SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER - NEIL PAYNE
The
British Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced that the
UK will continue to take part in the Erasmus student exchange programme until
at least the end of 2020, despite the fact that the country is leaving the European Union.
Although this is great news for the
short-term, it is also important to reflect upon the long-term
consequences that leaving the programme could have.
Not only will leaving Erasmus cut off
access for British students wanting to study abroad, it will also deny
British businesses the chance to host, learn and benefit from foreign students.
The benefits of sending British students
abroad is generally understood, accepted and supported; spending time abroad
gives you language and cultural skills as well as developing confidence and
other important transferable life skills.
The same positive case however is
rarely made for those going the other way (i.e. foreign students coming into
the UK).
Through sharing a real and personal
experience of working with Erasmus students I would like to highlight what we
could be potentially missing as a nation, as businesses and as people.
A
Case Study in Culture and Customer Service
The company in question was based in a
part of the UK which is both monocultural and monolingual. Exposure to
difference, yet alone diversity, was rare.
A good distance from any university
and with a local workforce offering relatively low-level manual skills, our
recruitment pool was limited. We overcame the skills gaps ourselves using
internal training, coaching and mentoring.
Despite great progress, one area in
which the company struggled was in dealing with the 40% to 45% of our enquiries,
custom, clients and business that came from outside of the UK. Export is
important to us - very important.
A poorly worded email in English, a
heavy accent on the phone, or a seemingly rude line of questioning, and our staff
would misunderstand, misrepresent and ultimately lose us business.
Despite support and even
cross-cultural training, there was always something missing; it did not come naturally
and poor decisions led to missed opportunities.
That is until we signed up to the
Erasmus exchange programme.
Over the years we hosted people from
France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and many more. Within 6 months our
staff were changing; within a few years some were transformed.
So
how did it impact the staff?
Confidence - a clear change over the months and
years was in showing confidence. Our European visitors brought with them a real
sense of pride in what they did and how they did it; this rubbed off on the
whole company. Rather than feeling controlled by circumstances and forces, they
now took active control of circumstances through purposefully managing
conversations, negotiations and relationships.
Communication
Skills - once upon a
time, if the team received a call from Russia, China, India or even South Africa
our person on the phone would be flapping. Not only were they unable to understand
English spoken in a slightly different way but the way they dealt with the
calls could border on rude. Literally months after spending time with the
interns this all started to change. They could understand accents, pick out
words to provide clues to meanings, ask the right questions in the correct way
and think through procedures to ensure everyone was on the same page.
Cultural
Awareness - as our exchange
students began to settle in and develop relationships with our staff both in
and out of business, there was a subtle change over the coming years in terms
of their approach to difference and embracing change. A most striking example for
me was the move from a very British lunchtime routine of everyone disappearing
to eat a sandwich, some crisps and get away from colleagues for 60 minutes, to
one where they would sit down at a table and have lunch together. If it were
not for the exchange students religiously doing this every day and
demonstrating that there is another way of going about lunch, this would not
have happened. This alone was a cultural revolution, in our office anyway.
Customer
Service - finally, being
able to understand, identify with, relate to and communicate clearly with
people helps you understand better how to see to their needs and as a business
provide great customer service. An organic side effect of the exchange
programme was in our team being able to think differently, understand what
makes people from other countries tick, how to manage tricky conversations and
ultimately how to provide customer service in a way that resonated with the
client. Can we really afford to lose these
benefits?
Neil
Payne is an expert in cross cultural training with Commisceo Global a consultancy that
specialises in helping companies navigate cultural differences when operating
abroad. With a background in language teaching, translation and training he is
also an expert in Middle Eastern politics and Islam.