FEATURE ARTICLE: Tips For Working With International Employees

Article by Alan Headbloom
Published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal, March 2006

• Employees from other countries often feel excluded when conversations turn informal in the coffee break room. Make a concerted effort to include them. Try something like, “Yoko, Maria’s talking about Hallowe’en. She’s taking her kids around the neighborhood tonight and we were just talking about their costumes.” Or this: “Jian-wei, we were just talking about the big game on Saturday. Do you follow college football at all? Bob is a huge Michigan State fan.”

• Idioms and slang are hard to understand. If you think analytically about your speech, you’ll start to realize that “off the cuff” has nothing to do with shirt sleeves, and “my 2 cents worth” is unrelated to pennies. With a concerted effort, you can train yourself to translate these expressions. The first expression means “a quick, first response.” The second one means “in my opinion.” Think about this the next time you are “showing someone the ropes” or explaining the “ins and outs” of the job.

• If your co-worker has a foreign accent, be patient. With time, you can learn to adjust to a new speech pattern. Also, don’t be afraid to ask internationals to repeat if the topic is important. Simply nodding and pretending to understand is neither respectful nor helpful towards accurate communication. If your department has a training budget, find a training course designed for foreign-born workers at American companies.

• If you are a supervisor, don’t ask your international subordinates, “Do you understand?” The pressure is on them to say yes. Ask instead, “Okay, what tasks will you be taking on from our conversation?” After a group meeting, follow up by e-mailing a list of agreed-upon assignments to participants. This checklist is not only a written record of your expectations, but it also gives non-native speakers a chance to double-check what s/he understood in a private, unhurried moment.

• Understand that some cultures, for example those of East Asia, do not value forcefulness in group settings. Be sure to get everyone’s opinion when trying to reach consensus in a group. Silence doesn’t mean your Korean or Japanese co-worker agrees with a proposal. Nor does it mean s/he has no opinion or is a lazy participant. Try, “Gil-yong, what’s your opinion on this?” And then wait for him to complete his/her thought, without interrupting or putting words in his mouth. Remember, his English may be a bit slow, but his technical expertise is valuable; otherwise, you wouldn’t have hired him, right?

• Offer yourself or another member of your group to help your international colleague with questions about language and culture. If Katarina feels like there is an ally in her department, one who will give open, nonjudgmental feedback, you can make a huge difference in her comfort level at work. And a worker who feels at home in the workplace is a more productive member of the team.