Some of the best organisations in the world are the ones that attract polyglots to work for them.
Multilingual employees have many advantages for organisations in today’s world. They open the door to global business opportunities, allowing your business to connect to markets that might otherwise be out of reach. A culture of language learning can also strengthen your workplace community when your colleagues challenge each other and practice their language skills together.
We have talked before about how you can invest in developing the required language skills once you have found the right person for the job – but how can you make your workplace desirable to potential employees who have already started to develop their language skills?
Stand out to employees with practical second-language expertise
Learning a language can present a significant challenge, so ambitious entrants to the world of work will have already thought about how language learning could be a way to get an edge in the modern business world.
Internationally-oriented young talents may have used a gap year or overseas placement to brush up on some rusty GCSE French, German or Spanish – or perhaps to tackle a new language. Taking a job behind a bar in Italy or in a café in Spain may not, at first glance, dazzle on a professional CV, but the increased fluency that results from chatting to customers and fellow employees over days, weeks and months can be transformative.
A halting grasp of the local language can quickly turn into a well-practised grasp of the basics – and perhaps even conversational fluency – when it is part of your daily routine.
Enterprising young professionals often know that such naturally acquired language skills can give them the edge in a competitive job market – and will want to continue exercising that skill once they begin professional work.
Therefore, if you would like to attract these savvy young minds to your business, it makes sense to ensure there are opportunities for them to use and develop their language skills – even if it’s not specifically required for their position.
Create a workplace culture that attracts language learners
Consider the culture of your organisation: is language learning a feature that stands out and makes your company an attractive employer?
Do you encourage your colleagues to enrich their personal development in a variety of ways through their work – which may already include being open to language learning in the workplace?
If you do, that is great (as long as that message can easily reach your target employees). And if your organisation’s culture needs some fine-tuning, it is never too late to re-evaluate your employee offering – guaranteeing that a job offer from you will tick all the right boxes for future employees with global aspirations.
If you want to find out more about how your organisation can benefit from language learning in the workplace – both to win new business and to attract talented individuals to your team – contact us at Simon & Simon today. We can work with you to establish your language learning requirements and ensure that your organisation stands out to potential new employees.