Cultural Intelligence and why it should show in your website’s user-experience

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Cultural Intelligence and why it should show in your website’s user-experience

Culture has been part of human existence since the beginning of time. Today many businesses and professionals are guided by the definition of culture, as explained by German professor Geert Hofstede, as ‘The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others.’ He devised the 6D model which serves as a means to understand cultures of people from other countries, and therefore a useful device to make interactions with diverse audiences more impactful.

Taking initiative to understand the various dimensions of culture is the first step towards cultural intelligence. Armed with a deeper knowledge on the subject opens doors to formulating effective strategies to help businesses take action to create better products, thoughtful customer experiences, which in turn results in higher brand awareness, market penetration and sales growth.

Cultural intelligence is not a new subject matter for executive search firms. In fact, many executive search firms share thought leadership and insights on the subjects of diversity, equality and inclusion. But, based on our website research examining the web design of 50 International executive search firm websites, we have observed that the user experience fails to demonstrate their message of culturality.

Excluding cultural nuances from the company’s web design strategy may not be intentional. This tends to occur when the design and development of a website is given to an agency with cultural backgrounds that match with those of the decision-makers of the company, and they may not be familiar with cross-cultural user experiences. In this situation, instead of welcoming all users, you website could be offering a culturally-biased user experience.

Executive search firms, more than ever need to focus on creating a cross-cultural user experience, and here’s why they need to re-think their web design strategy:

Wide accessibility by an evolving global online user

User behaviors have changed owing to Covid-19, and consumers expect a seamless digital ecosystem experience that is intuitive and meets them where they are. With more businesses recognizing this changing consumer behavior, they are building better online experiences to serve their customers. Now, as customers get familiar and comfortable with better online experiences, executive search firms need to also ensure that their web assets are as good if not better.

Visible indication of locale expertise

Global business leaders in overseas markets, in their quest for search partners, are looking for evidences of cultural awareness and sensitivity.  A user experience that considers cultural nuances gives the impression that the executive search firm is committed to the local market, and therefore possesses deeper, ‘insider’ information that is usually demonstrated by local service providers. Certain overseas markets have an affinity to international brands, and combining this preference with a culture-centric website user experience can be a winning recipe for opening lucrative global opportunities.

In our 2021 Global-Ready websites report, we have explained how international executive search firms can build cross-cultural website assets. Find out if your website design strategy is supporting your firm’s global expansion goals.

international executive search

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