Blog
Why Intercultural Training Is Essential for a Borderless Workforce
As organizations expand across borders, manage global talent, and navigate complex mergers and acquisitions, cultural intelligence has become a critical business capability. Intercultural training (ICT) helps multinational organizations turn cultural diversity into a competitive advantage, driving collaboration, reducing risk, and enabling sustainable growth. Intercultural training goes beyond surface-level etiquette. It builds self-awareness, strengthens communication, and equips employees to lead, collaborate, and make decisions effectively across cultures. In a globally connected workforce, people skills are just as important as technical expertise. Sirva’s Hannah Richardson, Senior Vice President, Global Strategic Services and WERC Service Provider Advisory Council member, recently wrote an article for WERC, Why Intercultural Training Matters for a Borderless Workforce, exploring the importance of intercultural training to ensuring global mobility success. Following are a few of the key highlights from the article. |
ICT Delivers Real Business Results for Your Organization
Organizations that invest in ICT see stronger collaboration, more agile and inclusive teams, and faster trust-building in new markets. Cultural awareness reduces misunderstandings, improves innovation, and supports successful market entry, negotiations, and partnerships.
In mergers and acquisitions, where culture clashes are a leading cause of failure, intercultural training plays a vital role in due diligence and post-merger integration. It helps to align values, retain talent, and protect deal value.
Intercultural Training Elevates Mobility Results
Employees who receive cultural preparation adapt faster and are less likely to experience assignment failure or early repatriation. Supporting accompanying partners and families is especially important, as family dissatisfaction remains one of the top reasons international assignments fail. By addressing well-being and adjustment for the whole family, organizations improve retention, ROI, and long-term talent development.
Beyond individual assignments, ICT can support broader organizational goals, by contributing to lower turnover, higher engagement, and stronger employer branding. This can help your organization attract and retain talent in competitive markets. When embedded into mobility policies and leadership development, intercultural training fosters a learning organization with a global mindset, inclusive culture, and greater resilience.
From Mobility to Mindset: The Role of Intercultural Training
In a borderless world of work, intercultural fluency is no longer optional. By making intercultural training a standard part of global mobility and talent strategies, organizations can reduce risk, unlock performance, and connect their people to new opportunities. To learn more, read the full article on WERC’s website.
Ready to build strategies that ensure your future success? Contact Sirva’s Global Advisory Services team at GlobalAdvisory@sirva.com to learn more.
Smart. Helpful. Human. Responsible.