Why cultural humility is key to successful employee benefits

As employers look for new and effective ways to help their workers manage behavioral and mental health challenges in their home lives, it is important for everyone in the benefits selection process to have effective tools for identifying programs that employees will find respectful and worthwhile.

To do this, benefits brokers and human resources professionals must understand a concept that is gaining traction in the world of clinical professionals—that of cultural humility.

For decades, clinical professionals aimed to practice cultural competency. That is, they adopted behavior, attitudes and policies to work effectively across cultures. While it is important in our diverse world to honor cultural differences, the problem is that competency implies mastery. Mastery is unattainable when applied to culture, especially if that culture differs from our own. This perception of competency limits learning, as it affords a sense of completion. This is problematic when working with a diverse population. Understanding of a culture is never mastered.