As a manager, you can make a commitment to diversity and tolerance in the company philosophy, and communicate this internally and externally. This way you can also have a positive influence on how your company is perceived on the outside.

In order to promote openness and tolerance in the company, you can specifically train the intercultural skills of executives and the core workforce via seminars or lectures. Lesson content may include, for example, getting to know different working cultures and types of communication (facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice) in different countries. This way you can prevent misunderstandings and avoid conflict. Whether your workforce needs to be actively made aware of intercultural issues will largely depend on the relevant exposure in this area in your company to date.

You will find information on the development of intercultural skills and diversity in the company, especially for SMEs, on the Charter of Diversity and the IQ Network Hessen websites.

Integration Strategy

One option for getting the colleagues in your company on board from the beginning with the integration process of international specialists, is with an integration strategy. This is a concept with step by step guidelines on how new colleagues should be successfully integrated into the company. It should be developed in cooperation with the Staff Committee, and ideally all employees should have the opportunity to get involved.

The integration strategy is a document with specific ideas and practices for integrating international specialists, either as a uniform strategy or as an individual integration plan, specific to each international employee. The integration strategy includes internal and external aspects. The document can and should be revised on a regular basis, to include lessons learned in the integration process with the international specialists.

Recommendations for a welcoming culture in companies have been developed, amongst others, by the Competence Centre for Securing Skilled Workers (KOFA).