When your business needs to overcome the language barrier

Those who want to get a job or a promotion to a position that requires foreign language skills should make sure, before attending an interview, that they don’t overestimate their language proficiency in French for example. Why? More and more employers assess their candidates’ or employees’ language skills by tools that cannot be “fooled”.

Employees’ level of competence in a foreign language was not a decisive factor in hiring a candidate during the accelerated growth of economy, businesses were growing and employers were recruiting continually. The situation was reversed during recession, businesses settled, recruitment, as well as promotions, were made in a more cautious way. Thus, the need for linguistic audit arose, requested by employers to reduce the risks involved in recruiting and promoting processes.

The institutions in the banking sector were the first ones interested in checking whether their employees’ language skills met their requirements. They have started doing so ever since 2010. Today, companies’ need to test employees’ language skills has also become common practice in other industries such as pharmaceutical, automotive, oil and gas and retail.

The institutions in the banking sector were the first ones interested in checking whether their employees’ language skills met their requirements. They have started doing so ever since 2010. Today, companies’ need to test employees’ language skills has also become common practice in other industries such as pharmaceutical, automotive, oil and gas and retail.

Furthermore, some employers use linguistic auditing services in the recruiting process, in order to identify the best candidates and to avoid bearing the costs of a selection error.

Even if the technological advance can facilitate communication in a foreign language (such as Google mobile application for translating in 80 languages), speaking a foreign language plays an important role in business environment. Therefore, language skills assessment will continue to be one of the main tools used by HR departments of companies that want to take fewer risks in recruiting and promoting processes.