How You Can Communicate Effectively With Overseas Staff

Employers must stay in touch with their overseas remote workers if they want them to stay informed, supported, and motivated enough to do their best work and be as engaged as possible. A global PEO can help you with the HR and payroll side of things but as an employer, you should make every effort to connect with the people you work with as personally as possible. It helps people on the team who do not see each other very often or at all feel like they belong and builds teamwork among them. Follow these four tips if you want to talk to your foreign workers who are far away in the best way possible.

1. Use remote interpreting to get the language services you need.

With real-time online or phone remote interpreting services, you can talk to each foreign employee in their own language. This will let you talk to each foreign employer in their native language. You do not have to be fluent in a foreign language to talk to people who do not speak your language. 

2. Be sensitive to cultural differences

Culture is always different depending on where you are and what language you speak. This makes it more likely that there will be misunderstandings on both ends, unless you are aware of the cultural differences from the start, when you are writing the message in the source language. 

People can have different cultures even if they speak the same language. Many employers have trouble finding the right tone when dealing with cultures that look like they might be similar. In this situation, you need to be even more careful and avoid making assumptions you do not know to be true.

3. Have a clear statement of what you want to do.

A mission statement should be part of your company’s overall communications plan. It should describe in detail your short-term and long-term goals, what you expect from each employee, and a general plan for how to reach each goal. You can also include the criteria you will use to judge how well each project is going. Also, ensure everyone on your team knows what your company stands for, such as teamwork, healthy competition, flexibility, etc. For example, you could use a workflow management platform for business and send automated greeting messages to get people excited about the day ahead and get them talking to each other more. This would show that you care about what they have to say. So, every foreign worker knows what is going on in the big picture. All they need to stay on track are regular updates and small tips.

4. Check how biased you are

Do not argue about the fact that everyone has different tastes. Realizing that you may have unconscious stereotypes about people will help you get along better with your team of people from different cultures. Learn about other religions, cultures, races, genders, and sexual orientations so you do not assume how an employee will act based on how you think they should act. When the subconscious does not have enough information, it can make unfair or even harmful predictions.

How You Can Communicate Effectively With Overseas Staff