Speaking more than one language and being able to communicate with others on a more personal level can do wonders for your business, reputation and employees. Some of the benefits of business language learning include building stronger relationships, improving decision-making skills, increasing cultural awareness, increasing productivity and increasing retention.
Stronger working relationships
Not only does language learning help others improve communication skills, it also highlights to employees the different patterns of behaviour and cultures. For businesses, especially global enterprises, this is essential in breaking down barriers and succeeding. Strong language skills help to reduce any miscommunication and can contribute to increased efficiency between teams.
Language training can also provide a range of opportunities to respectfully communicate with other team members of different nationalities and cultures. This encourages a rapport that allows staff to engage confidently whether that be with colleagues, clients or stakeholders. Not only this, but it also helps to engage with new markets. Those who speak more than one language are more likely to feel comfortable expanding into new markets and building relationships overseas. When communication is strong, a more cohesive workforce is created.
Cultural awareness
Having multilingual employees provides the company with cultural awareness which is crucial for dealing with overseas clients. The cultural difference between countries can be vast and if these are not considered they can be detrimental. Learning both a new language and a culture can go a long way and is key to broadening perspectives and boosting innovation.
Increased productivity
Ensuring your employees can effectively communicate with one another makes a huge difference in their productivity levels. Language learning makes a person become better at communicating in both their first language and other languages. When they can communicate better, it speeds up efficiency and boosts productivity as it is much simpler to collaborate with colleagues.
Boosts decision-making
When employees understand one another more clearly, they are better positioned to make more effective decisions. They can thoroughly understand the ins and outs of processes, along with what colleagues and clients in a global business are trying to tell them. In addition, those who are fluent in more than one language can often better understand a situation and are better at processing information. Therefore, they respond more appropriately to a range of situations.
Increased retention
When employers invest in their employees, they are more likely to want to give back and be loyal to their company. Investing in the growth of your staff helps to retain them and ensure they are engaged in the workplace. With a high turnover rate, costs start to increase making it difficult to find the talent and experience that you need, however language learning can reduce this. Furthermore, as employees can connect better with their international colleagues and clients, they will feel more engaged and happier in their working environment.
Investing in your team’s language skills, not only has great importance to your employees but to your business as well. Through investing in your staff, their cognitive abilities will improve, along with attention span, decision making and productivity. These newfound skills will also be brought to light in terms of business processes. With increased communication skills, employees, clients and stakeholders alike will all be in a better position to understand one another more clearly and there will be positive growth within the business. It is also extremely important in retaining employees and allows you to hire from a wider talent pool. This language learning benefit is seen as highly attractive by many and will therefore ensure the company becomes more successful.