Impact of English Skills in the workplace

15 Marzo 2022

Mundo profesional

Hiring applicants with strong English skills reduces the amount of resources spent on language and job training delivered in English.
Hiring employees with strong English-language skills makes it easier to promote from within if higher level positions require a stronger command of the English language.
Having a lingua franca strengthens corporate identity; we thus focus our hiring efforts on employees with high levels of English proficiency.
Language-sensitive recruitment helps narrow down a large pool of applicants to a more manageable number.

Low proficiency in English may prevent employees from participating in corporate training or professional devel- opment programs.
Low proficiency in English may interfere with how much employees are able to benefit from corporate training or professional development programs delivered in English.
High English proficiency helps ensure that employees are able to contribute their knowledge and expertise.
High proficiency in English helps employees accurately and clearly capture the message intended for discussion.
High proficiency in English helps employees convey their thoughts and ideas in relation to professional matters clearly and accurately.
High proficiency in English makes it easier to implement new learning or new policies.
A higher degree of English fluency opens the channels of communication across employees.

Proficiency in English leads to creating strong team-building opportunities.
Proficiency in English has helped develop English-language skills for interaction with managers, to prepare them for visits, and technical inspection from outside the company.
Low proficiency in English contributes to broken promises and human oversight leading to disappointing service outcomes.
English-language misunderstandings may stand in the way of major cross-border transactions (e.g., contract with a supplier, merger and acquisition, foreign direct investment), which may in turn cause significant economic losses.
Low proficiency in English might lead employees to understand only the basic message in a meeting, not the contextual nuances, which can sometimes be critical.
Low proficiency in English might lead to written reports and e-mails taking longer to write and having more errors.
Employees’ lack of confidence in English leads to customers not having confidence in them, which might lead to doing business with the competitor.
Low proficiency in English skills might lead individuals to appear “flat,” “nonverbal,” or “lacking in insight” given their limited vocabulary in English.

Limited English-language skills may reduce the chances of being promoted.
Employees fluent in English will have an easier time developing international networks.
Employees who are highly proficient in English are more likely to be chosen for international assignments.

¿Cómo una empresa inicia su proceso de internacionalización con el idioma?