By Sarah Howarth and Corinne Taylor
In our everyday lives, being able to speak another language can open doors to living, studying and working in locations across the globe. In the workplace, employees with language skills are particularly valuable. As the business world increasingly shrinks and interconnects, skills that support international communication and mobility are clearly important. In this blog post, we explore the wealth of reasons for businesses and professionals to invest in improving their language skills.
In today’s small business world, companies need to be agile to move between markets, link up with business partners, expand their client bases and explore profitable opportunities overseas – especially with big political changes ahead, such as Brexit. Companies are increasingly looking beyond their country’s borders and looking to speakers of other languages in their workforce to facilitate business overseas.
In the workplace, employees with language skills can communicate more efficiently and effectively with colleagues, customers, purchasers and suppliers overseas, contributing to the engagement, satisfaction and retention of important stakeholders.
Even basic language skills can facilitate introductions and initial enquiries in a customer or supplier’s own language. Similarly, increased awareness of a contact’s business culture can improve understanding and forge closer working relationships. This can go a long way in terms of those all-important first impressions and network building. As Nelson Mandela once said, “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.”
Here at Language Services Direct, our most commonly requested professional languages reflect the business hotspots of the globe and chime with the British Council’s 2013 report, “Languages for the Future”, which identifies the top ten languages of crucial importance for the UK’s prosperity, security and influence in the world in the years ahead: Spanish, Arabic, French, Mandarin, German, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Turkish and Japanese. Competency in these languages is highly valuable in today’s business world. Find out more about our business language training.
Recruitment remains a highly competitive space. Forward-thinking companies that value global diversification are likely to require (or at least prefer) that their recruits be competent in particular languages. Candidates who are able to communicate with colleagues, clients, suppliers and buyers that speak other languages are extremely valuable. They also present opportunities for international roles and expat assignments, as well allowing companies to reduce their reliance on translation/interpreting services. Even an employer focused on the domestic market, when comparing a monoglot with a polyglot, will consider this: achieving competence in another language shows a sustained commitment to learning, as well as curiosity and insight into other business cultures. Arguably, these are very attractive qualities.
Learning a language provides insight into the culture of its speakers. It allows learners to see the world through the eyes of another group of people and to learn about their customs, traditions and ways of doing business. It can lead to intellectual flexibility.
In business, speakers of other languages are not just able to communicate better with contacts overseas, they also understand the culture in which they work and have insight into the challenges facing businesses there and the ways in which they work. Being culturally agile can draw the line between making or breaking a new business deal. Understanding of business audiences and how to communicate with them is key.
Language training should deliver sustained improvements in learners’ communication. Even for learners with relatively good language skills, training can finesse their communication skills, allowing them to communicate in a more concise, impactful and persuasive way.
Language learning can also improve cognitive function and change the way learners think. It can allow speakers to see the world through a different lens, boost creativity and develop problem-solving skills. A 2012 study published by American research centre NCBI found that the bilingual brain can have better attention and task-switching capacities than the monolingual brain. There is also evidence that language learning can make employees’ more empathetic and increase emotional intelligence. Research carried out by University of Chicago in 2015 shows that exposure to a foreign language can facilitate the development of perspective-taking tools that are critical for effective communication.
Employers know that language learning can have a significant impact on employees’ ability to work efficiently, safely and effectively. Investing in language training may have knock-on benefits for staff motivation and satisfaction as well as their performance. It may allow employees to:
It can also help employers to attract and retain talent by offering training as a staff benefit. The boost to motivation can drive further benefits too.
Your training provider should support you in maximising return on investment in language training. Ways in which this is done include:
Find out more about the services we offer by downloading our latest brochure here.
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