Diversity: A success factor

For GIZ, diversity is not just a buzz­word. Without diversity within our workforce, we would not be able to do our job. Diversity is one of the defining features of our clients, our partners and our target groups all over the world, so by our very nature, we are diverse as well.

This diversity is reflected in the large number of employees who work for us in their home countries. They account for around 70 per cent of GIZ’s 16,000-strong global workforce, and the figure is rising. Our local employees play a vital role in ensuring the quality of our activities. We have to respond to the specific conditions in place in the countries in which we operate, and for that, we rely on the country-specific knowledge and experience of our local colleagues. They open the door for us, and they are also the face of our organisation for the ministries, partner organisations and other institutions in the countries concerned.

Recruiting European and international experts

But another reason why GIZ’s workforce is so diverse is that we are increasingly recruiting European and international ­experts. This is particularly apparent in countries where we operate mainly on ­behalf of other governments, international organisations or companies. And of course, our Brussels office is notable for the ­diversity of its staff, with 12 countries represented here.

GIZ also has many faces in Africa: we have 10 nationalities in our office in Ghana, for example, and 9 in Botswana. Our employees come from the country itself, from the region and from other places around the world. However, a high level of diversity is not possible in all of our offices: in countries with ethnic or religious tensions, this type of cooperation would be much more difficult to achieve.

It’s true to say that diversity doesn’t happen of its own accord. Whenever people from different backgrounds work together, there is often a clash between their different work cultures, customs and expectations. Things that one person takes for granted may be difficult for another person to accept. For example, we Germans tend to make a very clear distinction between work and leisure. We are accustomed to having Saturday and Sunday as days off and closing the office. In South Asia, on the other hand, Sunday is a normal working day, and in other countries around the world, there is much more blurring of the boundaries between work and leisure; the two tend to overlap.

Considerable management skills of workforce in the partner countries

In such cases, you can’t simply impose the German model – culturally appro­priate responses are needed. So diversity ­requires management and guidelines. But it would be a mistake to think that this can be done from Eschborn or Bonn for the entire world. We have a policy in place, which provides an important frame of reference, but otherwise, working relations are managed at the local level. There are no uniform rules or system of management – on the contrary, here too, our approach is quite diverse.

Adjusting to different work cultures is even more important because our local employees and international staff are likely to play an even more significant role in future. The projects commissioned by our various clients require increasingly specialised knowledge, which we cannot always find in Germany. And our local employees are already the backbone of our operations in many places. The educational and skills levels of our workforce in the partner countries are increasing: they offer considerable technical expertise and management skills. Today, we have around 900 local employees in management positions around the world. This is a development that we fully support – and it is helping us to achieve even greater success in our work.

published in akzente 1/16