How language verification helps organizations maximize ROI, strengthen retention, and unlock the full value of multilingual talent.
By Marilyn Burgos, MS, CDMP, and Renée Tarrant
As the U.S. workforce becomes more diverse, many employers offer a bilingual pay differential to attract, hire and retain bilingual talent.
Bilingual employees connect their organizations with the diverse communities they serve across sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, government, banking, transportation, and customer support.
Businesses value multilingual communication skills as a competitive advantage. According to ACTFL, 90% of U.S. employers rely on employees with language skills beyond English, and 56% expect demand for multilingual talent to increase over the next five years.
Employers are recognizing that multilingual demand is rising. Many are adopting new bilingual pay policies and most are revisiting and updating the ones in place to meet changing workforce needs. With these investments growing, many leaders are asking a critical question:
How can we ensure our bilingual incentive pay program delivers measurable business value?
The answer? Verify language proficiency through objective assessment.
Business value: Reduces risk, improves service quality, and ensures consistent language capabilities across the workforce.
Why Organizations Invest in Bilingual Incentive Pay
Bilingual employees offer more than translation. They build trust, foster relationships, and improve communication with diverse staff and customers.
As organizations compete for talent and pursue new opportunities for growth, bilingual incentive pay has become a strategic tool for:
- Attracting qualified multilingual talent
- Improving employee retention and engagement
- Expanding access to diverse customer populations
Research reinforces this business case. ACTFL’s Making Languages Our Business survey discovered that nearly one in four employers lost business opportunities due to language-related challenges. Nearly half also reported needing multilingual capabilities to serve customers and stakeholders within the United States—not just internationally.
These benefits enable multilingual employees to strengthen customer relationships, reduce communication barriers, and support growth initiatives. As workforce demographics shift, organizations increasingly view language capabilities as a core business asset.
In addition, organizations strengthen employee retention when they recognize and reward valuable skills. Recognizing multilingual skills with compensation increases engagement, improves retention, and aligns contributions with organizational goals.
Related Reading: Employee Retention Is Linked to Offering Value: Take a Look at Language Incentive Pay, Language Testing International.
The Hidden Risks of Unverified Language Skills
Despite growing adoption, many bilingual incentive pay programs rely on individuals’ self-reported language ability, or interviews conducted in the target language.
While convenient, these approaches carry several hidden risks that can weaken program effectiveness, diminish return on investment, and create unintended fairness concerns.
Risk #1: Using Self-Reported Language Proficiency
- Individuals might overestimate their ability to qualify for the role but not be able to conduct the level of communicative work necessary for the role to avoid miscommunication.
- Others may underestimate their ability due to modesty, anxiety, or cultural factors. This can create systematic bias across groups
- Without the use of a standardized process, self-reported proficiency is not comparable across candidates or populations. Terms such as “fluent,” “proficient,” or “conversational” are interpreted differently by different people.
Risk #2: Inconsistent Standards Create Fairness Concerns
When bilingual pay eligibility is determined through interviews conducted in the target language, inconsistent standards might be applied from one interview to the next.
Questions to consider:
- How does the organization handle the potential of unconscious bias as different interviewers may reach different conclusions about the same candidate?
Over time, inconsistent qualification criteria can lead to concerns about compensation fairness, employee morale, and overall program credibility. Employees are more likely to trust bilingual incentive pay programs when eligibility is determined through objective, transparent, and consistently applied standards.
For organizations focused on equity and employee engagement, consistency is just as important as recognition.
Risk #3: Reduced Return on Investment
Bilingual incentive pay is intended to generate measurable value for both employees and employers. Yet many organizations lack a reliable way to determine whether incentive payments are producing the desired outcomes.
Leaders should be able to answer three critical questions:
- Are incentive payments aligned with actual business needs?
- Are communication barriers being reduced?
- Is the program producing measurable outcomes?
Without verified proficiency data, these questions become difficult to answer. Verification provides the foundation for connecting compensation decisions to organizational performance and business results.
Risk #4: Operational and Reputational Risk
In industries where communication directly impacts safety, compliance, customer trust, or employee relations, language communication errors can have significant consequences.
When organizations rely on interviews in the target language to determine bilingual pay eligibility, standards can vary across interviewers and locations. It now becomes a risk management consideration. Verifying language capabilities help organizations reduce communication-related risks while increasing confidence among customers, employees, and stakeholders.
Why Language Proficiency Verification Strengthens Bilingual Incentive Pay Programs
The most effective bilingual incentive pay programs treat language proficiency as they would any other professional competency. Organizations routinely verify certifications, licenses, and technical qualifications because these credentials influence performance and business outcomes. As with other jobs requiring proficiency-based skills (i.e., surgeons, nurses, EMTs, pilots, IT engineers, commercial drivers), language ability can diminish over time when not regularly used. Organizations should verify language skills through assessments just as they verify other professional qualifications.
Improve Fairness
Objective language testing creates a consistent benchmark for qualification, ensuring employees are evaluated against the same standards regardless of department, location, or manager.
Protect Compensation Investments
Verification helps employers confidently reward employees whose language capabilities directly support organizational objectives and customer needs.
Enhance Program Credibility
When compensation decisions are based on demonstrated proficiency rather than assumptions, trust in the program increases among employees, managers, and leadership teams.
In addition to strengthening fairness and accountability, language verification provides greater visibility into workforce capabilities, helping leaders make more informed staffing, development, and workforce planning decisions.
Why ACTFL® Language Assessments Matter
For organizations seeking to strengthen bilingual incentive pay programs, objective language assessment provides a reliable foundation for decision-making.
Language Testing International® (LTI), the exclusive licensee of ACTFL® assessments, provides legally defensible language credentials in more than 120 languages.
ACTFL® assessments evaluate real-world proficiency across speaking, listening, reading, and writing, helping employers determine the specific language capabilities bilingual individuals can demonstrate. Rather than relying on assumptions or self-reported ability, organizations gain objective data that can support compensation decisions, workforce planning, and talent development initiatives.
Because assessments can be securely administered through remote proctoring, organizations can evaluate employees efficiently regardless of location. This flexibility makes language verification scalable while maintaining consistent standards across the workforce.
By pairing bilingual incentive pay with verified language credentials, employers can strengthen program integrity ensuring compensation decisions align with measurable skills and business outcomes.
Is Your Bilingual Incentive Pay Program Delivering ROI?
Organizations must consider the following questions:
- How do employees currently qualify for bilingual incentive pay?
- Is language proficiency objectively measured or self-reported?
- Can leadership demonstrate measurable return on investment?
If these questions are difficult to answer, it may indicate an opportunity to strengthen language verification practices and maximize the value of your bilingual incentive pay program. Contact us to learn more.
Help Shape the Future of Bilingual Incentive Pay
As organizations continue investing in multilingual talent, understanding how employers’ structure and manage bilingual incentive pay programs is increasingly important.
We are currently gathering insights from HR leaders, talent acquisition professionals, operations leaders, and business executives to better understand how organizations approach bilingual incentive pay—from early planning to established programs.
We invite you to participate in a brief survey and share your organization’s perspective.
As a thank you, participants will be entered into a raffle for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.
Your feedback will help broaden understanding of how organizations recognize, reward, and validate multilingual skills in today’s workforce.
References
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (n.d.). Making languages our business. Retrieved June 11, 2026, from https://www.actfl.org/advocacy-and-public-education/making-languages-our-business
CSA Research. (n.d.). Can’t read, won’t buy: Why language matters in global commerce. Retrieved June 11, 2026, from https://insights.csa-research.com
Language Testing International. (2025). Employee retention is linked to offering value: Take a look at language incentive pay. Retrieved June 11, 2026, from https://www.languagetesting.com/blog/employee-retention-is-linked-to-offering-value-take-a-look-at-language-incentive-pay/
