Why is it beneficial to vet prospective employees for proficiency in a second language they claim to have before hiring them?
There are different reasons why companies vet prospective employees. According to Indeed Career Guide, employers vet candidates to verify certifications, credentials, or educational training that could make the job seeker a perfect candidate for the role. Additionally, an employer may conduct background checks on the applicant and contact their past employers to better understand their abilities and professional history. The vetting process might also include verifying candidates’ language proficiency if the role requires someone who can communicate in two or more languages. Verifying candidates’ language skills helps mitigate any language gaps the company is experiencing that prevents them from growing their market share.
All these steps, which can vary depending on the industry, help employers eliminate unqualified applicants for a particular position and allow them to concentrate only on prospective employees that are a good fit for the company. The goal is to save time and money through the process, by identifying the ideal candidates when setting up the interviews, and most importantly, choosing the best talent when making the hiring decision.
The ability to communicate clearly and effectively with a diverse clientele is essential for a company’s success. As reflected in a 2018 survey released by ACTFL, nine out of ten U.S. employers rely on employees with language skills other than English. Conducting assessments of multilingual skills in the workplace as one of the first steps during the hiring process is a strategy that can reduce the risk of losing a business opportunity in the future. When a formal language proficiency assessment is in place as part of the recruitment process, companies are better prepared to identify people who truly command the second language they have featured on their resume. “Notable differences in how employers rate employee foreign language skills surface when comparing organizations that offer foreign language testing and training compared to those that do not,” stated the survey.
It is also important to verify if bilingual or multilingual job seekers have been honest when applying for a position. “In a 2015 survey by CareerBuilder of 2,000 full-time hiring managers in the US, 56% said they had caught an applicant in a lie, like bloating past job titles and responsibilities to even listing an imaginary university. What’s more, they specifically said that 63% of applicants embellished a skill on their CV” (Lufkin). Lufkin also mentioned that “Another survey of 2,000 hiring managers by Hloom, a company that provides templates for cover letters and CVs found that the second-worst lie an applicant could put on their CV was foreign language fluency – topped only by lying about the university they graduated from and followed by academic major.”
Survey results suggest that people tend to lie about language skills on their resume and curriculum vitae (CV) because “language skills are easy to lie about.” Why do applicants lie about their language skills? “Maurice Schweitzer, a professor of management at Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania’s business school, boils it down to something he calls ‘elastic justification’: ‘Where basically, they exaggerate things where it’s difficult to draw a bright line – so language is a good example,’ he says.”
Read more –> BEWARE: A Claim of Language Fluency on a Resume Isn’t Enough
As employers begin their search for new talent and start the vetting process, it is advisable to seriously consider language proficiency assessments as part of the recruitment process in order to avoid serious issues in the future. Partnering with an experienced and reliable language assessment provider is a simple solution to ensure that prospective new employees possess the appropriate level of language proficiency.
Read more –> How to Recruit Multilingual Employees
Language Testing International (LTI) can help. LTI works with corporate clients to test language proficiency of prospective candidates and current employees. With 30 years of experience providing language assessments to the corporate sector, LTI has tested hundreds of thousands of candidates in over 60 countries and in over 120 languages. It is the largest and most respected world language proficiency test provider globally.
As the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language proficiency assessments, we proudly offer our corporate clients valid and reliable speaking, writing, reading, and listening tests. We offer the highest level of client service as well as convenient online test scheduling and reporting over secure client networks.
Sources
Indeed Career Guide. Indeed Editorial Team. “What is the Vetting Process?”. Updated March 8, 2021. Published September 25, 2020.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/vetting-process
Lufkin, Bryan. “Can you actually speak the languages you list on your CV?”. BBC. WORKLIFE. 20th August 2018.
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Lead with Languages Campaign commissioned Ipsos Public Affairs, with the support of Pearson LLC and Language Testing International. (2019). “Making Languages Our Business: Addressing Foreign Language Demand Among U.S. Employers.” https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/report
