Advantages Of Linguistic Diversity In The Workplace
Learning another language can offer unparalleled advantages when it comes to your personal and professional life. Companies are understanding more and more the advantages of having linguistic diversity in the workplace. They want to hire staff that will reflect real world diversity. Having linguistic diversity in the workplace can also help businesses to meet customer challenges.
Communication should be at the center of any organization. This begins with embracing multiculturalism and multilingualism. Having a diverse workplace with several languages can open up new revenue streams.
Let’s look at some reasons that having linguistic diversity in the workplace can be good for business growth, supporting employee development, and helping you to win over and maintain customers.
Diversity Leads To Innovation
Diversity in the workplace leads to innovation. Innovation leads to growth. Research has shown that companies with more racial and ethnic diversity are “35% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians”.
Companies with more gender diversity are also “15% more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians”. According to studies, more workplace diversity doesn’t always indicate greater profit. However, it is suggested that a more diverse workplace is better able to foster innovation and novel ideas. This innovation is a big driver of success.
Being Equipped To Serve Customers
Whether you are a small business owner, or your company is expanding internationally, having a diverse workplace means that you can effectively serve all of your customers. Having employees with different skill sets, who are able to speak a range of languages, can help you to speak to a wider array of people and problems.
Being able to speak with customers in their native language will create trust and familiarity. This can lead to business growth.
Gaining Access To A Bigger Talent Pool
There is a global shortage of skilled labor. The US, Germany, Canada, and Japan are all among the top 10 places where companies are experiencing a mismatch in employee talent. Some of this pain can be removed by casting a wider net.
By hiring immigrants, new residents, or even employees from the other side of the world, you could help your business to thrive.
Employees Will Want To Work For You
If you have linguistic diversity in the workplace, your talent pool will expand, even in your local area. For most employees, a diverse workplace will be an important consideration. If a prospective employee is evaluating your company and your job offer, they will want to see that you place value on workplace diversity.
Supporting Cultural Connections
Language and culture are not completely separate entities. Understanding a language makes it easier to connect with people, but also makes it easier to understand the culture. The more you are familiar with another language, the greater the cultural sensitivity that will develop.
If your company is multilingual, you will be able to establish better relationships with customers and business partners due to awareness of cultural differences. They are bound to notice subtle improvements.
Creating Value And Increasing Morale
If you have an employee who is the only person who can speak Spanish, or Italian, or Mandarin, they can be a major asset to your business. This could open up new opportunities for you. They could save you money on hiring a translator.
You could provide courses and training to help your staff to learn another language. You could also reward employees who make an effort to learn another language. This will boost team morale and create camaraderie.
Saving Your Business Money
If you are working for an international company, relocation of staff may sometimes be necessary. If you already have linguistic diversity in the workplace, this could make transitions much easier.
If new staff feel supported and are able to engage fully at work, they are more likely to manage themselves effectively. This can save a lot of costs on integration.
Building Relationships
Having linguistic diversity in the workplace will help you to build international business partnerships. Communication will be much smoother and this will help you to create lasting partnerships.
Having a multilingual workforce can also lead to lots of active interactions between colleagues. You could provide mentoring services that allow employees to connect with and learn from each other. This could include mentors who speak the same language, to help mentees to feel really comfortable and at home. It could also include mentors who speak another language, in order to help employees to cross cultural boundaries and learn from each other.
Boosting Employee Productivity
Encouraging employees to learn more than one language could make them feel like they can significantly contribute to the company. This in turn could massively boost their confidence at work. Confidence can be a massive driver for action. This is going to stimulate a productive workforce and help your business to grow.
Receiving Benefits For Health
Studies suggest that learning more than one language can delay dementia and other diseases which might affect your brain later in life. This means that providing your employees with language courses and helping them to develop their skills could have massive long-term benefits.
Encouraging Soft-Skill Building
If you are encouraging a diverse workplace and helping staff to develop language skills, this could also help them to develop their interpersonal skills. Learning another language can open up your mind to different ways of seeing the world, making you more effective at solving problems. Having linguistic diversity in the workplace could make your workforce better listeners.
In Summary
There are many reasons for encouraging linguistic diversity in the workplace. Diversity in the workplace is linked with greater innovation, which can drive business growth. Having a multilingual workforce will enable you to better help a wide range of customers.
You will gain access to a huge talent pool if you are open to hiring immigrants. Potential new employees will want to see that you place value on diversity. Having a multilingual workplace will help you to develop cultural sensitivity.
You can provide language learning programs and reward those who participate. Having a multilingual workforce can help you to save money, to build relationships, to boost productivity, and can even have long-term health benefits.
