Cultural Competency in the Workplace
Growth and learning happens when your teams feel safe and connected. It allows people to be more vulnerable and listen to one another.
Whether an in-person or remote workplace, it’s important to foster a sense of security so each employee feels heard and understood. This is where Evolve Communities’ deep understanding of connection and cultural awareness comes in. Our culture awareness experts have developed unique models that are designed with wisdom from Aboriginal cultures, promote workplace collaboration, and improve confidence for people involved.
Ways Cultural Awareness Training Can Be Implemented in the Workplace
Yarning Circles
Yarning Circles are a traditional way for First Nations and Indigenous people to hold meetings, with participants sitting in a circle sharing stories, knowledge, and experiences in a respectful and safe space. These circles are primarily used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and highlight building stronger relationships through sharing a diversity of perspectives.
In most cultural awareness training programs, people can feel ashamed or guilty for actions their ancestors may have taken in history. When your business teams join an Evolve Yarning Circle, there is no room for that shame or guilt–you can’t grow if you’re afraid.
Our Yarning Circles are a judgement-free zone because we know that this is what allows your teams to learn the most and build a stronger sense of community–both within your organisation and within the greater Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. These cultural awareness workshops are open to businesses and groups of all sizes, and are available remote and in-person.
The Seven Steps to Practical Reconciliation Workshops
‘Reconciliation’ is a critical term for Australians. It refers to the effort to improve relations between Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples and the rest of the Australian population. This ongoing journey requires respect, equality and equity, and institutional integrity. But how does that culture training program look in your workplace?
Our Seven Steps to Practical Reconciliation Workshop helps your entire staff build cultural competency and awareness, inspire your Reconciliation Action Plan, and empowers your company to become Allies to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This culture course is designed to create a better, stronger, and more inclusive Australia through cultural and diversity training for your work force.
This online learning journey is an affordable and on-demand cultural awareness program for your business teams, and can be completed in as little as forty-five minutes if your company has fewer than one hundred employees.
Does your company have more employees than this? Call us for a custom workplace training quote and to discover your options for LMS integration.
Increasing Awareness Through Training Courses
Cultivating an environment that celebrates cultural diversity and brings intercultural awareness into the workforce requires cultural awareness training. Evolve Communities designs training courses that eliminate shame and uplift inclusion and engagement.
In our multicultural training courses, people can address any unconscious bias they may carry. Our workplace inclusion program can help your management team and employees build cultural competence so they have the skills to embrace practical reconciliation with First Nations peoples.
Sensitivity in the Workplace: Why It Matters
Human resources departments can implement policy after policy in any industry and still face concerns regarding social responsibility and safety for their employees. If you’re looking to reduce harassment in your workplace and with your employees, training and workshops focused on culturally sensitive topics can enlighten your employees while bringing them closer together.
Here are a few reasons why training focused on cultural sensitivity is important for your organisation:
Celebrates Diversity and Cultures
These culture workshops and sessions can make your employees feel comfortable celebrating their backgrounds and understanding how cultural differences can strengthen your workplace. By highlighting what makes each culture, language, and history unique, we can eliminate a sense of shame around individual identity.
Improves Job Satisfaction and Business Performance
Cultural awareness training helps employees perform better by enlightening them on how to conduct themselves thoughtfully in the workplace. These cultural awareness courses can increase their capability to work with clients and team members from across social barriers. When your business teams engage in empathetic communication and language, they’ll feel more satisfied with their work environment.
Creates a Safer Workplace Environment
One in thirty Australians identify as a member of the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities–but it’s not on that one person to ensure an inclusive working environment for all. Our Evolve Communities training and workshops equip all your employees with the knowledge necessary to nurture a culturally aware business.
What Is Inclusion and Cultural Competence?
‘Inclusion in the workplace’ refers to a culture in which all employees feel valued, respected, and that their story and differences are celebrated as a strength in the workplace. This leads to stronger communication, a sense of belonging, and team members feeling valued.
Of course, workplace inclusion cannot occur without cultural competence, which refers to the ability to understand, appreciate, and interact appropriately with people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Cultural awareness training programs can help your team learn how to respect the values, communication styles, and perspectives of people from cultures outside of their own.
Creating a Diverse Corporate Culture That Is Inclusive
With Evolve Communities, your company or organisation can support Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander with a single training course. We provide authentic cultural knowledge from acclaimed Aboriginal Elder and Educator, Aunty Munya, Andrews and allyship expertise from award-winning Learning Designer and Ally, Carla Rogers.
No matter your industry or background, Evolve Communities can customise our cultural training packages to suit your specific organisation, industry, or business needs. This can include your business objectives, budget, and Reconciliation goals. We also provide online, on-demand, and facilitator-led training services that can be scaled to your needs and employees.
What to Expect with an Awareness and Inclusion Program
We weave critical cultural lessons and conversations into each and every one of our cultural awareness workshops and training sessions. Some questions we address in the training include:
- Why does Reconciliation matter for your organisation?
- What does it mean to be Indigenous? And what assumptions do we make about Indigenous peoples and cultures?
- What are some ways we can create a more equitable society and workplace?
- What is cultural load, and how does it impact Indigenous employees?
These are just a handful of topics addressed in our cultural awareness sessions. The goal is to build understanding through education, cultural awareness, and relationships. To unpack the power of Evolve Communities, contact us today for your free consultation call!
Key Aspects of Workplace Cultural Awareness to Consider
Developing a workplace culture of inclusion and mutual respect among your employees is a core aim for countless businesses. By introducing cultural awareness training in a structured and established format, we ensure the outcomes are tangible, sustainable, and meaningful for your workplace.
Cultural Awareness Workplace Onboarding
A better-engaged, empathetic workplace begins with buy-in, where colleagues understand the purpose of cultural awareness training and recognise the compelling benefits of participating in a process that will make their professional experiences positive and uplifting.
Rather than proposing training as a mandatory or uncomfortable experience, onboarding management and sharing the goals with staff openly and transparently is the best way to ensure employees are open, engaged, and willing to participate fully in the training.
Promoting Culturally Sensitive Communication Skills and Engagement
True cultural awareness isn’t an inherent ability, and many employees need to consider the right ways to equip their teams with the skills and resources they need to demonstrate sensitivity, acknowledgement, and respect for all cultures–without leaving room for some participants to feel left behind or unable to put into practice all they have learned.
As an exercise in shared education, bonding, and developing a place of work where every individual feels respected and seen, we ensure that our cultural awareness training programs teach the real-world communication skills used in everyday speech, written correspondence, and group discussions that your workplace can use.
Workplace Cultural Safety
Once organisations have completed their cultural awareness training, implemented reforms and changes where needed, and are ready to move forward, we often talk about the vital importance of safety. This means a workplace feels safe, and every individual can come to work with confidence that they are in a space free of harm, disrespect, risk, or inequality.
Promoting and actively enforcing a workplace that is psychologically and physically safe, protects staff from harm, and requires open, clear communications in its day-to-day processes means that cultural awareness training is just step one. This is a pathway to building organisations that lead the way, with a strong, ongoing commitment to dialogues and improvements to represent the highest standards of cultural awareness and sensitivity.
