english Archives - Dialogue

How Cultural and English Training Can Lead to an Increased ROI

Robert Shimwell — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 13:27:19 +0000

It’s always nice to know there is someone new on the way. It’s fresh, exciting, and stressful. No, I’m not talking about babies, but a new employee.

We all know how much time, energy and money companies can place in ensuring a new member of staff is found that can do the job. And I’m sure we have also all had experience employing or working with someone who, for whatever reason, left almost as soon as they arrived.

But why?

It may be that on paper, your new employee is golden. Absolutely capable of doing the job and is making you money. But they already want to leave. Their reason: They don’t feel at home. In order to take this job, they’ve moved to a different country, which speaks in a different language and even eats dinner at a different time. Their emails are “unclear”, they’re constantly being told to repeat what they’ve said and to top it off, they’ve upset a colleague and they have no idea why. They’re lost, confused and stressed.

It can be completely overwhelming.

As an employer, your first thought might be, “I need to ensure our new employee receives support in learning the local language” and you’ll work towards setting them up on a course. This will, in time, help massively – breaking the language barrier will ensure clearer communications, a reduction in errors and a more cohesive team. You may also extend this to their family members, to assist them in fitting in at school, or going about their general day-to-day tasks.

But what about the cultural implications? Would your new employee know that during a meeting, new ideas may take longer to discuss before reaching the approval stage? Or that there is a hierarchy system that must be adhered to? That “Yes” could mean “Maybe” or even “No?” That during meals, it’s preferable (not) to burp/leave cutlery open on the plate or not use their left hand?

If your new employee isn’t aware of the “usual way of doing things around here”, it can cause embarrassment, feelings of exclusion, low morale for the and the team and leave them wondering if they’ve made the right decision in working for you. Therefore, it’s vital to ensure that as an employer, enough preparation and thought is given to ensuring your recruit feels at home – both in and out of the workplace.

Language isn’t the only way in which we communicate.

Understanding a new language and culture isn’t something that can be learned in a day. It requires patience and the understanding that errors will be made, but they will be learned from. If you know you have the right person for the job, start your preparations early and talk to them:

Have they relocated before? Are they bringing their spouse / family members?
How do they feel their language skills are? Are they (or you) aware of any areas of weakness?
What do they already know about the culture of the country they are moving to?
Would they feel less anxious if support was given in the form of language and cultural training?

Preparation is key to success.

Post-pandemic, more and more people are working from home or adapting to a hybrid working style. The benefits of this, from a recruitment perspective, have removed somewhat the location barrier and so your new team could consist of those based anywhere within the UK – and beyond – meeting up in person only every now and again. This new way of working has highlighted more than ever the importance of communication – clarity in emails and on phone calls is vital and on a video call, it’s not always so easy to see and interpret body language, that would usually be picked up on if you were in an office together.

So, if you have a new member of staff who doesn’t use English as their first language, and does not yet have the experience in understanding UK business culture, think about how you can support them further. By investing that little extra time, money and energy into their individual needs, you could be rewarded with a dedicated, long-term member of staff, who is a clear communicator, and effective team member and (unfortunately for them) understands the poor office Dad-jokes and will roll their eyes with the rest of us.

Training isn’t always just about being shown how to use a piece of software. It’s about how to feel at home.

The post How Cultural and English Training Can Lead to an Increased ROI appeared first on Dialogue.

The Power of Language Training: Increased effectiveness of your workforce

Robert Shimwell — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 15:17:22 +0000

Q: What connects: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill?

A: They’re all supposed to have created the famous quotation along the lines of:

Great Britain and America: 2 nations separated by a common language

Now, if getting 2 sets of people who supposedly speak the same language to understand each other seems to have worried these 3 famous gentlemen, what about when the companies have speakers whose languages are different? Apart from the obvious errors of misunderstanding, three other things can occur:

Them and us syndrome

Inevitably, people feel most comfortable speaking in their own tongue. But when there is a multi-national environment, a lack of language skills can lead to cliques, and feelings of distrust and fear – ultimately, a break-down in team ethos and a drop in morale.

Never underestimate the pressure that this puts on the international workforce. Even someone with ostensibly great language skills is working like a swan on the water: elegant on the surface but working its metaphorical socks off underneath to keep up, to communicate in a way that’s sophisticated enough for the given audience. It’s physically demanding too.

Knowing that someone else can understand your language (or indeed that you speak theirs!) levels the playing field beautifully, brings harmony to a team and greater effectiveness. Especially if both sides realise that the burden of being the ‘foreign body’ amongst a group of natives is shared.

Feeling of being judged

I used to teach English to the MD of a large international car manufacturer which had a subsidiary in the UK. His English was really very good, but he refused to speak publicly in English for the first 2 months for fear of being judged – not on his ability to do the job, but on his ability in English.

I worked with an overseas global sales manager who so lacked confidence in herself and her English comprehension that she would use the captions option in Teams meetings rather than rely on her advanced, if occasionally accented, English.

“I just want them to see the real me at work,” was her understandable lament. “Not a 2^nd rate version of me.” Nobody seemed to consider this pressure in the workplace, and nobody considered speaking to her in her native tongue every now and then.

Not taking into consideration a foreigner’s limitations (and of course we don’t include ‘shouting more loudly’ to get yourself understood as a way of helping) can have a negative impact on the team.

Empathy goes a long, long way. And if you’ve felt pressure trying to communicate in a language that’s not your own, you are bound to sympathise more.

Language and Culture

Even when language levels are high, people often forget language can impact on culture and can cause discomfort at best, and offence at worst.

“Sorry, Jim. I don’t suppose you could possibly pass me that file, could you? Thank you. Thank you very much.”

is rendered in some languages simply by:

“Pass me that file!”

“Ooh they’re so direct, the XYZs aren’t they?” – I can hear it now!

Profanity or cursing is another prime example of this. What one country finds offensive, another may not – and by the time you discover how wrong it is, it’s often too late.

Learning a foreign language provides insight into why international colleagues speak the way they do – and then hopefully allows us to cut them some slack when they do it differently from us. Not better, not worse, just differently.

So, what are you waiting for? Get some language skills under your belt – bring that team together.

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