Explore Our Intercultural Solutions
Supporting Successful Global Transitions with Expert Intercultural Services
Don’t just move your employees, help them thrive with the skills and knowledge they need to feel at home in the cultures where they work and live. Intercultural services help employees and families successfully adapt to new cultures at work and in daily life through practical, learner-friendly cultural training and resources.
How do we help relocating employees adapt to their new culture and gain cultural fluency? Through insightful one-on-one in-person training with our diverse group of Intercultural Training Consultants coupled with online culture guides and culture self-assessment tools. We offer opportunities for self-reflection, answer questions, address concerns, and provide assignees with the practical cross-cultural skills they need for a successful adjustment to home and work-life culture.
Why Intercultural Training?
Intercultural readiness is a company’s best hedge against risk on global assignments. The assignee sent to build a business, train a sales team, or implement new technology has a much greater chance of success if they have an understanding of - and some ability to adapt to - the local culture.
Your employees also want to know their well-being is considered. The number one reason your highly valued talent returns home early from an overseas assignment is the struggle they or their family have in settling in to their new environment. Providing them with intercultural training demonstrates that your company cares about their mental well-being, their ability to meet new people and feel welcomed in their new destination, and their ability to grow as a professional and learn new skills. Protect your investment, ensure your outcomes, and develop your talent with the assurance that personalized cultural training provides.
Learners Come with Different Needs
We know employees have different questions and needs – we’ve supported thousands of cultural trainings for corporate employers over the past ten years. Most clients opt for one-day or two-day training to provide their team with engagement and personalized responses to specific questions and real life scenarios to build cultural confidence. Other companies opt for online, self-paced training for their employees. All of our intercultural training solutions draw on the experience of a global network of certified intercultural training consultants and detailed culture guides for over 100 countries, from Azerbaijan to Zambia.
Is your employee’s child nervous about the move and fitting in at school? We also offer specialized training for children to help them feel at ease.
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Understanding Our Intercultural Services Offerings
Depending on their familiarity with the destination culture, the length of assignment, and whether they are moving alone or with others, your employees have options for the best intercultural solution for their needs and your budget.
The solution preferred by the majority of our global mobility clients is our fully facilitated Intercultural Training service. Dwellworks Intercultural Training includes customized live training (in person or virtually) with an Intercultural Training Consultant and access to our online tools and resources. Trainings are typically booked for either 1 or 2 days and can be arranged with a split between departure and arrival locations, or, more commonly, after arrival and a period of immediate adjustment to the new country. Intercultural Training covers both the 12 Dimensions that define a country’s culture, as well as an expert overview of relevant and relatable topics including: Cultural Norms and Values; Public and Private Entertaining; Dress and Appearance Norms; Daily Life; and Business Practices including Negotiations, Meeting and Presentations, and Management Styles.
Every Intercultural Training is a blend of the expertise of an Intercultural Trainer’s knowledge in cultural adjustment and a response to specific questions and concerns of the employee on assignment and those moving with them. Plus, each training is accompanied by our online tools, CultureCompassSM and CultureGuideSM.
CultureCompass: How To Navigate From One Culture To the Next
This online assessment allows expatriates to see how their current culture stacks up against that of their new corporate destination. Is their work style a bit more direct? Do they prefer group projects over individual assignments? What is the boss-employee relationship usually like? All of this is explained and compared to the employee’s current way of conducting business and can be downloaded for easy reference. The assessment can also be paused and returned to for completion within one year of working with Dwellworks.
CultureGuideSM: Welcome to Your New Home!
This online guide helps familiarize an employee with the typical way of living in their new home. They can explore practical topics including daily life, social etiquette, and business practices by clicking through the guide at their own pace. All the info included in our guides is maintained by our global Intercultural Training Consultants. Each guide is typically broken down into four easy to digest sections:
- Daily Life and Social Etiquette
- Cultural Values
- Business Practices
- Key Points to Remember
The guide can also be stopped at any point and revisited later. Once complete, the guide also remains available for one year after the start of the employee’s program with Dwellworks.
Understanding Our Intercultural Services Offerings: CultureCloudSM and CultureCloudPlusSM
CultureCloud SM is our online portal with access to our CultureGuideSM and the CultureCompassSM. Employees can learn about their new destination and see how they stack up against its culture all in one place. This service is ideal for employees going on assignment in a short amount of time or for those who prefer online or solo learning.
CultureCloudPlusSM gives employees access to CultureCloud SM online, plus three one-hour consultations with one of our Intercultural Training Consultants. This is ideal for employees who want a deeper understanding of their CultureCompassSM evaluation, to address cultural questions that arise, or for specific cultural adjustment issues they may be experiencing. An experienced Intercultural Training Consultant contacts the assignee once the online program is completed to offer assistance as needed.
Intercultural Services for Business Travelers and Interns
Cultural awareness is just as essential for business travel and short-term stays as it is for longer in-country assignments. If your team is negotiating contracts and new business opportunities in an unknown culture, an immersion Intercultural Training experience is excellent preparation. Your project teams on-site in new cities will benefit from understanding their peers and clients through the lens of the local culture. Intercultural Training is also ideal for interns who are learning basic business skills and protocol. Intercultural awareness brings added value to both their internship and their potential long-term employment with your organization.
Global Workforce Development for Your Global Team
Intercultural Services are useful beyond global mobility and travel. In our globally connected world, most organizations work with multi-regional teams and supply chains. Our Global Workforce Development training is specifically designed to facilitate cross-cultural communication across global teams – starting with an understanding of each team’s country and culture. Merely managing through “Global English” can mask significant culture differences and expectations and can result in unintended outcomes or misunderstandings. Dwellworks has organized trainings onsite for clients in the AMERICAS, EMEA, and APAC and can design a training program specific to your business needs. Whatever your business priority, we can assist with practical and easy-to-implement intercultural management solutions for half-day, full-day, or two-day trainings facilitated by our Intercultural Training Consultants and complete with a syllabus, personalized plan for success, and cultural reference guide for each employee.
Companies can choose from the following courses for their employees or ask about custom programs:
- Business Across Borders: Global view of working with critical world cultures
- Communicating Across Cultures: Successful communication techniques across cultures
- Building Global Teams: Creating and maintaining effective virtual global teams
- Growing Global: The challenges of managing growing international organizations
- Negotiating Across Cultures: Effective negotiating techniques across major world
- Cultures
Presenting Across Cultures: Effective presentation techniques for most major cultures
Testimonials
We are proud to earn the respect and admiration of the employees we assist, and to help them feel welcomed wherever they travel to. Here is some of our favorite feedback we've received from satisfied employees:
We’re Here to Help
Interested in cutting-edge intercultural solutions that build employee confidence and protect your investment in global assignments and business travel? We can help with the perfect solutions from our suite of Intercultural Training Services.
