Session 3C
Cultural awareness training: reducing the cost of failure
Cathy Wellings, Communicaid
A lack of cultural awareness can have many levels of impact on a business - from an employee's embarrassing faux pas to a failed international assignment to a lost deal. The price of inadequate cultural awareness is often ignored by organisations . Recent research has shown that up to 80 per cent of international mergers fail while 25 per cent of returning expatriates leave their company within 12 months of returning home. Companies cannot afford this level of failure.
This interactive session will highlight how organisations can become more culturally competent and ensure that employees are prepared to work internationally. We will use a series of real life case studies combined with practical examples from the training room to illustrate that cultural awareness training is no longer a 'nice-to-have' but an essential to all international organisations.
Cathy Wellings is culture and communication manager at Communicaid and is responsible for the development and management of global cross-cultural and communications skills programmes.Cathy's training background spans almost 20 years and she has lived and worked in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.