The Importance Of Multicultural Training Methods

As we move further into the 21st century we are seeing the hospitality industry’s labor force become more and more diverse with each year. The numbers of workers for whom English is not a first language within the industry is skyrocketing and one might expect the tools with which to train these new workers and the predominantly English-speaking workers already in place to change with the times. There is substantial evidence, however, that training programs now in place throughout the industry are not adequately tailored enough to teach either group effectively. With the influx of new and diverse cultures comes new and exciting ways of thinking and entirely new ways of solving age-old problems that one finds within any workplace but without …show more content…
According to the National Restaurant Association, 42% of cooks do not speak English at home. This number is staggering when you consider that most often the training materials handed out and used in restaurants are almost exclusively in English. And According to research conducted less than a decade ago, there is no training to help native English speakers better understand how to work with co-workers with vastly different cultural backgrounds than themselves. According to a study done in 2000, out of 61 respondents, 58 restaurants had NO multicultural training in place. Only 3 restaurants surveyed had some sort of multicultural training in place. The consensus among the restaurants involved in this study seems to be that it either cost too much to implement, wasn’t important to the company, or wasn’t important to the company’s future. Given the numbers of workers from other countries coming to work in this industry one might say that’s a rather foolish gamble. In an ever increasingly diverse workforce, it would behoove owners, chefs, and managers country-wide to acknowledge the importance of learning how to bridge the cultural divide to some degree. Training your employees to understand when the root of a possible confrontation, for example, has nothing to do with words being said but possible body language or misinterpretation on either party’s side of exactly what is needed to complete a task. Even being taught cultural “hot buttons” to stay away form when interacting with fellow employees would help make newly arrived workers feel more a part of the fabric of the working environment. The transition to a new work environment is already hard enough but without any feeling of inclusion it must be even harder for newcomers to feel like they will ever be able to rise through the ranks and have a better position than where they started. Other