Job seekers believe a country's culture and norms impact working professionals' lifestyle - Bayt.com poll

Interestingly, while 34% of respondents felt that cultural norms unavoidably affect life in and out of the workplace, about 20% took a more moderate view, agreeing that working professionals might not be able to give their best away from their cultural comfort zone.

A further 34% differentiated between cultural impacts on personal and professional life, agreeing that while cultural differences may affect a worker's lifestyle, they do not impact productivity on-the-job.

On the other end, 6.3% of respondents agreed with the statement that neither lifestyle nor productivity could possibly be affected by a country's cultural differences. A further 2.4% of respondents indicated they were unsure.

"The poll's results clearly demonstrate that professionals moving to new countries for the purpose of employment expect new cultural norms to influence their lives - at home, at work, or both. But varying responses regarding the strength and scope of such influence speak perhaps to the different mindsets of people currently working overseas or considering an opportunity abroad,"

commented Amer Zureikat, regional Manager, Bayt.com.

"The fact that 20% of those surveyed make a distinction between cultural impacts on lifestyle, versus impacts on productivity, is a fascinating result," noted Zureikat. "It may signal that some people have more effective strategies for acclimatising to new working environments. If it were possible to identify these strategies and share them with new expat employees, both staff and employers could benefit."

The 'Culture and Working Abroad' July/ August online poll series conducted by Bayt.com sought to understand from employees what they deem to be the most important factors when considering a job abroad and how deeply they think the adoption of a new country's culture and norms would affect their lifestyle and their workplace productivity.

Indeed, when faced with lagging workplace productivity, the results of this poll may suggest a way forward for employers. More extensive cultural orientation programmes, for example, could assist professionals seeking employment in a new country- 29% of respondents stated they would consider working in another country that has no cultural similarities to that of their country of residence if, and only if, they think they can manage to better learn about the new culture and fit in easily.

"These results indicate that helping expat workers gain their footing in a new cultural setting could have tangible and far-reaching benefits for both organisations and their employees," added Zureikat.

"Given today's highly-mobile, global workforce, cultural acclimatisation is a major issue. Companies that understand the potential consequences of so-called 'culture shock' and implement strategies to help employees adapt in both their working and personal lives could gain a considerable competitive advantage - including becoming an employer of choice for expat workers. In addition, this poll suggests organisations that proactively assist with expat workers' cultural acclimatisation may avoid productivity issues in the future - a significant insight," he said.

Quite interestingly, almost 56% of the HR poll's respondents do not mind moving to a whole new cultural setting provided the pay is fair. This does showcase, once again, that good remuneration packages play a vital role in the decision making process of a professional when it comes to job opportunities: almost 41% of participants stated salary considerations come first when targeting a new country for prospective employment, followed by the ranking of the country in terms of employee satisfaction/security worldwide at 21%, and having family or friends residing in that country at 17%.

Data for this recent poll were collected online between the 13th of July and 24th of August, 2009, with a total of 14,844 respondents from across the Middle East.