The demand for professional language fluency will always be growing in a global economy. Business leaders throughout the world must constantly manage an increasingly diverse workforce, serving an international customer base. From the CEO in charge of running a multinational corporation, to a local plumber managing a small business in an immigrant community, professional language skills often mean the difference between reaching new customers, or relinquishing them to better trained competitors.
Here’s what industry experts say about the benefits of language training:
1. Corporate Language Training is Raising Expectations
Non-native English speakers often express themselves in ways which sound foreign to a native speaker. Non-fluency in the corporate world can hurt one’s opportunity for career advancement. And companies willing to invest in professional language training choose candidates from an increasingly competitive talent pool, leading to improved workforce results, facility of communication, and increased productivity.
In 2007, McDonald’s launched a program called “English Under the Arches” which trained non-native English speakers, not only language fluency, but also leadership skills, which led to improved competition for managerial positions within the company. According to Lori Prymak, a regional training manager, 70% of employees who went through the program still worked in the company four years later.
2. Corporate Language Training helps improve the customer experience
Have you ever called an 800 number seeking help with a new device you just bought, only to encounter an operator on the other end whom you can barely understand? From the customer’s vantage, such interactions almost always damage a company’s image. In companies whose business depends on delivering good customer service, such encounters are off-putting and weaken the relationship a company hopes to build with its clients. Granted, most call center operators speak English correctly, but often lack the proper (i.e native) terminology to resolve issues to a customer’s satisfaction.
A priority of any corporate language training program is to improve customer satisfaction. Businesses across multiple industries willing to invest in language training invariably witness improved customer service surveys.
3. Corporate language training helps reduce barriers
Imagine if only one language was spoken on the planet? People could go anywhere and easily communicate, conduct business and interact with anyone.
If a common language existed among producers, suppliers, and clients anywhere in the world, professionals could work at any office, department, city, or country in which the company operated and feel right at home. Corporate language training helps reduce barriers between stakeholders, reach new customers, improve service, and expand a company’s global footprint.
Please contact us to discuss your language training needs and we can then give you an accurate quote.
For more information contact our Language Training Department:
Phone: (617) 277-1990
Email: yfisher@languageconnections.com
