Businesses often hire new employees, assuming that the person they really need works outside the company. Instead of an external job search, though, employers should look internally. Training is one of the ways to both increase an employee’s potential and prep them to fill your open roles. Particularly in companies with a lot of employees who need English translation or interpreting services, a business ESL program is a great investment. According to The Statistics Portal, English is the 3rd most spoken language with over 378 million native speakers in the world. Half a billion people use it as a second language. No matter how big or small your business is, a business English course for your employees will always yield a strong ROI for 3 reasons: it increases employee productivity, increases business opportunities, and it often facilitates better employee retention long term. Read on to discover why you should help your employees improve their English skills.
A Business English Program Increases Employee Productivity
Business ESL courses help employees reach new levels of productivity for a few reasons. Firstly, as employees learn the language, they’ll become more confident in their translation and interpretation skills from their mother tongue. With more confidence comes more of a self-starter attitude. If your employee feels good about their English, they’ll ask for (or ideally, simply take on without prompting) more projects that require the language. Helping your employees gain confidence in their English skills means you’re helping them feel better about taking on a more intense workload. The second reason Business English lessons increase productivity is because they help employees communicate better with their coworkers, clients, and vendors. Anybody who’s tried to cross language boundaries knows it can take exponentially longer to discuss or do anything when you speak different languages. Offer your employees intensive business English, and they’ll complete any task where they need to speak English much faster.
A Business English Program Increases Business Opportunities
How does it build you more business if your employees study business English? Better English will improve an employee’s ability to do imperative, money-making activities. With better English, an employee can negotiate and network more easily and effectively with English speaking customers, clients or vendors. They can also just provide better overall customer service. This will help retain and win more customers. In a 2012 article by Harvard Business Review, English is cited as the language that many global corporate giants (including Airbus, Daimler-Chrysler, Nokia, Samsung and Microsoft) are calling their ‘corporate language.’ This trend has only grown in the past 6 years. With this myriad of companies offering English speaking representatives, yours will be left in the dust if you can’t do the same. Give your employees access to a business ESL program and you’ll open the door to more business from the English-speaking market around the world!
It Also Helps Retain Employees
The last reason you should offer language training classes for your employees is that it will build company loyalty. When you invest in your employees, particularly when you provide them with skills that help them both in and out of the office, they’re more likely to want to perform better and stay with your company longer. You’re also likely making your employees happy when you give them the tools to perform better at work. As mentioned earlier, an employee who speaks better English can become more confident and perform more tasks– maybe even generate more business. It’s worth noting this isn’t just effective for that one, happy employee. Happy, effective employees spread good attitude and motivation among others (just like bad and disgruntled employees spread their attitude to coworkers). Make your employees happier, and you’re more likely to retain them longer. This will definitely save money. Some studies find that replacing an entry-level employee can cost up to 40% of their salary. Offer your employees a business ESL program or advanced ESL course. It’s about more than just language skills: it’s also about retaining employees!
About Language Connections:
Language Connections is one of the top language service companies in the US. Over the last 30 years, we’ve focused on providing the best business translation services, interpreting services, as well as interpreter training and customized language training programs. In addition to top-tier corporate language training, we offer certified corporate interpreters and professional business translation services in 200+ languages. Our network includes linguists with backgrounds in all major industries. They’re ready to meet your needs, whether they’re for technical translation services, legal translation, government translation services, international development translation services, education translation services, life sciences translation, or something else. Reach out to us today for a free quote on our cost-efficient and timely translation services, interpreters, or other linguistic services.
Language Connections Inc.
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Boston, MA 02135
Phone: +1-617-731-3510
Email: service@languageconnections.com