Every year, entrepreneurs start new businesses and existing ones seek to grow. As more competition enters your market, you need to find new ways to increase your profits and create solutions for your customers’ needs.
One of the best ways to achieve your growth goals is to hire bilingual employees. Discover the benefits of hiring bilingual employees and how they can help you take your business to the next level.
Test Prospective Employee Language Skills
1. Expand Into International Markets
If your business is looking to expand into international markets, you will need bilingual employees to make it possible. As you expand into markets in other countries, you must face the language and cultural barrier that separates your business from effectively communicating with potential clients and investors.
Bilingual employees who speak the languages of the countries you wish to expand into can overcome this language barrier and ensure effective, profitable communication for your business. Bilingual employees are also valuable sources of insight and information, regardless of the second language they are skilled in. They can often offer insight regarding cross-cultural communication to give you the greatest chance for successful expansion.
You should ideally hire bilingual employees who speak the language of the nation you are targeting, so they can accurately interact with potential clients and investors via phone or email. They can also read social media comments and messages from consumers to give you a feel for your target audience.
2. Save Money
One of the main benefits of having bilingual employees on your team is cost savings. Hiring a third-party contract interpreter or translator on a case-by-case basis can be expensive, cutting into your profits.
Instead, you can hire a bilingual employee who will serve as your on-staff interpreter. Additionally, they can complete any other assigned daily tasks within their hired position’s duties.
This approach essentially gives you the benefit of having two employees in one. For every bilingual employee you hire, you will also have a skilled interpreter, translator, and international communicator who can help your business grow.
You can gain similar benefits by promoting from within by encouraging less proficient employees to brush up on their language skills to earn promotions. Startup companies will especially enjoy this benefit, as they are looking to save as much money as possible on the road to achieving their expansion goals.
3. Create a Diverse Environment
One reason why it is a good idea to foster a diverse work environment is because of the new and exciting ideas that can arise as a result. This is especially true in creative environments where inspiration is the key to the next innovative idea that will set that business apart. Businesses in all industries can benefit from a diverse work environment that includes bilingual employees.
Bilingual employees often have unique backgrounds that led them to become proficient in a world language in addition to English. They may draw on these past experiences, using them to guide their decision-making and idea-pitching. Your company will then be in a better position to make decisions that reflect the interests of your entire workforce and a broader target audience.
4. Provide Better Customer Service
Having a diverse workforce that includes bilingual employees ensures your business is ready to meet the needs of its diverse consumer base. Even after cultivating ideal buyer personas and determining your target demographic, you will always have clients who break the mold. A diverse workforce can equip you to better meet those customers’ needs and achieve greater levels of success.
Research about the benefits of bilingual employees shows that over two-thirds of consumers prefer speaking with brands in their native language. If your company has non-English-speaking clients, it will be in your best interest to hire bilingual customer service representatives who can communicate with them effectively, whether through phone calls, online chats, or in-person interactions.
Bilingual employees may be more empathetic to these customers, ensuring customers leave the experience feeling understood and seen by your company.
5. Build Your Online Presence
Today’s businesses use the internet to gain international followings, tap into worldwide markets, and connect with existing clients. If your business has international clients, then an online presence is essential.
Hiring bilingual employees allows you to develop market content for areas around the world where English is not the primary language. As a result, you can boost your search engine optimization, provide educational resources for your target audience, and attract more leads to convert into sales.
Your bilingual staff can also use their language skills to actively engage on social media with users who post comments and send messages in English and other languages. Today’s consumers want to engage with their favorite brands on social media, so answering all comments and messages in whatever language they are given is a must. This is also essential when engaging with customers using a live chat feature.
6. Enhance Your Workforce With Improved Soft Skills
Did you know that nine out of 10 employers rely on employees who can speak languages other than English? One reason bilingual employees are so valuable is that they may possess better soft skills than their monolingual peers, according to certain research. Here are some ways bilingual employees can demonstrate excellent soft skills that will benefit your workforce:
- Multitasking: One study shows that bilingual employees can easily switch between tasks, making them good multitaskers. This ability gives them increased efficiency and work flexibility.
- Information processing: Another study revealed that people with bilingual language skills can process information better than individuals who can only speak one language. This notion makes bilingual employees valuable in settings where information must be processed at a rapid pace.
- Thinking outside the box: Increased multitasking and information processing both lend to bilingual employees’ ability to solve problems in new and exciting ways. This kind of thinking outside the box can lead to new workflow processes for your company and new solutions that can set your business apart from the competition.
Get Started Hiring Bilingual Employees
Language Testing International (LTI) is ready to help your bilingual hiring process. We are the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language proficiency tests, which provide objective, accurate insight into a candidate’s proficiency in a given world language. We provide ACTFL tests for organizations so you can properly vet candidates to hire the right bilingual employees for the job.
Contact us today if you are ready to take the next step.
