Cross-Cultural Communication Training: Building Stronger Global Teams in 2025

Key takeaways:

• Cross-cultural training helps international companies navigate the global market.
• It’s a good way to foster a healthier and more communicative workplace where all your employees feel seen, heard, and respected.
• Diverse and inclusive companies have about a 27% financial advantage over other companies.

These days, many major companies operate on the global market. While this comes with many perks, being an international organization also has its challenges. One of the biggest ones is communication. Whether it’s language barriers, cultural differences, or a lack of awareness, such misunderstandings can cause major issues in the workplace and for the company as a whole.

If your company deals with similar challenges, you may want to consider cross-cultural training, which we’ll dive into in this article. We’ll explain what cross-cultural training is, what its benefits are, and how you can best implement it in your global teams.

What is cross-cultural training

Cross-cultural training is a way to teach yourself and your employees on how to best navigate diverse business environments. This training can take many different forms, including interactive workshops, online seminars, workplace role-playing exercises, and more. 

However, the goal is always the same. Through cross-cultural training, you can learn how best to communicate with your employees, coworkers, and business partners, even if you don’t have the same background, come from different countries, or have some cultural differences.

Why cross-cultural training matters for businesses today

Even if everyone you work with has mastered business English, cross-cultural training may still be vital for your company. For example, someone from the U.S. may be used to a certain level of informality between coworkers, which may be seen as offensive to someone from Japan. Similarly, the way feedback is given and received in the UK versus in France can also vary greatly.

These may seem like minor issues, but in reality, they can have a huge impact on your work environment. With cross-cultural training, workers gain more empathy and understanding, improve their communication skills, and become more adaptable. 

According to a psychology literature review in which several studies about cross-cultural training were examined, cross-cultural training has a positive impact on one’s cultural intelligence and competence.

What’s more, this type of adult education can also improve your business’ performance. Let’s look at that in more detail.

Culture training in the workplace: Key benefits for employees and organizations

In 2022, McKinsey published a report about the impact of promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The results were clear: the companies that embraced different cultures were overall more likely to do better financially than their counterparts.

This is especially the case with ethnically diverse organizations. Those that ranked among the most diverse and inclusive had about a 27% financial advantage over other companies. This data clearly shows that diversity isn’t just a trend and an image. It can improve your business and earn you more money in the long run.

Moreover, companies that place importance on understanding, supporting, and respecting all their employees and partners’ cultures are much more likely to impress on the global market, as well as understand it better. If your employees are from diverse backgrounds and they understand how to navigate that, they’ll likely be better at estimating what someone from different countries may want from your products or services. 

For example, this could come in handy in marketing. When you’re trying to reach an audience, you have to understand their culture and their values. That way, you’ll be able to avoid any unfortunate blunders and make sure that your campaign reaches its goals.

Finally, your employees will also appreciate it if you provide cross-cultural training. Research shows that 46% of job seekers find company culture very important. Seeing you invest in your employees and foster a good workplace environment will make you more appealing to many great candidates.

1

Top 5 effective cross-cultural training programs

Now that you know why cross-cultural communication coaching is so important, let’s take a look at the five best programs that you could implement to improve diversity and inclusion in your company.

1. Everyday interaction training

If you employ people from many with cultural differences, it’s crucial for everyone to understand and respect each person’s boundaries and expectations. To avoid any potential conflicts or misunderstandings, a cross-cultural training program focused on practical communication skills may be helpful.

This course can be pretty informal, with a focus on active listening and conflict resolution. Your employees should be encouraged to join in and share any thoughts and concerns they may have.

2. Cross-cultural coaching for expats

If you’re expanding abroad and sending some of your best employees to a new country, it’s important to provide them with the right resources to navigate this new culture. Even within Europe, which some may consider a relatively unified continent, there are many different cultures, each with their own cultural norms, beliefs, and customs.

As an employer, it’s your job to prepare your employees and set them up for success. Cross-cultural training should also help them better deal with any potential culture shock that may arise. 

3. Executives and management training

Even those higher up on the ladder need to go through cross-cultural training. While they may know all the important management terms, that will likely not be enough in many situations. 

If you work in a global market, involve yourself, along with any executives and managers, in this training. It will help you build stronger relationships with potential clients and partners, as well as your coworkers.

4. Diverse teams coaching

Teamwork is often one of the most important things in any functioning workplace. A company isn’t run by individuals; it’s maintained by teams that know how to work well together. To make sure that everyone you hired is able to work with their colleagues harmoniously, consider investing in a team-focused cross-cultural communication program.

This course should place special focus on identifying each person’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as any potential communication gaps or barriers. If successful, the participants should walk away feeling energized and ready to tackle problems as a team.

5. Cross-cultural training across borders

These days, it’s becoming increasingly common for companies to employ people from all around the world. Sometimes, your employees will be based in a country on the other side of the globe. In that case, it’s still important for them to feel included and safe in their work environment, even if that environment is online.

Involving both local and distant workers in cross-border communication training can help you avoid misunderstandings, as well as improve the overall company culture and atmosphere. Even if they mostly talk to you over Zoom, your remote employees will feel more included and attached to your organization if you let them know that they’re seen and heard.

How to implement and maintain cross-cultural training

If you’re serious about cross-cultural communication, you’ll have to take some practical steps to implement and maintain this acceptance at your company. Here are four simple steps you should follow:

1. Figure out what your cross-cultural training needs are

Do you employ people from diverse backgrounds? Do you run several branches abroad? Or are you hoping to attract international partners?

Before looking into hiring someone, try to understand what exactly it is you’re hoping to achieve. If your goal is for your executives to represent your company well abroad, focus on them first. However, if you’re trying to make sure your employees are all happy in their work environment, make that your priority instead.

2. Find the right program

Once you know what your goal is, you can start looking for a specific program that will help you achieve that goal. Here, you have several options:

• Look for an existing program.
• Design a program yourself.
• Hire a professional to help you design a program.
• A mix of all of the above.

It all depends on just how unique your needs are and how involved you want to be. That being said, with matters as sensitive and important as this, it’s essential that you don’t underestimate it. Be sure to give it as much time and attention as it needs so as not to waste your resources and your employees’ time.

3. Deliver the training

With the right program ready, it’s time to implement it. Make sure that your employees feel safe and understand the purpose of culture training in the workplace. Open communication, active listening, and clear instructions will be important here. Encourage feedback throughout the process to ensure the training remains engaging, effective, and aligned with your team’s needs.

4. Ask for feedback

Once the training program is finished, ask your employees for feedback. Make sure they let you know what worked and didn’t work for them. This will be important for your next session, as you will want to maintain this cross-cultural understanding. Use their input to make improvements, address any concerns, and ensure future training sessions are even more effective and inclusive.

How to overcome barriers in cross-culture training

When trying to implement cross-cultural training, you may come across some barriers. Here’s how to overcome some of the most common ones:

• Language barriers: If your employees or your business partners speak different languages, try to assess their proficiency in the languages they have in common. If communication would not be feasible, hire an interpreter or consider signing your employees up for business English lessons.
• Information accessibility: Make sure that everyone can follow the material they are given. For example, don’t use too many U.S.-centric references in your presentation for an international audience. Similarly, avoid difficult business jargon when speaking to your colleagues from different departments or backgrounds.
• Confusion during training: Ask your employees if they understand what the goal of the cross-cultural program you designed for them is. If they don’t know why they’re there, they may not be as willing and ready to engage in it as necessary. Clear and open communication will go a long way.

If you’d like to know more about how to better manage cross-cultural teams, watch this helpful video:

Try Promova Corporate to enhance cross-cultural communication skills

Do you want to improve your team’s cross-cultural communication skills? Promova is the perfect place to start. With our corporate language training course, you’ll get:

• Access to the Promova app, perfect for on-the-go learning.
• 1:1 sessions to help you or your employees prepare for that big presentation.
• Group sessions to foster teamwork and improve everyone’s English speaking skills.
• What’s more, Promova also offers many specialized courses, including public speaking, medical English, and ASL. And with our advanced AI tutor, your employees can practice at any time of the day with helpful guidance along the way.

Try Promova today to boost your team’s communication skills.

Final thoughts

Cross-cultural training programs can help you succeed in business, make your employees happy, and build stronger, more inclusive teams that can overcome any cultural differences with ease. To get started, assess your needs and then begin looking for the perfect courses and programs for your company. Don’t hesitate; the benefits are too big for you to wait any longer.