Language Strategy - Take this short quiz to find out if your company might benefit from the developm

Does your organisation employ individuals from different countries?

1. Does your organisation sell its products and services internationally?

2. Is your organisation multi cultural?

3. Are your teams made up of individuals with different native/first languages?

4. Do some of your customers speak a different language to you?

5. Does your organisation have a lingua franca, a common language across all territories?

6. Would your company be able to serve its customers better if all its employees were proficient in the lingua franca?

7. Does your organisation recognise that language proficiency is a corporate necessity?

8. If employees need to improve their language skills does your organisation provide during work hours, onsite language development under the guidance of a a qualified language consultant?

9. If employees need to improve their language skills, would your organisation expect its employees to learn the lingua franca outside work hours and in their own time?

10. Do you think it would improve the motivation and goodwill of staff if language training was provided during work hours and onsite, rather than expecting employees to learn in their own time?

11. Have you sometimes received emails or other digital messaging from foreign colleagues or customers that don’t really make sense or where meaning could be misunderstood?

12. Have your or your colleagues ever been in situations where you have had to adjust your language and cultural cues in order to be understood by a foreign colleague or customer?

If the majority of your answers are YES there is a good chance that your organisation would benefit from the development of a language strategy in order to ensure that staff are adequately equipped to deal with colleagues, customers and other stakeholders in a multi cultural business environment.