Globalization Partners Finds Global Teams Struggle To Feel Connected To HQ

By Nicole Sahin, Globalization Partners

New research from Globalization Partners Inc reveals more than 90 percent of employees working for a global organization describe their companies as diverse. Now more than ever, strong communication practices are essential as remote working becomes a necessity.

Unfortunately, a lack of understanding by the organizations themselves around how to manage this growing disparate and diverse workforce left three out of ten respondents lacking a sense of inclusion or belonging. This results in a large negative impact on employee engagement, trust, happiness, as well as staff turnover. 

“Gartner predicts that by the end of 2022, 75 percent of organizations with frontline decision-making teams in distributed geographies and with diverse mindsets will exceed their financial targets. As a company with offices in every corner of the globe, I’ve seen the incredible business advantage in hiring and building diverse teams,” said Nicole Sahin, CEO of Globalization Partners. “I also know that now more than ever, in these trying times it is critical to have the right communication tools in place to ensure success. The employee experience matters now more than ever, and collaboration tools like Slack can make a positive impact on the ability for teams to collaborate on projects and provide a social connection for employees around the world.”

The 2020 global employee survey, Examining the Impact of Diversity on Distributed Global Teams, also discovered that global teams are struggling to make communications work for them. For example, 46 percent of employees still rely most frequently on email for communicating but also only 31 percent find it effective. 

Additional key findings:

• Nearly nine out of ten employees (89 percent) say their company would benefit from the assistance of outside experts to help with cultural training and cross-organization education.
• Two-thirds of companies are finding it challenging to align with and be sensitive to local culture and communication styles, especially when a company spans multiple geographies. 
• Organizations that embrace multilingualism are seeing better team results across the board. 

For the full report, please visit: Examining the Impact of Diversity on Distributed Global Teams. For additional information, Globalization Partners also has recently published an eBook: The Complete Guide to Building a Remote Global Team.