Who Should Attend ?

Employees preparing for an assignment in Luxembourg and their partners

Benefits of Attendance

This seminar aims at significantly improving the ability of the participants to meet the challenges of living and working abroad. The objective is to enable them to identify the stumbling blocks that lie ahead and to be able to adapt and integrate in Luxembourg.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired insights and techniques to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Understand context and culture
• Analyse situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating more effectively
• Reduce and manage the symptoms of culture shock
• Understand Luxembourgeois mindset, work practices, decision-making processes and negotiating styles
• Strike the right balance between personal et professional lives

Training Approach

• A cross-cultural approach of International Mobility
• Country specific trainers
• Personalized and familiy focused action plan
• Access to the Nomad’ Network, an exclusive online tool for Akteos’ clients and experts:  find resources, exchange experiences, knowledge and insights

Programme Outline

Module 1 : Successful personnal integration in Luxembourg

1. Cross-cultural awareness : the key to a successful expatriation

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• Culture shock and the integration process
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Luxembourgeois culture

• A Grand Duchy sandwiched between several major powers
• An age-old trading tradition, the European challenge
• A strategic area
• Luxembourgeois society: a “mini-Europe”.
• A highly attractive tax system
• Banking, media and industry: the key sectors of a successful economy

3. Luxembourgeois values and behaviour patterns

• A Germanic and Roman heritage: the importance of tradition
• The powerful role of the family
• The ambiguities of "Leitkultur"
• Between xénophilism and a cultural bunker mentality
• Citizenship as a means of integration
• Courtesy and formality
• Decency, propriety and discretion
• Rigour and discipline

4. Practical day-to-day information

• Focus on the host town or city
• Transport, administration, housing, security, hygiene and healthcare
• Social life, leisure activities, schools, extracurricular activities, sport

Module 2 : Successful professionnal integration in Luxembourg

1. The Luxembourgeois corporate world

• Workplace organisation and bureaucracy
• A clearly defined structure, performance and efficiency
• The market, employment and turnover
• Luxembourgeois employers and the trade unions

2. Effective communication with the Luxembourgeois

• "Lëtzebuergesch", German and French: awareness of the country's multilingual character
• The importance of form and content
• Understanding hidden messages

3. Working with Luxembourgeois teams

• Effective management: credibility, availability and professionalism
• Fair workload distribution, deciding and acting
• Recruitment, loyalty building, training, knowledge transmission
• Motivating, delegating, providing feedback, boosting self-esteem and handling conflicts

4. Successful meetings and negotiations with the Luxembourgeois

• Paying careful attention to punctuality and etiquette
• Identifying decision-makers
• Time and deadline management
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

5. Final handy tips

• Caution, patience and humility
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code, etc
• Sensitive subjects: politics, history, religion
• Humour: a double-edged sword