4.2.1 A multicultural workforce
In the next activity you listen again to Sharda Bhalsod, a Guidance employee, talking about the advantages of working with colleagues from different backgrounds.
Activity 30
Look at this extract from the video you watched in Activity 29, in which Sharda Bhalsod gives her views about working in a multicultural setting. Then answer the questions below.
Download this video clip.Video player: Guidance (Part 3)
Transcript: Guidance (Part 3)
Sharda Bhalsod:
The company’s based in a multicultural city, so that gives good multicultural understanding, background, and the company employs people from all over the world, so that makes it very interesting to be friends with multicultural people and come to know the backgrounds and technical issues that they bring in. I celebrate Diwali. I bring in food, and everybody joins in. The Polish people celebrated their own New Year’s, I think Chinese people did their New Year’s, so, like Muslim did their Eid, so whoever has their occasion, they all come and celebrate together, and I think everybody enjoys that. It makes it like a family event when everybody takes part. So, it’s really nice to be working for a company that respects individuals.
Guidance (Part 3)
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1. What two reasons explain why Guidance has such a multicultural workforce?
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Answer
- It is based in Leicester, which is a multicultural city.
- It recruits its staff internationally.
2. What example does Sharda Bhalsod give when she says that Guidance respects individuals?
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Answer
In this particular extract, she refers mostly to the company culture that encourages the celebration of different religious and cultural festivals such as Eid, Diwali, and Polish and Chinese New Year celebrations.