For my restaurant, I had to hired Singaporean waiters. Therefore, I have experienced what is like to work with Singaporean people so here are my top 3 advices :
- STOP PLANNING EVERYTHING
In France and especially in restaurants, we are used to make long speeches before going to work in order to plan everything. However, Singaporean are less methodical. This is actually a good thing because Singaporean are less afraid of uncertainty. Therefore, rather than plan everything for the week or the month, try to set some goals for the day.
- DON’T PUT TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON INDIVIDUALS
Something that I have noticed in my restaurant was that Singaporean people always work better as a group. Therefore standing out is not always desirable. For instance, in France we used the system of “Employee of the month” and I tried to implement it in Singapore. As a result, since Singaporean wasn’t used to it, the team ended less united and less efficient. Therefore, be aware of the notion of social relationship.
- TRY TO ADOPT A HIGH-CONTEXT COMMUNICATION
Finally, let’s talk about communication because this might be one the main differences with France. Singaporean people are very nice people. Therefore, they will try to avoid saying “NO” at all costs, even though they don’t know how to do something. For example, if you ask them if they know how to cook a French dessert, they will pretend that they do. This can be quite problematic because you are never sure of their response. Therefore, try to be less direct on your communication.
French Chief in Singapore 