Language training can help you get your job done faster and better

It won’t be exaggerating if I said that communication is the key to a successful life. Ideas can come to life only when they are communicated effectively. Data collected from various researches conducted across the globe shows that communication skill is one of the top five skills that makes a person employable. Therefore, it becomes extremely important to eliminate communication barriers especially the ones that affect our professional growth. Needless to mention the biggest communication barrier in today’s globalized and multilingual economy is the language. Be it your clients or your employee or employer, you can develop a strong professional relationship with anyone when you communicate and interact in the same language.

Lack of language skills in your employees- are you willing to bear its impacts?

The impact that language skills can make on productivity is huge and cannot be ignored. Let’s take into account a few of them:

Efficient employees might be left out and not be able to contribute their best- It’s highly likely the employees with good knowledge of business might not be able to prove their mettle and be an asset to the company because of their lack of language skills which keeps them on the back-foot.
Employees might not be able to collaborate well with the co-workers- The importance of teamwork for the success of any organization is immeasurable. Proper collaboration and teamwork are possible only when employees can communicate well without having to deal with language barriers so that they understand and value each other’s opinions.
Mishaps and mistakes- Improper communication can lead to mishaps and mistakes in the job causing loss to the company. The sole reason behind this loss is the misunderstanding caused due to lack of language skills.
Employees might not share their important ideas and opinions- Many a time it has been observed that people from different or rarer linguistic backgrounds refrain from sharing their ideas out of the apprehension that they won’t be heard or understood.
Lower turnover- Lack of language skills in employees will force the company to replace them and train new employees which will eventually lead to lower turnover for the company. The extra time spent in the recruitment process is an additional loss.

Why is a language training program important for your employees?

A workforce that is language proficient can act as a blessing for the company’s growth as they will ensure

Lesser mistakes and mishaps- When a group of people communicates in the language in which all of them are equally proficient, the chances of misunderstanding are highly reduced which will eventually lead to a decrease in mistakes occurring due to lack of communication.
Higher turnover- A language skilled workforce is an asset to the company that can help increase the turnover in many ways such as increasing sales, generating more leads, developing a better relationship with the client, etc. Further, there won’t be any need to replace the employees untimely and waste organizations’ time and money in hiring and training new employees every now and then.
Faster problem resolution- Effective communication between people from different backgrounds and department brings new perspectives and ideas to the table which can help to solve any problem. You can have clients and customers from different parts of the world and never have to worry about addressing their problems and queries because you have a language skilled workforce who can deal with customers from different linguistic groups.
Higher employee value- It does not need to be that a person with multiple and versatile skills is always more valuable and preferable over a person with a lesser number of skills.
Stronger employee harmony- Learning new and different languages tends to make a person more empathetic and tolerant towards others’ cultures and values and generates employee harmony. Additionally, I cannot emphasize enough that how important these qualities are in today’s business world especially for people involved in sales or marketing roles

Last but not the least, learning a new language or for that matter, any new skill always enhances the analytical thinking of the participant. In his article ‘Why Bilinguals Are Smarter’, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee of the New York Times writes, “The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks.”

CHOOSING THE RIGHT LANGUAGE TRAINING PROGRAM

Often the employees fail to work on their language skills due to various reasons such as lack of time and family obligations. Moreover, it’s hard to find training sources that are cost-effective, reliable as well as fitting to the schedule of working employees.

Research and surveys have proved that a company’s productivity and language proficient workforce are directly linked. Providing its employees the right Language training programs can hence prove to be one of the best measures that the company can take to grow itself. The return on this investment is not only guaranteed but also high.

The next question that arises here is how one can choose the language training program that will suit best for the employee as well as the company. There might be a lot of options available but not all of them are reliable and worth our time and money. The plethora of options available makes the task even more difficult and time-consuming. However, focusing on certain important parameters can help one make the right decision without having to spend a lot of time.