Are you actively recruiting bilingual employees to meet the needs of your diverse customers? According to the 2020 Census results, nearly 9% of the U.S. population has limited English proficiency, and 22% of the total population speaks a language other than English at home. With the U.S. population being more and more diverse and multicultural, providing services to customers in their preferred language to meet their needs and ensure your company’s success becomes a necessity.
Benefits of hiring multilingual talent
In the past few years, there has been a steadily growing need for a multilingual workforce. The demand for multilingual employees more than doubled between 2010 and 2015. The workforce has continued to evolve since then, particularly as a consequence of the Covid pandemic: as of 2021, there has been a 30% increase in bilingual remote jobs. Bilingual and multilingual employees bring a lot to the table, from establishing deeper connections with non-English speaking customers to helping build a culturally diverse workforce. Here are a few specific benefits of hiring multilingual talent.
Better connection to customers domestically and internationally
There are millions of people in the U.S. who prefer to communicate in a language other than English. In fact, 76% of customers said they’re more likely to purchase a product if information is available in their own language. When your employees can communicate with non-English speaking customers in their preferred language, they build deeper and longer lasting relationships. Hiring multilingual employees is a must when you’re looking to expand your business globally. They can not only communicate easily with your global customers but can also understand and interpret cultural details and nuances that influence customer decisions.
Saving money
Hiring employees who are highly proficient in other languages can save you money as they can translate documents and engage in conversations with customers and business partners without the need to hire outside translators or interpreters. Your multilingual employees can also assist with drafting and/or proofreading marketing or sales copy in other languages, further saving you time and money.
Multilinguals are better multitaskers and problem solvers
There are multiple studies that show cognitive advantages of multilingualism. For example, a study done by the National Institute of Health shows that multilinguals are much better and faster at switching tasks than their monolingual counterparts. In a corporate environment where flexibility and the ability to pivot quickly is important, multilingual employees can be a great asset. Another study has found that multilingual speakers process information faster and more efficiently than their monolingual colleagues, making them excellent problem solvers and quick thinkers.
Hiring and retaining the best multilingual talent
To ensure your current and prospective employees have the right level of proficiency in another language, make language assessment a part of your recruitment process. Validated and certified language proficiency testing can offer an accurate measurement of language level and eliminate the guesswork on whether a candidate truly possesses the language skills required for the job.
To attract and retain the best multilingual talent, consider offering a language pay differential for employees who demonstrate a required level of proficiency. Language pay differential (also known as FLIP—foreign language incentive pay) recognizes the value multilingual employees bring to a company and helps businesses stay competitive in the rapidly changing global economy. Pay differentials are common in government agencies and healthcare, but more and more companies offer additional pay for language skills. On average, multilingual employees make 5%-20% more per hour.
Determining the minimum level of language proficiency
Hiring and retaining multilingual talent and ensuring they possess the required language proficiency might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be.
Language Testing International (LTI), an exclusive licensee of ACTFL, can help you determine the minimal level of proficiency required for multilingual roles. Through an understanding of your goals, LTI develops the best language assessment plan to meet the assessment and reporting needs of each client and specific job roles. We do this through LTI’s Task Analysis procedure to establish the minimum level of language proficiency recommendation to qualify talent for the multilingual role(s).
Task Analysis is performed with subject matter experts (SMEs), each of whom represents a particular field or profession. They participate in a language needs analysis to identify the proficiency level required to perform job-related communication tasks, establish clear language training goals, and identify specific “training gaps.” SMEs are asked the following questions:
- What are the routine tasks that need to be performed? Are there non-routine tasks?
- What content knowledge is needed to perform the task?
- What is the context/situation of the task?
- Who is the targeted listener?
- What is the impact of miscommunication?
- How well does the employee need to speak to successfully perform the language task?
Decades of language needs analyses and language testing have produced the data presented in Oral Proficiency in the Workplace. This chart aligns minimal ACTFL levels of spoken language proficiency with corresponding workplace positions as determined by SMEs. In addition, there are examples of speaker profiles that are likely to perform at those levels.
Ready to get started with language proficiency assessment? Contact us.
As the global leader in language proficiency testing, Language Testing International (LTI) conducts almost one million language proficiency tests every year in 120+ languages. We partner with Fortune 500 companies as well as small business, academic institutions, and government agencies to verify and certify language skills of multilingual speakers. As the exclusive licensee of ACTFL, we offer the highest level of client service as well as convenient online test scheduling and reporting over secure client networks.