Language Proficiency: A Matter of Life and Death

doctors running patient in bed Let’s face it, there is a strong and growing demand for multilingual talent as a natural result of the evolving demographic shifts in the United States. According to a study by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Making Languages Our Business: Addressing Foreign Language Demand Among U.S. Employers, “American employers are operating in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural economy in which 65 million U.S. residents speak a language other than English (40 percent with limited or no English proficiency), and 96 percent of the world’s consumers and two-thirds of its purchasing power reside outside U.S. borders.” However, effective communication is likely to be most critical in the healthcare sector given that language proficiency (or lack thereof) could truly influence and determine the level of care provided to patients with limited English proficiency.

The cultural and linguistic competences of physicians, nurses, and medical teams have a tremendous impact on the level and quality of care that advances health equity and eliminates disparities for a diverse patient population, their families, and the community. An article in BMC Health Services Research entitled “Overcoming Language Barriers in Healthcare: A Protocol for Investigating Safe and Effective Communication When Patients or Clinicians Use a Second Language” states that there is an increase in the number of healthcare professionals whose first language is not the majority language in their country, and also a growing population of patients using healthcare systems where they do not share a first language with their practitioner (Meuter, Gallois, Segalowitz, Ryder, & Hocking, 2015). This represents a major communication barrier when conveying and understanding important healthcare information, it could also represent a safety hazard if left unaddressed, and it is happening all over the world.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (n.d.) challenges the healthcare sector, its leadership, and human resources professionals to establish policies, practices, and training that provide effective, equitable, understandable, and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs. Therefore, being intentional in your recruitment, promotion, and support of a culturally and linguistically diverse workforce requires investing in its professional development and credentialing. One way to ensure that your team members are proficient in another language is to assess their speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills in their second and subsequent languages.

Still not convinced?

In a study conducted to determine whether hospitals measured up the National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) Standards, participants reported the following (Diamond, Wilson-Stronks, & Jacobs, 2010):

• Only 13% of hospitals met all four of the language-related CLAS Standards.
• 19% of the hospitals in the study met none.
• Most hospitals reported using family members and untrained staff as interpreters in the care of linguistically diverse patients, posing a threat to safe healthcare practices and best standards in care.

Where does your healthcare organization measure up regarding the CLAS Standards?

Is your staff culturally and linguistically prepared to address the needs of a growing pool of diverse patients?

Certify your healthcare team today by contacting Language Testing International (LTI).

LTI administers language assessments to hundreds of thousands of candidates every year, and is one of the largest and most respected foreign language proficiency test providers in the world. We offer the highest level of client service as well as convenient online test scheduling and reporting over secure client networks.

Based on ACTFL’s rigorous test development research, standards, and best practices, our testing program and ratings have become a standard measure of language proficiency in the U.S for the past thirty years.

LTI provides valid and reliable reading, writing, speaking, and listening tests for our corporate clients in over 60 countries and 120 languages.

Learn more about our assessments here.

_______________________________________________

References

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). (May 21, 2019). Making Languages Our Business: Addressing Foreign Language Demand Among U.S. Employers. Retrieved from https://www.leadwithlanguages.org/wp-content/uploads/MakingLanguagesOurBusiness_FullReport.pdf

Diamond, L., Wilson-Stronks, A., & Jacobs, E. (2010). Do hospitals measure up to the National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services Standards? Medical Care, 48(12), 1080–1087.

Meuter, R. F. I., Gallois, C., Segalowitz, N. S., Ryder, A. G., & Hocking, J. (2015). Overcoming language barriers in healthcare: A protocol for investigating safe and effective communication when patients or clinicians use a second language. BMC Health Services Research, 15(371), 1–5. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-015-1024-8

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. (n.d.). The National CLAS Standards. Retrieved from https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=53

Language and Beyond

stock-vector-demographic-usa-with-alaska-map-abstraction-people-color-mosaic-usa-with-alaska-map-of-persons

As customer demographics change, companies and hiring managers need to look closer at language and culture as part of the customer service experience. Language proficiency is an indicator of an individual’s ability not only to connect with a customer but also to identify cultural nuances in a shared language that would create trust and customer retention.

In customer service, there is always a script aligned with the introduction, Q&A, and closing that is part of employees’ training. While scripting helps to maintain consistency, how that script is translated has an effect on the customers who are receiving the information. Translations are affected by the language competency of translators or interpreters and their cultural experiences and awareness. Customers are influenced by their language competency, use of language variations (i.e., slang), and their cultural background. When a translated script is presented to a customer, how the script language is constructed, along with the customer’s language proficiency and cultural background, has an effect on that customer’s acceptance or declination of the information (Clute Journals, 2009). Having employees who are certified in speaking and writing in a target language creates an advantage in customer service for multicultural customers in the following ways.

Having a high level of language proficiency allows representatives to nuance their conversation to meet the needs of the customer’s preferred mode of communication (i.e., formal, informal, dialect-specific speech).
With language proficiency comes experience. A representative who can communicate effectively can also identify idiosyncrasies in the conversation that allow him or her to change direction and support customers the way they need to be supported.
Language proficiency aligns with cultural awareness. When representatives are proficient in a particular language, they bring with them their experiences, culture, and past interactions with others that represent the tapestry of that particular language. For example, Spanish is a commonly spoken language. However, there are cultural differences between Castilian Spanish, Caribbean Spanish, and Central and South American Spanish, for example, that do affect how people with a similar language background may interpret a conversation. Representatives that demonstrate high levels of proficiency in a language may also have a greater degree of experience in multicultural speech across a particular language that allows them to communicate more effectively.

As we continue to globalize in all human interactions, taking into account language proficiency and cultural awareness is imperative in continuing to meet the promises made to customers in effective, efficient, and supportive customer service.

bilingual employee language assessment employee language skills language assessment for business language certification language in the workplace language test language testing multilingual multilingual employees oral proficiency testing

The Importance of Communication in Light of the COVID-19 Outbreak

The Importance of Communication in Light of the Coronavirus Outbreak

We’re in the midst of a global health emergency. As the Coronavirus continues to spread, healthcare providers can expect to see an increase in the number of patients with limited English proficiency. How can healthcare organizations best be prepared to serve everyone in need of assistance?

Preparing for Public Emergency

Healthcare providers already have plenty of patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). However, with the current public health concerns and the expected volume of people being affected, they’ll need to be prepared for an increase in patients who need varying levels of language services, which means making sure that they have all the appropriate resources in place to handle the task at hand.

Certified multilingual healthcare professionals are imperative when addressing LEP and patient communication, otherwise the quality of care provided suffers. The language skills your organization needs could mean hiring new staff, or it’s quite likely you already have several multilingual speakers on your team. The real question is who is qualified to deal with today’s communication needs.

In the case of a public health emergency, it’s important to have all hands on deck. Multilingual employees can be an indispensable asset when their language proficiency has been confirmed by a valid and reliable language assessment.

Language testing administered by LTI allows you to measure a multilingual person’s proficiency in speaking, writing, reading, and listening in a reliable and legally defensible manner. This is essential in the healthcare environment, and even more so when dealing with the effects of the pandemic we are currently facing. All communication must be accurate and clear between patients and providers to avoid any confusion that could open the door to miscommunication, medical mistakes, malpractice suits, or worse yet, patient suffering.

Every health care professional in need of language services should be able to quickly and with confidence connect to professional, vetted, and verified language support services to address patient communication. Particularly in cases of COVID-19, all patients and their families should have the right to equitable access to healthcare, regardless of the language they speak.

bilingual bilingual employee bilingual employees determining proficiency employee language assessment employee language skills English language test English speaking test healthcare healthcare worker hiring multilinguals language certification language proficiency language skills language test language testing legally defensible assessment multilingual multilingual healthcare employee oral proficiency reliable assessment reliable test spanish language test test reliability

Certified Language Skills: A Pathway to Foreign Language Incentive Pay

Certified Language Skills: A Pathway to Foreign Language Incentive Pay (FLIP)

Ever wonder if your proficiency in a language other than English could increase your income potential? The answer is absolutely, 100%, YES! A recent report by ACTFL, entitled “Making Language Our Business,” unveiled that the demand for foreign language skills is greater than ever before for U.S. employers. Whether it is in the boardroom, in the field, with customers and partners, or on social media, companies today are increasingly more likely to conduct business in a language other than English.

However, one of every three U.S. employers reports a foreign language skills gap when asked if their employees are able to meet their multilingual needs. In addition, nearly 25% of employers acknowledge losing or being unable to pursue a business opportunity due to shortcomings in language skills. That’s where your multilingual skills can come in handy, and companies are willing to pay an extra premium to put your language proficiency to work for their benefit.

Employer compensation salary incentives that recognize and compensate multilingual workers for their language skills are called Foreign Language Incentive Pay (FLIP) programs. FLIP can be disbursed as a one-time bonus or paid in the form of a higher salary. To get an idea of how organizations may compensate their employees, you can check out the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) FLIP program and the foreign language proficiency bonus established for U.S. military members.

According to the above ACTFL study, the industries that rely the most on a multilingual workforce are Hospitality & Travel, Healthcare & Social Assistance, Educational Services, Trade, Construction, Professional & Technical Services, and Manufacturing. The following is a list of the top languages needed and the percentage of U.S. employers who rely on them most:

-Spanish (85%)
-Chinese (34%)
-French (22%)
-Japanese (17%)

Language proficiency is a valuable asset that employees can bring to the workplace, and employers are willing to pay for it. With Language Testing International (LTI), you can certify your language skills, helping you boost your marketability and thrive in an increasingly global economy. Assessments for speaking, writing, listening, and/or reading, each about a half-hour in length, can be taken from the convenience of a computer or laptop at home or at work. Once you take your language test and receive your certification, which includes your level of language proficiency, you can share your credentials with your employer, ask to participate in their FLIP program, and add it to your professional profile or resume.

Stand out from the crowd, get language certified!

bilingual bilingual employee bilingual employees employee language skills English language test English speaking test FLIP Foreign Language Incentive Pay incentive pay language assessment for business language certificate language certification language in the workplace language proficiency language skill gap language skills language test language testing multilingual multilingual employees oral proficiency spanish language test testing

Why is Language Certification so Important in Healthcare?

Why Is Language Certification Important in Healthcare?

Language certification is essential in healthcare because it ensures optimal patient care and increases safety. Speaking more than one language in healthcare positions helps nurses, doctors, and care teams provide quality care for diverse communities. Overcoming language barriers in healthcare is crucial because it ensures patients receive and understand correct medical information and advice. It’s also a legal requirement for medical facilities to provide services in different languages.

Certify Employee Language Skills Today

Why Is Language Certification Important in Healthcare?

Language certification in healthcare overcomes the language barrier in healthcare, preventing medical misinformation and miscommunication. According to the United States Census Bureau, 67.8 million American residents speak a language other than English. Approximately 39% of Spanish speakers, 35% of Arabic speakers, 52% of Chinese speakers, and 57% of Vietnamese speakers have limited or no English proficiency.

A significant part of patient-centered care is language access. Healthcare providers must ensure patients understand the correct medical information and advice they receive. Language diversity also helps medical practices comply with legal regulations. The government legally requires healthcare facilities to address language differences because it ensures individuals have equal access to medical care.

Providing certified language services to non-English speaking individuals and their families is essential because it benefits patients and workers in the following ways:

Enhanced Patient Care and Safety

Language certification is crucial in healthcare because it helps reduce the disparities linguistically and culturally diverse patients experience. Language testing and certification validate a multilingual healthcare professional’s proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It legitimizes an individual’s language skills.

Multilingual healthcare professionals often facilitate communication between medical staff and patients with minimal or no English proficiency. Multilingual providers can explain procedures and risks to patients and their families. They can also help patients navigate the complex healthcare system. Multilingual healthcare workers who are proficient in the necessary language, culture, and contextual barriers can successfully advocate for patients with limited English proficiency.

Greater Career Opportunities for Healthcare Workers

The healthcare industry critically needs workers with language skillsets, and language certification helps individuals elevate their professional profiles. Certification makes healthcare workers more marketable and provides the opportunity to explore jobs with higher salaries.

Individuals can take language assessments conveniently from their homes, offices, and laptops and add certifications to their resumes. Healthcare workers can better impact their patients and the healthcare industry with language certification.

How to Certify Multilingual Healthcare Workers

Multilingual healthcare workers such as interpreters, translators, nurses, and patient care technicians are uniquely qualified to provide optimal care to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). However, not all self-proclaimed multilingual individuals have the appropriate language skills to interpret or translate medical information.

Providing quality healthcare services begins with ensuring employees reflect the community’s diversity and can help overcome the language barrier. Responsible healthcare providers use valid and reliable assessments when hiring multilingual staff, especially those on the front lines and those who make up the biggest part of a hospital or health center’s care team.

As a healthcare hiring manager, consider requiring candidates to take language assessments during the interview process. An assessment provides proof of an applicant’s language proficiency. ACTFL language assessments properly evaluate language proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language Testing International^® (LTI) is the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language tests and can help you identify the appropriate language proficiency levels and tests for the positions you fill.

Take the guesswork out of hiring multilingual staff. The demand is clear. Ensure your organization is prepared to serve your growing community and mitigate risk.

About Language Testing International

LTI is the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language assessments. LTI has been a language testing leader since 1992 and delivers tests in over 120 languages in more than 60 countries. You can trust LTI to deliver ACTFL tests that accurately evaluate language proficiency. The healthcare industry trusts ACTFL language certification because ACTFL assessments test workers’ abilities to use languages in everyday contexts.

With ACTFL language certification, healthcare workers can boost their careers and increase their chances of acquiring higher-paying positions. Employers can use ACTFL tests to hire the most proficient applicants and ensure their multilingual employees are proficient enough to meet patient needs.

Learn More About Language Certification for Healthcare Providers and Employers

Patients depend on proficient multilingual healthcare providers. Multilingual doctors, nurses, and care teams can help patients with limited English proficiency navigate the healthcare system. They can ensure patients receive accurate medical information and advice to make informed decisions.

LTI can help healthcare providers and employers evaluate language proficiency. As the exclusive licensee of ACTFL language assessments, LTI delivers tests that assess reading, speaking, listening, and writing skills.

ACTFL tests help employers determine the most proficient applicants. They also help healthcare providers enhance their resumes and increase their career opportunities. Contact us to take a test and increase your marketability if you are a healthcare provider. Learn more about ACTFL language assessments and certification for evaluating candidates if you are an employer.

bilingual bilingual employee bilingual employees determining proficiency employee language assessment employee language skills English speaking test healthcare healthcare worker jobseekers language certification language in the workplace language test language testing for positions multilingual multilingual employees multilingual healthcare employee oral proficiency spanish language test spanish test testing

Benefits of Pre-employment Language Testing

The Benefits of Pre-Employment Language Testing for Law Firms & Corporate Legal Departments

Introduction

Attorneys know that Rule 1.1 of the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct “ABA Models Rules,” which has been adopted by most states, requires that attorneys “shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.”

So what happens when a potential client who doesn’t speak English requests the services of that attorney? This scenario is becoming increasingly common. The United States is generally becoming a more diverse country, and the number of cities and counties with minority-majority populations is growing. In cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and others one can hear numerous languages spoken in the streets. This also means that many individuals who may need legal assistance may not be able to communicate in English. How does an attorney provide competent representation if the attorney and client do not communicate in the same language?

While most of us can recall a funny “lost in translation” moment, the legal implications of mistranslations is not a laughing matter. Attorneys know that use of language and word choice matters, and can make or break a case for a client. This is also true when the language is not English.

First, it is important to note there is a legal distinction between “interpreting” and “translating.” The United States Supreme Court held in Taniguchi v. Kan Pacific Saipan, Ltd. that “the word interpreter applies only to those who translate orally” while “the words translate, translations, translator are used when the immediate result of the work is a written text.”

There are two ways to address the language issue. The first is to hire attorneys and staff who speak foreign languages. The second is utilize the services of professional interpreting and translating services. The key question that applies to each of these options is how does an attorney confirm that the people who claim to be fluent in the language are actually capable of competent interpreting and translating?

Is your organization taking shortcuts in determining the proficiency level of your multilingual job candidates and professional language service providers?

For many companies, hiring and outsourcing are long and difficult processes. It requires a lot of resources —both in time and money— to find the right person who will not only fit the job’s requirements but will also fit with your existing team. Thus, how can you make your hiring and outsourcing process more effective and efficient, and at the same time not take short-cuts to ensure that the people or professional language services you hire truly have the language skills showcased on their resumes?

Taking shortcuts like using Google Translate will not be enough, and as anyone who speaks multiple languages can tell you, it is prone to mistranslations. ABA Model Rule 1.4 requires that Attorneys communicate relevant information to their clients. Also ABA Model Rule 5.3 imposes certain responsibilities upon law firms and associations for the non-lawyer services that they employ. The New Hampshire Bar Association Ethics Committee issued an advisory opinion regarding this rule stating that “When the attorney cannot communicate directly and fluently with the client in a language that the client can understand… the attorney must make use of the services of a qualified, impartial interpreter. Ideally, the attorney would accomplish this by associating with a bilingual attorney, working with a bilingual employee or staff member who can interpret communications between the attorney and client, or utilizing a commercial or community interpreter service.”

Case law can show us how even the mistranslation of one word can lead to significant loss. Willie Ramirez was rushed to a Florida hospital after falling unconscious. Mr. Ramirez didn’t speak English and wasn’t properly treated due to the mistranslation of the word “intoxicado.” As a result, Mr. Ramirez suffered brain damage, was left quadriplegic, and reached a settlement with the hospital for $71 million dollars.

Here is why using legally defensible assessments is so crucial to your organization.

To reduce the risks of costly “lost in translation” moments that can compromise the rights of your client, seek staff and professional services who are certified with a legally defensible language assessment. Such assessments should be constructed to be reliable, accurate, and fair. The questions should be well written and appropriate, prompts are delivered in a secure environment, and responses scored using best practices and well-respected standards. The assessments measure, as accurately as possible, a participant’s “true” language ability or performance level to accomplish specific tasks.

Standardized pre-employment language certification is one of the most effective ways to simplify yet add the appropriate rigor to the hiring process—provided that it’s done properly. Unfortunately, not all pre-employment language certifications are made equally. Some are excellent tools for helping you choose candidates and professional services, while others fall flat—and could even leave your firm or organization in a precarious legal situation as mentioned above.

Legal challenges may come from individuals or groups who claim the organization itself, the processes followed (e.g., administration, scoring, setting passing scores) or the outcomes of the testing (i.e., whether a person is certified) are not legally valid. Essentially, the legal defensibility has to do with the question, “Are the assessment results, and more generally the testing program, defensible in a court of law?” In the event that a firm or organization faces a language-related lawsuit, it needs to rely on the certifying organization being able to withstand legal challenges.

There are four main areas where language certifications need to prove their value: reliability, validity, fairness, and cut scores. Each of these areas requires consideration when developing, administering, and reporting (conducting research) on assessment results. Language testing is a high-stakes test, which means it is critical to meet these requirements.

Cheating on tests and breaches of security are areas of concern that throw into question the validity of assessment results. If assessment results cannot be trusted to be an accurate reflection of a participant’s “true” ability or performance level, then the validity of results is questionable and the legal defensibility of the assessment program may be in jeopardy. Security is important in ensuring legal defensibility. Defensibility requires vigilance both in terms of process and information use.
Organizations offering legally defensible language certifications assemble and maintain a defensibility evidence portfolio that shows how they have adhered to best practices and documented their processes and procedures.

How do you know if a pre-employment test makes the grade?

Here are some best practices to help guide you based on the EEOC Employment Test and Selection Procedure Fact Sheet.

1) Pre-employment assessments and procedures must be valid, job-related, and appropriate for the employer’s purposes.

Employment testing is perfectly legal, provided that it meets a few requirements. The test must be valid, reliable, and grounded in research by subject matter experts. That doesn’t just mean having professional question writers. Psychometric guidelines need to be followed, along with certain standardized processes inherent to written or online tests.

2) Pre-employment tests cannot in any way discriminate against a group based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, or protected disability.

U.S. law very clearly prohibits discrimination against anyone on the basis of these protected classes. That means a pre-employment exam that’s within the law must be designed to offer all potential employees an equal chance to display their knowledge, independent of their background.

3) Pre-employment tests must be consistently updated to ensure that the above factors remain true.

Pre-employment tests should constantly evolve to provide the best measure of assessments. Ongoing test research and development provides a valid and reliable testing instrument.

Language Testing International (LTI) offers pre-employment language tests that determine the proficiency level of a multilingual person. Assessments are available for speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Our tests don’t just simplify the hiring process for your organization—they are also legally defensible. To learn more about LTI and speak to a language testing specialist contact us today!

bilingual bilingual attorney bilingual employee bilingual employees determining proficiency employee language assessment employee language skills English language test English speaking test language assessment for business language in the workplace language proficiency language skills language test legally defensible assessment multilingual multilingual attorney multilingual employees pre-employment language assessment pre-employment language test pre-employment test reliable assessment reliable test spanish language test spanish speaking test spanish test testing valid test

Hiring for Healthcare in 2020

female doctor attending mature male diverse

In the healthcare field, employing skilled and competent caregivers who are able to meet the diverse and growing needs of our communities is more important than ever. In a 2018 study commissioned by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, it was reported that 41% of healthcare and social assistance employers say that they rely “a lot” on employees with foreign language skills.

The report goes on to state that employers in the healthcare and social assistance sectors are significantly more likely than employers in any other sector to have a higher demand for foreign language skills now than they did five years ago (65% and 61%, respectively). With a five-year outlook, employers in the healthcare and social assistance sectors are the most likely to expect an increase in demand (64%).

Why this increased demand for multilingual and multicultural skills and communication in healthcare?

Because 65 million U.S. residents speak a language other than English, and 40% have limited or no English proficiency at all. We all agree that a big part of patient-centered care is language access.

How do healthcare providers meet these demands? What is the most valid and reliable way to certify the language skills needed from healthcare workers providing services to patients when English is not their first language?

Hiring staff to provide the best-in-class healthcare services begins with ensuring that your workforce reflects the diversity of the patients in your community. Responsible healthcare providers use valid and reliable assessments when hiring multilingual staff, especially the workers who are on the front lines and who make up the biggest part of a care team in any hospital or health center.

Multilingual healthcare workers such as interpreters, translators, nurses, and patient care technicians are uniquely qualified to provide optimal care to patients with limited English proficiency (LEP); however, not all self-proclaimed multilinguals have the appropriate level of language skills to interpret or translate medical information.

Miscommunication and medical misinformation can be detrimental if not deadly.

Language certification is essential. Being multilingual is not enough; the appropriate level of language proficiency needed, particularly for anyone providing medical care and/or interpretation, is crucial.

Questions such as when and where language was acquired are critical. Did language acquisition come from formal training and education, or was the language acquired at home with family members who are perhaps heritage speakers with limited exposure to medical terminology?

As a hiring manager for healthcare, consider requiring that candidates take language assessments as part of the interview process. Assessments will provide proof of their language proficiency.

Take the guesswork out of hiring multilingual staff in 2020. The demand is clear. Ensure that your organization is prepared to best serve your growing community and mitigate risk.

http://https://youtu.be/yJu0qcFSrYA

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Language Testing International

Since 1992, Language Testing International (LTI), a Samsung company, has been the leader in the development of language proficiency testing for more than 120 languages, globally. In partnership with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), we proudly offer our corporate clients valid and reliable reading, writing, speaking, and listening tests. Each test is designed to properly determine the specific proficiency level of an individual and ultimately to provide a valid and defensible language credential.

From Fortune 500 corporations to small and midsize companies, LTI works closely with your human resources department to identify the appropriate level of language proficiency required for the position you are looking to fill. Once your needs have been identified, we will help you qualify the right candidates with the language skills needed to be successful.

bilingual bilingual employee bilingual employees determining proficiency employee language assessment healthcare Hiring hiring bilinguals hiring multilinguals language assessment for business language in the workplace language proficiency language testing multilingual multilingual employees oral proficiency

Lead the Way With World Languages in the Workplace

meeting room table hands working paperwork global business We are living in a global society; there is explosive growth nationally and internationally. Our clients, prospects, and staff are diverse, yet one in three businesses report a gap between the language skills needed and the employees available to fill the need.

As organizations grow, so does the demand for language proficiency in multiple languages. In order to thrive in an evolving marketplace, consider these steps to meet the opportunities that are ahead.

Assess Your Needs for Language Proficiency

Conduct a survey of your current organization to determine the strengths and weaknesses, and identify the current and future language needs to help your company meet the demands of an increasingly global marketplace. Analyzing where you are today will help you create clear goals for hiring multilingual talent and developing the skills of current employees. Work with an expert to help you take stock of the skills needed internally and externally to meet the demands of your business.

Take Inventory and Capitalize on Talent

Do you have multilingual talent? Have you taken inventory of the skills they can offer your organization? Have you used a valid and reliable measure to confirm what they can do with their language skills? Are your multilingual workers in the appropriate roles to help your business grow? Have you mitigated the risks of miscommunication by ensuring employees language abilities verified and certified? Take the guesswork out of the equation, and use assessments developed by subject matter experts to help you understand where you are and where you need to go.

Hire the Right Talent for the Task at Hand

Once you have determined your needs with the help of language proficiency subject matter experts, incorporate best hiring practices for recruiting multilingual talent. Conduct a task analysis with experts, understand the job requirements and the level of language needed, and incorporate language testing in the hiring process to ensure that the candidates are qualified based on the benchmarks and proficiency levels you have determined to be important.

Language Training

Training the best and the brightest! Targeted on-the-job language training is a terrific way to ensure your employees have the appropriate language and strategies for the scenarios they encounter on a day-to-day basis. In many cases, the level of language proficiency may vary. Training helps your employees’ confidence, mitigates risk, and puts your company in a position to delight your clients.

Build Your Pool of Qualified Candidates

The most successful global companies identify and cultivate a pipeline of multilingual talent by partnering with local universities, foreign language programs, or diverse community groups. Consider offering internships to qualified students who are studying world languages and culture; they will welcome the experience and are perfect for your professional pipeline.

Become an Advocate of Valid and Reliable Language Credentials

Nine out of ten U.S. employers report a reliance on employees with language skills other than English, yet studies have shown that there is a huge skills gap, leaving many employers unable to meet their multilingual business needs. Ensure that your organization has a development plan and multilingual recruiting process that allows it to excel in attracting and retaining talent to serve the needs of your business.

About Language Testing International

Hiring Multilingual Workers and Taking Out the Complexities

two women interview

So, you’ve decided to hire multilingual employees, and that makes your organization simply amazing! Why? Because as confirmed by the New American Economy Report, “Americans lose almost $2 billion each year because of language and cultural misunderstandings.” Thus, hiring multilingual talent is clearly a smart business decision.

Now comes the tricky part—how do you find the most qualified multilingual candidate? Who will have the right level of language proficiency to get the job done? How do you do this with a reliable assessment? Who do you partner with? Perhaps, you are not multilingual yourself. Leave it to the experts!

Experienced human resource managers use language assessments to hire multilingual employees and follow these three important steps:

Hiring Multilingual Workers

Step 1: Have a clear understanding of the position and the associated tasks

What are the tasks you will be asking your new employees to complete in the target language? This is very important in determining the language level they’ll need for the position.

Many hiring managers make the mistake of assuming all multilingual candidates have the same level of language ability. This assumption can be very misguided. It is important to understand how the language skills were acquired. Did they have formal training in college? Did they live or grow up abroad? Are they heritage speakers who learned the language from family and friends as a child around the kitchen table? Each scenario means a very different level and command of the language.

Depending on the position, some candidates with lower levels of language proficiency can get by; however, do they have the confidence to get the job done? Will your customers be satisfied with the service they receive? Is it fair to put someone in a role he or she can’t do well?

Some positions prioritize written language skills, and in these cases, a formally educated multilingual candidate is likely the best fit and the most qualified. The level of formality required in the language spoken (or written) may also determine what level of language skill your ideal candidate needs.

Consider if there is a cultural aspect to the position you’re looking to fill as well. Having a native speaker from the same country as your customer base can help to create trust between them and your company as well as aid your team in successfully navigating what may otherwise end up as costly cultural confusions.

Step 2: Test the skills

Once you know the tasks and the level of language proficiency required, it’s time to make it clear to job applicants. This saves you time and money. Candidates will appreciate the transparency. Not sure what the level of language proficiency should be? Check out this great guide to Oral Proficiency Levels in the Workplace.

According to research, candidates may misrepresent their abilities on resumes, and language proficiency is certainly a skill that can be tested and measured reliably. Thus, there is no reason to take chances.

Multilingual candidates tend to overestimate their language skills, perhaps not intentionally, but unless you are a native speaker yourself, you probably won’t find out until there are issues with performance on the job. Protect yourself from making costly hiring mistakes by testing candidates’ language skills prior to hiring.

Step 3: Don’t skip importance steps the process

We all know the importance of process when recruiting talent. Organizations spend more time than they’d like on hiring, and unfortunately, hiring mistakes are costly. Language testing during the hiring process makes it efficient to find qualified candidates to fill multilingual positions. You will spend less time reading resumes of candidates who mistakenly self-assess and less time conducting interviews with unfit candidates, ultimately reducing the time and money spent on hiring your new employee.

Assessments during the hiring process also lower your turnover rates and even increase productivity, as quality communication skills can nearly always be correlated to higher sales volumes and happier customers.

About Language Testing International

Reflection on ACTFL 2019: Learning to be an Advocate

My experiences at the annual ACTFL convention are always a little different from a “typical” ACTFL attendee. Given my district role as a program supervisor, I am fortunate to start ACTFL Week on Tuesday, when the National Association of District Supervisors for Foreign Language (NADSFL) convenes for its annual meeting. By the time ACTFL convention rolls around, my brain is full and I have to recharge quickly so I can focus on interesting and timely presentations. This year was no different.

As part of the pre-ACTFL time, NADSFL members are able to participate in the Assembly of Delegates (AoD), a one-day meeting sponsored by ACTFL where delegates from state and partner organizations meet together to hear about and discuss issues facing world language programs. This year because ACTFL was in Washington DC, Howie Berman and staff organized a Capitol Hill Day for the AoD delegates. For me, this turned out to be one of the highlights, not only of this convention, but of any convention I have attended.

ACTFL did a great job of soliciting information from delegates ahead of time so that meetings could be pre-arranged. As we checked in early on Thursday morning, we received a schedule that reflected our visits for the day. After a quick orientation on Capitol Hill where we were given talking points and suggestions on how to approach the visit, we set off with our state delegations.

For me, I visited my two state senators followed by my representative. I freely admit that the first visit was a little overwhelming and intimidating. This was something that was very much out of my realm of experience. Fortunately, one of my fellow Texans had participated in visits before so our entire group deferred to her experience. By the second visit, we were all feeling a little more confident and chimed in with comments.

In none of the visits did we actually meet with elected officials, we only met with staffers but that’s not unusual. Most visits happen with staffers; they are the ones who take issues and concerns back to the senators and representatives.

My third visit was all on my own since I was the lone representative from San Antonio but by the time I arrived, I was ready, although still a little nervous! On my walk to the Longworth House Office Building, I went back over our talking points and requests. Part of it was easy, we were discussing the importance of world language instruction and asking for support. As educators, we all know why world languages are important for the economy, for national security, for being an educated 21st-century global citizen. Specifically, we were asking for support of the Title VI International Education Programs in the Higher Education Act; support for the house-passed funding amounts for Title VI and Fulbright Hays Foreign Language Instruction Programs; and, support of America’s Language Caucus, a bi-cameral and bi-partisan initiative to ensure adequate resources are pushed to world language learning (ACTFL Assembly of Advocates Congressional Meeting Talking Points, 2019).

At the end of the day, I was tired, but I felt fulfilled. I had advocated for something I passionately believe in and I had directly participated in the democratic process. Will it make a difference? Time will tell. But after the AoD experience, I have a much clearer idea of what advocacy entails, as well as what it requires. I am ready to participate whenever I can in organized advocacy days at both the local, state, and national levels. And, maybe, I’m ready to take on some advocacy all on my own.

ACTFL actfl conference