As an ambitious business leader, you understand the importance of effective communication. However, in today’s globalized business environment, communication extends far beyond simple interaction within your organization. It involves breaking language barriers to reach out to the international market, where English training holds the key to unlocking unprecedented expansion and growth. For a business owner or leader, navigating global markets requires not only language proficiency but also a deep understanding of diverse business practices and regulations.
The global trend is clear: Workplace English skills are a must. English is the world’s most spoken language, with . Improved English proficiency broadens your communication avenues, positively impacting every business facet. With English aptitude, expect heightened cultural understanding, increased productivity, efficient teamwork, and elevated positive customer experiences from service departments that ultimately streamline your entire organization.
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English proficiency is not enough. Advanced soft skills like collaboration and decision-making, all bolstered by workplace-relevant English skills, are now a necessity. However, research indicates a critical gap, with 90% of employees seeking language training, yet only 33% currently receiving it. This disparity opens a golden opportunity to boost your business and gain a competitive advantage. Understanding and meeting customer expectations in international markets is essential for achieving company success, as it directly influences customer loyalty, retention and revenue growth.
“Being able to speak English is directly linked to success in international business settings and is essential for communicating with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Proficiency in English can also expand our career possibilities and open up new professional opportunities."– Takenobu Miki, TORAIZ Inc. President, Japan.
Improving language skills for your employees is a powerful step towards achieving corporate success. By investing in English language training, you are equipping your entire team with the necessary tools to navigate global markets and communicate effectively with international partners and customers. In addition to this, there are other actions you can take to skyrocket your business plan.
There is no one straight answer but corporate English training can contribute to whether your own business flourishes or not in these ways:
Understanding and respecting cultural differences can significantly enhance international business operations. It fosters a positive working environment and aids in building strong relationships with partners and customers from diverse backgrounds.
The ability to innovate and adapt to market changes is crucial for successful businesses and for sustaining growth. Businesses that consistently seek out and implement new ideas stay ahead in competitive markets.
Exceptional customer service is a critical component of the overall customer experience, setting a business apart from its competitors through positive experience. It’s essential for retaining customers and encouraging positive word-of-mouth referrals, impacting customer desire to continue doing business with a company.
Effective leadership and management are pivotal in setting a clear vision, making informed decisions, and motivating employees to achieve business goals.
Amidst the 'Great Resignation,' focusing on employee job satisfaction has become crucial for fostering a productive and innovative work environment. Happy employees are more productive, creative and loyal. Creating a positive work culture that values employee well-being can lead to increased job satisfaction and retention. Employers need to re-evaluate what makes their company worth working for and implement strategies to boost job satisfaction and retain top talent.
Developing and implementing effective employee retention strategies is key to sustaining business growth and success. Customizing strategies to meet unique business needs, including competitive pay, wellness offerings, work-life balance, and strong company culture, can significantly impact retaining top talent.
Language learning training intertwines with all these aspects and can support your company's business plans to reach its goals.
Here are but a few ways:
Firstly, implementing a culture of continuous learning and development within your company can significantly contribute to business growth.
Encouraging your team to engage in ongoing professional development, not only in language skills but also in areas relevant to your industry, keeps your business at the forefront of innovation.
Regular training sessions, workshops and courses can foster an environment of growth, where employees feel valued and motivated. Leaders use platforms like Versant by app to gain an accurate picture of current skill levels and identify existing gaps, helping to address them before they become a potential risk.
Leadership and management are the cornerstones of a successful business, and language learning can significantly bolster these areas. Effective communication is a critical leadership skill, enabling managers to convey their vision and directives more clearly and persuasively. By investing in language training, leaders can overcome communication barriers, foster a more inclusive environment, and engage with a global team more effectively.
This not only enhances internal operations but also improves negotiations and relationships with international clients, suppliers and partners. In addition, bilingual or multilingual leaders are perceived as more competent and are better equipped to understand and appreciate cultural nuances, which can lead to stronger, trust-based business relationships. Through language learning, business leaders and managers can expand their influence, drive global strategies more successfully, and steer their organizations towards greater international success.
Employee retention is a common worry for most businesses; and providing learning opportunities is the number one way they are working to improve this.
Prioritizing language training offers substantial benefits, not only to talent acquisition and development leaders but also to customer service teams. It emphasizes their crucial role in enhancing customer experience through professional development and permits access to wider, more diverse talent pools in your recruitment initiatives.
Furthermore, it signifies your commitment to ongoing language development, an increasingly important factor for employees, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, and supports teams in being more productive, efficient and capable of providing premier service.
Your business should not consider language learning a siloed function but rather an embedded culture across the organization. This approach ensures skill levels are always adequate and improving, ready for new business opportunities. Additionally, a happy and skilled team plays a pivotal role in creating personalized experiences that foster emotional connections with customers, contributing significantly to overall success and customer loyalty.
“Employees are craving language training at work and employers ignore this request at their peril. They risk losing their talent to the 30% of organizations that have taken this employee feedback on board.” – app's global research report,How English empowers your tomorrow.
Using online language learning platforms like Mondly by app can rapidly accelerate language acquisition among your employees. Alongside self-paced solutions for Workplace English and General Language Learning, these platforms offer live sessions with expert fluent tutors, enhancing workplace language proficiency.
Improving language skills through training is a powerful step towards achieving success for your business. By enhancing customer satisfaction, reducing churn, and driving higher revenues, a customer experience strategy can significantly contribute to business growth. It is crucial to understand and focus on the entire customer journey, from first contact to becoming a loyal customer, to effectively meet global market demands with improved language skills.
A strategic approach to raising language proficiency levels is indispensable to facilitating global success, increasing growth potential, and preparing your team to operate in new international markets. It’s time to reinforce language skills across your organization and access the competitive advantage you need to succeed in international markets.
Engage with Mondly by app today - a flexible and engaging suite of workplace-relevant language learning solutions designed to develop employees’ language skills and assess progress with Versant by appfor flexible language testing and certification. Empower your business for international success.
Read our blog post 'Harness the power of English for a global competitive edge'.
In the fast-paced world of business, there is one undeniable fact that holds true: employees are the key to success. Their commitment and expertise propel organizations towards their objectives, which is why investing in a learning culture is essential. The advantages are numerous and include improved staff retention, increased productivity and the goal of higher employee engagement.
Language is not only a tool for communication but also a means to explore and comprehend diverse cultures, traditions, and perspectives. Europe, with its vast array of languages, is a prime example of this linguistic diversity. Each year on September 26th, Europe observes the European Day of Languages, which is a day solely dedicated to celebrating and embracing this linguistic richness.
Europe is a magnificent tapestry of languages, with over 200 spoken throughout the continent. This diversity is a symbol of the rich cultural heritage of each nation and reminds us of the intricate historical, social, and linguistic elements that mold our identities. The European Day of Languages inspires people to cherish and honor this linguistic heritage.
September 26th marks an important date for celebrating linguistic diversity and promoting multilingualism. This day commemorates the adoption of the "European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" by the Council of Europe in 1992, a crucial document that recognizes and safeguards the linguistic rights of minority languages spoken within European countries. By celebrating the European Day of Languages on this date, it renews our commitment to supporting the rich diversity of languages and cultures that make our world a more vibrant and fascinating place.
The European Day of Languages offers language learners a chance to participate in language exchanges, which is an exciting opportunity. During such exchanges, learners from diverse backgrounds partner up and teach each other their native languages. This not only helps improve language skills but also promotes intercultural understanding.
Various European cities offer language workshops led by enthusiasts and experts, providing an introduction to different languages.
Storytelling is an incredibly effective tool for learning languages. Libraries, schools, and cultural centers hold multilingual storytelling sessions, where stories from different cultures are shared in their original languages. This helps both children and adults to better understand and appreciate the beauty of linguistic diversity.
Cinema provides a wonderful opportunity to explore different languages and cultures. Throughout Europe, foreign films are often shown with subtitles, enabling viewers to fully immerse themselves in new linguistic worlds.
Museums often showcase exhibitions highlighting the linguistic and cultural heritage of various regions, providing insight into the history and traditions of different languages.
Cafés and restaurants might offer special menus featuring diverse cuisines and multilingual staff – a delightfully tasty way to explore languages and cultures.
Language-based games and competitions, such as crossword puzzles and spelling bees, are organized in schools and communities to provide a fun and educational way to celebrate language.
If you are a teacher hoping to celebrate this occasion make sure to on what to do.
Check out .
Just like the European day of Languages, we at app Languages are fully committed to empowering and celebrating language learners and educators alike. That's why we are now supporting French, Italian, and Spanish language learning with the Global Scale of Languages (GSL). With these new language learning frameworks at your fingertips, you can confidently design curriculums and personalize learning pathways to help fast-track your learners’ progress and help your learners be themselves in French, Italian and Spanish.
Whether you're a teacher, a language learner, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of languages, the European Day of Languages and the GSL provide exciting opportunities to explore, learn, and enjoy the rich tapestry of Europe's linguistic heritage.
Effective international communication is crucial in the world of global commerce. In today's borderless marketplace, companies need to be linguistically flexible to be successful. For HR managers and business practitioners, comprehensive language evaluations are not just an add-on but a vital duty that can enhance your organization's success in the international market.
This guide will take you through the crucial role of language assessment in business. It will discuss why language assessment is important, how to effectively implement it, its benefits for students and business professionals, and the current tools and technologies available. By the end, you will have the knowledge to identify the significance of language assessment in your business and make informed decisions that reflect the essential role of linguistic ability in the modern global economy.
Effective communication is the lifeblood of any successful business. When diverse teams come together, be it in an office, on a shop floor, or at a virtual meeting, the ability to exchange information clearly and concisely can mean the difference between streamlined operations and costly misunderstandings. Language assessment ensures that employees possess the necessary language skills needed to communicate across teams and with clients worldwide.
Accessing international markets hinges largely on the language capabilities of your workforce. Assessing language skills not only amplifies your organization's ability to engage with prospective clients and partners but also ensures that the customer experience is seamlessly delivered, regardless of the customer's primary language.
Proper language assessments play a pivotal role in the recruitment process. They aid in identifying candidates with the language proficiencies required for specific roles, such as those involving international correspondence or multilingual customer support. By enabling a streamlined and objective measurement of language ability, your business can attract and retain talent, securing a competitive edge in a multilingual talent pool.
Proficiency tests are the benchmarks for evaluating a person’s overall language capability. This category includes tests that cover all language skills, such as reading, writing, listening and speaking, like the Versant tests offered by app. These tests provide a comprehensive analysis that helps gauge an individual's ability to function effectively in a language, both in academic settings, the workplace and everyday contexts.
Conversational skills and the application and comprehension of language in real-world scenarios play a significant role in many job roles. Structured interviews that focus on language are a vital component of the language assessment suite. These interviews typically evaluate oral and sometimes written language skills, providing context-specific insight into how these skills might translate in a professional setting.
Simulations that mimic workplace interactions provide an immersive method of assessing language skills beyond language proficiency tests. Candidates engage in practical scenarios that mirror the challenges and dynamics of a business environment, which is particularly valuable for assessing their ability to manage real-time communication under pressure.
When starting your language assessment program, begin with a thorough needs analysis. This involves identifying which roles require language proficiency, to what level and in which languages. Then, select or develop an assessment that aligns with these requirements. It's also important to provide clear instructions and support for candidates, ensuring that the assessment process is transparent and equitable.
Personalized learning plans can be a game-changer for employees who require language improvements. Identify the areas for development, set achievable goals, and incorporate regular assessments to measure progress. This approach ensures that training is targeted and effective, helping employees advance their language skills in a way that's both strategic and supportive.
Proficient multilingualism can open doors to international career opportunities and is a key differentiator in many sectors. A dedication to mastering a foreign language can lead to personal and professional growth, including access to leadership positions and broader responsibilities.
Language proficiency is closely tied to cross-cultural understanding and competence. Business professionals who possess these abilities can traverse cultural boundaries with sensitivity and insight, essential for global leadership and successful collaborations in multicultural teams.
Clear and expressive communication fosters an environment of trust and collaboration. By investing in the linguistic abilities and listening skills of your teams, you're not only improving the performance of individual employees but also elevating the collective capacity for innovation and problem-solving within your organization.
