The penetration of foreign enterprises has created thousand jobs in Vietnam, which plays a vital role in helping Vietnam government solve the problems of unemployment in Vietnam. What attracts foreign investors the most is Vietnamese labor’s advantage of number and cost. However, there are many HR problems that they need to pay attention to when providing jobs in Vietnam. One of the most important one is to build the cultural competency with the Vietnamese. In order to do so, it is necessary for foreign employers to not take the following for granted.

Face-saving: pride is very important for Vietnamese. Many of the Vietnamese consider being criticized publicly as public humiliation and that may leave them no choice but resignation. Likewise, losing your temper or shouting is considered a demonstration of immaturity.

The meaning of “yes”: some body language signs such as nodding head or smile, which are considered to the agreement or understanding in Western culture, do not share the same meaning in Vietnam. They only represent “I have heard you”, but not always mean “I understand” or “I agree”. The solution to this is to politely ask them to repeat what they think they are doing accordingly to what you said to make sure there is no misunderstanding.

Indirectness: To save mutual face and maintain harmony, Vietnamese people rarely tell others their negative feeling about them. The listener has understand what is really implied behind. Therefore, when workers have complaint, they prefer a face to face talk in private with the leader or writing to them.

Reluctant to say “No”: As a common rule among Asian community, Vietnamese will try to any possible conflict and direct confrontation. A direct refusal or negative answer is considered impolite and crude. If the foreigners are not familiar with this culture, they may feel being betrayed or something. However, from a Vietnamese perspective, it is simply means for maintaining a harmonious relationship and saving YOUR face, not a sign of untruthfulness.

Family values: Vietnamese people are family oriented. By caring about other’s family problems and support them to get over, you may build a long term relationship with that people. Ignoring workers’ family problems may cause an intense relationship between employers and the workers in Vietnam.

Informal vs. Formal talks: Don’t take it as something weird that informal meeting in Vietnam is more important than formal one. For Vietnamese, only in the informal occasion can they build trust and express opinions. Offiial meetings are where no one tends to disagree with the boss.

Private questions: In Western culture, asking other people, especially women about age and marital status is impolite and rude. However, in Vietnamese culture, these questions in the first meeting only aims at understanding the terms of the relationship. Furthermore, the way you use the pronoun “you” is complicated in Vietnamese, it depends on age, gender, etc. Make sure that you learn how to distinguish these words first when you are going to learn Vietnamese.

Death Anniversaries and other Important Rituals: Death anniversary of  long ago passing away grandparents or relatives is one of the main reason for any day off of a Vietnamese employee. Foreign employers barely understand the importance of this and may find it really strange. However, these are actually VERY IMPORTANT for Vietnamese.

Establishing a business will never be very successful if the employers know nothing or pay no attention to each and every of jobs in Vietnam they are creating. The above tips will help foreign employers adapt better to Vietnamese working culture for the most successful business.

More information about jobs is available at website www.vieclambank.com