If you work in a large, global organization, especially within the European Union, you will likely be required to communicate and work alongside colleagues in different regions. Multilingual employees have the ability to communicate effectively across international borders, making them prime candidates for promotion over their monolingual colleagues.
Companies who operate internationally have to interact with people in many different countries, who may not speak the same languages as them. Language training is obviously beneficial in these situations, but should it be mandatory?
Brexit has occupied the front pages of both European and International publications. The entire world is watching expenctantly to see if the project of a common Europe will crumble under the unexpected decision of 52% of the British population. At the moment, the exit of the UK from the EU seems very likely to become a reality.
Like other multinational organizations, NGOs working in multiple countries face a major challenge to their productivity and success: the language gap between staff in various national offices. Take ChildFund for instance, which works to support vulnerable children worldwide: “English is the great unifying language of our business,” says Leslie Crudele, ChildFund’s International HR Business Partner. “We have staff around the world that are n on-native English speakers, and they’re asked to use English in their business communications.”
Communication as your Competitive Advantage Savvy organizations know that business agility needs to be driven from the ground up and that better communication removes language silos in a multinational and speeds up the time required to achieve a competitive advantage and drive results. [...]