Ensure international business success with language training

Samantha Ball
A group of business people sat in a board room talking
Reading time: 7 minutes

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.

Get in touch about our workplace training solutions

Five ways language can support global business growth
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree ÃÛÌÒapp can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

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.

What can language training help with to ensure a successful business?

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:

Cultural knowledge and sensitivity

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.

Innovation and adaptability

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.

Customer experience

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.

Strong leadership and management

Effective leadership and management are pivotal in setting a clear vision, making informed decisions, and motivating employees to achieve business goals.

Employee satisfaction

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.

Employee retention strategies

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.

How can I use workplace language training to make my business more successful?

Here are but a few ways:

Encourage a culture of learning and development

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 ÃÛÌÒapp to gain an accurate picture of current skill levels and identify existing gaps, helping to address them before they become a potential risk.

Foster strong leadership and management skills within your organization

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.

Professional development opportunities to help employee retention

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.†– ÃÛÌÒapp's global research report,ÌýHow English empowers your tomorrow.

Utilize technology and learning tools

Using online language learning platforms like Mondly by ÃÛÌÒapp 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.

Incorporating language training to gain a competitive edge

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 ÃÛÌÒapp today - a flexible and engaging suite of workplace-relevant language learning solutions designed to develop employees’ language skills and assess progress with Versant by ÃÛÌÒappÌýfor 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'.

Learn more about our English language trainingÌý

More blogs from ÃÛÌÒapp

  • a hand reaching for a book from a bookshelf

    9 great novels to help improve your English

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    Reading is one of the most fun and effective ways to help improve your English language skills. It can help to expand your vocabulary and expose you to different sentence structures, all while you enjoy some wonderful stories.

    E-readers and tablets make learning English even easier because if you don’t know a word, you can click on it to read its definition. On the Kindle, you can even add new words you’ve learnt to its Vocabulary Builder feature, which is stored on the device. Others recommend listening to and reading text at the same time as an excellent way to enhance the learning process. Kindle’s Whispersync for Voice is designed for just this purpose and includes audio with selected books, so you can listen and follow the text as you read.

    9 great novels to help improve your English

    Below, we reveal nine novels, including William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and George Orwell’s Animal Farm, to help improve your English.

    1. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame

    This classic tale takes place in the English countryside and shares the adventures of the animals that live by the river. Grahame’s simple use of language with imaginative stories makes this a pleasurable read for adults and children.

    2. Lord of the Flies – William Golding

    This book is a modern classic and a popular study text for schools all over the world. When a group of boys are isolated on a desert island, the society they create descends into ruthless behavior. Golding uses dramatic and descriptive language, almost like poetry, making you feel like you’re in the scenes yourself.

    3. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Hemingway is well-known for his clear, straightforward writing style and short sentence structure, which is great for English language learners and many people have read it in school. It’s the courageous tale of a Cuban fisherman and his battle to land a giant marlin and it’s a perfect introduction to Hemingway as an author.

  • A Young woman smiling and gesturing at her friend

    Improve your English without saying a word

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    Communicating in English goes far beyond simply learning English vocabulary. In fact, there are many non-verbal strategies you can leverage to appear more confident as you improve your English. Below you’ll find three of the most important aspects of non-verbal communication to work on:

    Make eye contact when you speak in English

    When you’re talking to someone, it’s best to look them in the eye as much as possible. This shows that you are engaged in the conversation and listening intently when not speaking. Especially in loud environments, you may find your eyes drawn to someone’s lips as they talk. While it may help you better understand what they’re saying in a noisy place, like a restaurant, aim to maintain eye contact as much as you can (but do remember to take a quick break away once in a while so as to not stare too intently).

    Be mindful of body language

    What you’re doing with your hands and the facial expressions you make can say a lot—sometimes more than words! Not only should you be aware of the body language of who you’re talking with, but you also need to know what your body language is saying about you. Different cultures see hand gestures differently so it's good to be mindful of what gestures you make with your hands. If you want to appear open and friendly you may want to keep your arms open and avoid closed body language like crossing your arms.

    If someone is leaning away from you slightly, this may indicate they aren’t interested in the topic you’re speaking about. They may lean in closer if more interested in what you're talking about. If they smile a lot, this may mean they agree with you.

    Prepare yourself for English conversations you may have

    If you are planning to practice talking in English, it’s OK to prepare yourself for the conversation. Create a script for yourself to speak from that allows you to practice difficult terms and phrases. Not only will this give you real-time experience bettering your skills, but it will allow you to speak English with confidence.

    Either in work situations or casual conversations, there’s more than just English words being exchanged so remember to dedicate your full attention. It’s an excellent opportunity to practice and improve your English skills and you’re likely to learn more than just studying on your own.

  • A group of young people sat at a table drinking and eating

    How the English language has changed over the decades

    By Steffanie Zazulak

    All languages change over time, and there can be many different reasons for this. The English language is no different – but why has it changed over the decades?

    Some of the main influences on the evolution of languages include:

    • The movement of people across countries and continents, for example, migration and, in previous centuries, colonization. For example, English speakers today would probably be comfortable using the Spanish word 'loco' to describe someone who is 'crazy'.
    • Speakers of one language coming into contact with those who speak a different one. No two individuals speak identically: people from different geographical places clearly speak differently and even within the same community there are variations according to a speaker’s age, gender, ethnicity and social and educational background. For example, the word 'courting' has become 'dating'.
    • New vocabulary required for inventions such as transport, domestic appliances and industrial equipment, or for sporting, entertainment, cultural and leisure reasons. For example, the original late 19th century term 'wireless' has become today’s 'radio'.

    Due to these influences, a language always embraces new words, expressions and pronunciations as people come across new words and phrases in their day-to-day lives and integrate them into their own speech.

    What changes has the English language seen?

    As the English language has changed, it’s been easy to pick out words that pass into common usage. Here at ÃÛÌÒapp English, we have explored some of these recent changes to the English language. The rise in popularity of internet slang has seen phrases such as 'LOL' (Laugh Out Loud), 'FOMO' (Fear Of Missing Out) and 'fam' (an abbreviated form of family) become firmly embedded in the English language over the past ten years.

    Every decade sees new slang terms like these appearing in the English language. And while some words or abbreviations do come from internet or text conversations, others may appear as entirely new words, a new meaning for an existing word, or a word that becomes more generalized than its former meaning, brought about by any one of the reasons above. Decades ago, 'blimey' was a new expression of surprise, but more recently 'woah' is the word in everyday usage.

    Sentence structure is of course, another change to the English language. Decades ago, it would have been normal to ask 'Have you a moment?' Now, you might say 'D’you have a sec?' Similarly, 'How do you do?' has become 'How’s it going?' Not only have the sentences been abbreviated, but new words have been introduced to everyday questions.

    Connected to this is the replacement of certain words with other, more modern versions. It’s pretty noticeable that words like 'shall' and 'ought' are on the way out, but 'will', 'should' and 'can' are doing just fine.

    Other changes can be more subtle. Many verbs can take a compliment with another verb in either the '-ing' form or the 'to' form, for example, 'they liked painting/to paint', 'we tried leaving/to leave', or 'he didn’t bother calling/to call'. Both of these constructions are still used and have been for a long time, but there has been a steady shift over time from the 'to' to the '-ing' compliment.

    What do the changes mean?

    There are many other changes to the English language – what have you noticed? Have these changes affected your teaching or learning methods?Ìý

    Most contemporary linguistic commentators accept that change in language, like change in society, is inevitable. Some think that is regrettable, but others recognize it as a reinvigoration of a language, bringing alternatives that allow subtle differences of expression.

    Linguist, writer and lecturer David Crystal considers whether 'text speak' is undermining the English language. His response to the naysayers who claim it is damaging the English language is to point out that abbreviations have been around for a long time. While some, such as the ones we discussed above, are new, others, such as the use of 'u' for 'you' and the number 8 as a syllable in 'later', have been around for a century or more. Further to this, research shows that there is a correlation between the ability to use abbreviations and the ability to spell. After all, in order to abbreviate, you have to know which letters to abbreviate.

    As with everything, change isn’t necessarily a bad thing and, as the needs of English language users continue to change, so will the language.

    Fancy learning more about English? Check out our post 'How do English phrases travel across countries?'.