Employer Branding Targeting Cultural Differences
During my studies in Sociology I was always highly interested in topics such as globalization, cultural differences, cultural behavioural traits, decision-making and more. After moving here to the Netherlands, I was for the first time facing a real multicultural organisational environment, in my own skin. I was amazed and again fascinated by these ‘university-times’ topics together hand to hand with the influence of the technology.
In today’s ever-shifting candidate-driven world together with the predicted coming workforce crisis, it is and will be more and more difficult to attract new and great talent.
So, what do companies need to do to be successful?
Globalization has definitely changed:
· the way business operates
· the way cultural diversity in teams is managed
· how tools, products and services are adapted to meet specific needs of different cultures
There are many globally successful brands (Uber, CocaCola, KFC, Starbucks etc.) providing local “culture tailored” services or products. And therefore being ‘glocal’ and adapting your employer brand to foreign talent markets would also be a smart move especially when you are trying to attract talent from all around the world. I believe that it is or would be one of the key factors behind globally successful brands in the future and should be considered when defining potential talent.
By “cultural tailoring” I mean using language, context, content, symbols, non-verbal cues, visual design and a psychological persuasion principle to facilitate your potential talents and successfully engage with your targeted online talent audience. Simply said: promoting your “Employer Brand” with integrity.
But does a cultural factor influence an audience’s decision-making process? “…to put it very simply, diversity sells…” (R. Robertson, sociologist)
Many of you, reading this, are still not convinced, probably thinking that decision-making is clearly rational and it doesn’t have anything to do with the cultures people come from. There are many studies and theories showing that whether you are realizing it or not, your culture determines your behaviors, thoughts, and even your feelings. The language you speak and intonation you use, the social norms and values you respect, the attitudes you express, beliefs you hold, preferences you have or responses you give.
As a company and Employer Brand, the more insight you gain in regard to the cultural traits of your target audience, the better chance of exposure you will have within that talent marketplace.
When you’re “culture tailoring” your employer brand, career website or recruitment marketing you should consider things like:
· product, service, service name or job title
· local color sensitivities (“if you search for Chinese websites, for example, you’ll see that many of them favour the colour red, the dominant colour in the national flag which is also believed to bring good luck”)
· time zones you’re operating in
· gender roles, currency and the use of geographic examples that are relatable to the talent
· language and quality of translation and the accuracy of stylistic elements
· layout and a visual interface of your career website
· symbols, which serve as metaphors that denote actions for the talent
· content and how you structure it; especially given that cultures vary in terms of the amount of context they need to understand a given message.
A useful model is introduced by anthropologist Edward Hall, who suggested that cultures can be compared based on their communication styles:
Personally, my favourite approach is by Dutch psychologist Professor Hofstede and his book Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (1991). Hofstede identified six key psychological dimensions with patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour from childhood and how it manifests. Of course, due to technology these traits might change, but studies and authors are mentioning that our deeply embedded cultural characteristics will continue to act as a foundation for our behaviours and values, even in our globally connected world.
The lesson here is: “whether on- or offline, if you want your business to succeed, you need to develop a culture-specific, evidence-based set of guidelines as part of your design and marketing strategy. If you can do so successfully, this will empower you to establish a desirable brand image and user experience for all of all your clients, wherever they may be.”
Below you can see some of the recommended literature I’ve read and used. I’m still diving into these topics, so let’s see what my next blog will bring. If you have any comments, feedback, advice, tips or tricks, please don’t hesitate to contact me :-)
Literature:
· Erin Meyerm (2014) The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
· N. Nahai (2017) Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion
· R. Robertson (1995)’Glocalization: Time-space and homogeneity-heterogeneity’, Global Modernities
· G. Hofstede (2010) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind
· E. T. Hall (2000) ‘Context and meaning’, Intercultural Communication
· D. Cyr and H. Trevor-Smith (2004) ‘Localization of Web design: An empirical com- parison of German, Japanese, and United States Web site characteristics’, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (13)
· W. Barber and A. Badre (1998) ‘Culturability: The merging of culture and usability’, in Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Human Factors and the Web
• M. S. Roth (1995) ‘Effects of global market conditions on brand image customization and brand performance’, Journal of Advertising
• L. Beamer and I. I. Varner (2001) Intercultural Communication in the Global Workplace.
