This Power Point presentation was given by Meghann Jones, Research Director, Ipsos Public Affairs, at the session 'Intercultural skills in the workplace: New research on employer needs' at the 2013 NAFSA Annual Conference on Wednesday, 29 May.

1. Culture at Work: Skills For The Global
Workplace
Meghann Jones
Ipsos Public Affairs
29th May 2013

2. 2
Globalized world,
new economies
emerging
Changing
workplace:
international and
multi-cultural
Necessary to
work across
international
borders and in
multi-cultural
teams
Context to the research
What are the skills needed to do this?

3. 3
What did we do?

4. 4
o Large companies and organizations
o Decision makers
o Responsible for recruitment and skills development strategy
Survey of employers in nine countries

5. 5
The countries were...
United States
Brazil
United Kingdom
South Africa
India
Jordan
United Arab
Emirates
Indonesia
China

6. 6
Types of organizations included
Sample size • n=367 (appx. n=40 per country)
Organization Type: • 54% Private Sector
• 23% Public Sector
• 23% NGO/Charity/3rd Sector
Private Sector
Types:
• Mix of Manufacturing, Finance, Construction, Retail Trade,
Professional Services, Wholesale, Transportation, Health
care, etc.
Public/NGO Sector
Types:
• Mix of Health, Education, Home Affairs, International
Development, etc.

7. 7
Two-thirds interact frequently with those overseas...
% organizations where English is spoken day-to-day
... and English is used extensively day-to-day

8. 8
What did we find?

9. The top business challenge is finding qualified employees
% of employers reporting business challenge
9
FINDING
QUALIFIED
CANDIDATES
(29%)
GOVERNMENT
REGULATION
(23%)
COMPETING
GLOBALLY
(20%)

10. Top HR challenge is finding and retaining employees
% of employers reporting HR challenge
10
Finding candidates with right formal qualifications
Retaining good employees
Finding candidates with good communication skills
Training employees on new processes
Finding candidates who understand the market
Finding candidates with good foreign language skills

11. When we asked employers about “intercultural skills” specifically…
11

12. 12
And different types of skills are needed for different job types
Internal facing employees need basic communication skills
• Respect, collaboration, flexibility, time management
External facing employees need skills beyond the basic skills
• Foreign language skills, ability to adjust communication to suit cultural contexts
Public sector employees require respectfulness and understanding of
cultural contexts
• Respect, understand cultural contexts, flexibility, leadership
Private sector employees need creativity and trustworthiness as well as
respectfulness
• Trustworthy, flexibility, collaborative, creative

13. 13
Importance of intercultural skills to organization (by country, ranked by very important)
And they are VERY important to most

14. What do intercultural skills bring to an organization?
14
• Keep teams running efficiently
• Build trust with clients
• Bringing on new clients
• Able to work with diverse colleagues
• Good for reputation
• Communicate with overseas partners
40%
35%
33%
29%
28%
24%
Top Business Benefits of Intercultural Skills

15. 15
And there are risks to not having them
• Conflict within teams
• Reputation damage
• Loss of clients
• Cultural insensitivity to clients or partners
30%
27%
27%
21%
Top Business Risks of Not Having Intercultural Skills

16. 16
However, many employers are not screening for intercultural skills
% of employers who screen for intercultural skills during the recruitment process (by country)

17. 17
Though there are indicators that demonstrate intercultural skills in candidates

18. 80%
68%
49%
33%
11%
Demonstrating
respect
Flexibility Open to new ideas
and ways of thinking
Adjusts
communications to
fit different cultural
contexts
Communication in
other languages
US
71% 70%
61%
49%
43%
Demonstrating
respect
Flexibility Open to new ideas
and waysof thinking
Adjusts
communicationsto
fitdifferentcultural
contexts
Communication in
other languages
18
The extent to which intercultural skills are present in candidates varies
Specific intercultural skills seen in candidates in the application / interview process

19. 19
The role of education in
developing intercultural
skills in the workforce

20. 20
On the job development is important, but education must play a role
% of employers who believe education in their country enables job candidates
to meet the intercultural needs (by country)
Average = 35%

21. 21
Teaching communication skills was #1 suggestion for higher education
Contributions That Education Can Make To Improve Intercultural Skills

22. 22
In summary…

23. 23
1. The workplace is becoming more globalized
Global workplace, significant challenges, skills gap
2. Employers facing significant challenges
3. Employers looking for a number of skills beyond formal qualifications
4. In particular, communication and intercultural skills are very important
5. Employers are not seeing job candidates with adequate communication and intercultural
skills
6. Education has a key role to play in developing these skills in the future workforce

24. Thank you!
Meghann.Jones@ipsos.com