Why You Want to Hire Multilingual Employees

Last Updated on November 14, 2023 by Owen McGab Enaohwo

In our increasingly multicultural world, multilingual employees can be invaluable additions to your workforce. Aside from impressive communication skills, people who speak more than one language have a deep understanding of a variety of cultures. The demand for multilingual skills has more than doubled since the 1980s, more specifically in industries that are reliant on human interaction.

If you have not yet considered the idea of expanding your workforce with multilingual talent, here are a handful of reasons why it is essential to diversify your teams with more cultural and language skills as soon as possible.

The Demand for Linguistic Skills is Increasing

The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) states that the United States is home to around 64 million people that speak languages other than English. Multilingual U.S. citizens and visitors have established their presence in every aspect of American society. From our homes to our schools and businesses, millions of people prefer communicating and doing business in their native language, which is not always English. As the demand for foreign language capabilities grows, companies must adapt and ensure they employ multilingual professionals to facilitate these demands from their customers.

The International Market is More Accessible

Multilingual employees can be valuable when you’re tapping into markets outside of your local field. In the case of international employees, this becomes even more true since these employees can help your brand with cross-cultural barriers that you might not have been aware of. Multilingual employees that live in the international market you are targeting can be invaluable when dealing with linguistically/culturally sensitive projects since they have extensive experience with the specific language or culture.

Customer Experience Matters More Than Ever

Customers are much more likely to engage with and follow a brand that offers them support in their own language. As a brand, you are much more likely to give excellent customer service to non-English speaking customers if they can communicate with one of your employees that speak their language. Customer service offered in your client’s native tongue can help foster a more comfortable, familiar atmosphere for them. Great customer service offered drastically improves the customer satisfaction (CSAT) rate which is a very important contact center KPI for any organization. This also helps the companies in building trust among their customers. Your multilingual team members will also be valuable in monitoring culturally diverse setups and picking up on social cues to switch languages, something unilingual employees might not be capable of doing.

Multilingual Employees Are Highly Skilled

Numerous studies have shown that bilingual and multilingual individuals can switch between tasks faster and with ease when compared to monolinguals. They are also better equipped to process information efficiently. Multitasking abilities are in high demand in the workplace and can benefit every area of your workforce. Multilingual employees also thrive in fast-moving and fast-growing environments due to their skills and experience. As these employees are accustomed to switching back and forth between languages and cultures, they are also more open to new experiences and less impacted by environmental changes. Also, finding multilingual employees is not as difficult as it may seem; many businesses find their employees on LinkedIn, with candidate profiles offering information about the languages they speak.

Final Thoughts

The days of hiring merely multi-skilled talent are a thing of the past. Brands with global ambitions must embrace chance and diversify their workforce by adding multilingual employees to their teams.

Hiring professionals that speak more than one language is a growth strategy for organizations that want to take to the global stage. Multilingual employees are invaluable assets to every department of a business, all the way from sales through to marketing and customer support.

With the right strategy, your brand can form a pipeline of linguistic talent that can power your global expansion. There has never been a better time to invest in individuals that can widen possibilities for your brand and lead it into the future.

Author Bio

Sean Hopwood is the CEO of Day Translations, a thriving translation, interpretation, and localization company operating in over 100+ languages worldwide.