Everyone should know that language is leverage, but not just while traveling abroad. The business world is in high demand for bilingual individuals. Communication is the gateway to profit for any company or organization and those who speak more than one language are at an advantage in the current job market. Bilingualism is a communicative tool that can be useful for business travel, sealing international deals, or simply interacting with partners overseas.
The French language in particular is highly sought after in the Canadian workforce as more companies maintain a preference for English, French-speaking workers. Here are 4 advantages a business can secure by hiring French-speaking employees.
Client Care
Clients are often located around the world, so what is one way a business can ideally handle its consumer base? Bilingualism. Roughly 75% percent of Canada’s population speak English while nearly 23% speak French. The primary objective of any business should be to accommodate its clients and offering service that meets their linguistic needs is imperative. Perhaps a customer only speaks French or another client speaks both French and English but is better versed in English. Maintaining numerous employees who can easily transition between both languages is the best solution for this situation. No business wants to experience a missed opportunity or resort to turning away a client because of miscommunication due to a language divide.
Positive Partnerships
Expanding the network and securing beneficial business connections is essential for any business to succeed. To ensure optimal success, especially for overseas relations, having bilingual employees can be the difference between a lost or won business deal. Even if bilingualism is not required for a job role, this ability makes an individual stand out as a candidate with good potential. Extending a business’s reach like this helps its reputation shine and gives a good impression to the other side, proving the business has invested in an adaptable team.
Workplace Relations
Communication among employees is just as important as client communication. For progress to be possible, efficient interaction between teams is crucial. Perhaps a business in Canada moves a new hire to Quebec but this employee is a native English speaker with no knowledge of the French language – this would be quite a dilemma as almost 90% of the province’s population are fluent French speakers. A reasonable resolution to this issue is offering language training from MPM for instance, to effectively teach and prepare Canadian employees for such environments that require this communication skill.
Workload Navigation
Small tasks should never be overlooked – the seemingly insignificant parts of a business are equally necessary to prioritize for an efficient process. Many assignments in business like reading emails or proofreading documentation require a bilingual for translation responsibilities. Without this individual, not much could be accomplished due to mere language barriers. Having an employee that understands both English and French can easily adjust to both communication demands, regardless of the format. Whether they are required to write or speak either language, the task is feasible for them because they are well versed in both languages.
