Multilingual employees can be huge asset in global economy
In taking language courses, Bruce MacDonald is doing much more than improving his French skills. The Burlington, Ont.-based president and CEO of Big Brothers Canada says he has also learned how to overcome a fear of failure and built up his confidence, both professionally and personally.
“I absolutely can understand way more, speak more effectively, but I’ve discovered it doesn’t matter if I make mistakes. That one-on-one time with a tutor, forcing me to respond to questions and talk about everyday work life and family life, is exactly what I needed.”
MacDonald started taking courses with Berlitz Canada in April 2008, twice a week, for one-and-a-half-hours. The sessions are mainly conversational but there is also homework and he hopes to achieve the fifth level (out of 10) of proficiency by the end of February.
Big Brothers has about 18 member organizations in Quebec, most of which are unilingual Francophone, so becoming bilingual should help make the national charity more credible, he says, by communicating effectively with all members.
“Our French-language agencies are actually noting the improvement, so they’re saying, ‘Hey, this is obviously important to the national organization, that the needs of the French-language agencies, not just in Quebec but across other parts of Canada, are a priority for the organization.’ So it sends a very strong signal,” he says.
While he initially had concerns about the commitment to the training, MacDonald says Big Brothers mapped a strategic plan in 2004 that looked at areas where there was an opportunity to impact more children, such as Quebec or New Brunswick, so “quite frankly, it’s an investment in the movement,” he says.
MacDonald will speak in French at two separate events over the next month, something he never would have felt comfortable doing before. And in demonstrating his improved skills, he hopes to convince Big Brothers’ board to further fund his language studies.
Survey shows advantages
The biggest obstacles to language training are often the time commitment and the expense. But the advantages add up for an employee who speaks more than one language — a greater range of career options (72 per cent) and job options (66 per cent), stronger relationships with colleagues (77 per cent), accelerated promotions (48 per cent) and salary increases (44 per cent), and flexible job locations (62 per cent) — according to a Berlitz Canada survey of 1,277 adults.
In an increasingly global society, speaking an additional language such as French, Spanish or Mandarin is that much more vital for a successful career trajectory, says Darryl Simsovic, president of Berlitz Canada.
“Language has become more of a ‘hard’ skill, truly a necessary expertise, comparable to leadership and management skills.”
The study also found 38 per cent of unilingual Canadians agree that by not speaking a second language, they have fewer career options. After the two official languages, the most beneficial languages for career advancement are Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese, according to the survey.
Since Canada is considered multicultural, many employees make the mistake of thinking they understand different cultures and put this issue on the back burner, says Simsovic. But when doing business across the border or overseas, it’s important to understand what is driving the behaviour and it’s very easy to misunderstand cues.
Enticing executives
Berlitz Canada is hoping to entice a busy workforce with a new executive centre that specializes in language and cultural training programs for corporate clientele. Located on the main floor of a downtown office building in Toronto, the centre has several training rooms and is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
“It’s an environment geared to a corporate audience. It’s meant to feel like an extension of the office, and not a school,” says Simsovic.
And when it comes to executives, the approach to learning is different. This kind of employee needs to learn he is no longer the vice-president or chief financial officer when he steps through the doors of the centre — he is now a learner, so he must take off that executive hat and accept the instructor knows more than him. The higher up in the company, the greater the need for reminding, says Simsovic.
To make the greatest impact, the instructor teaches exclusively in the target language and ideally the learner is speaking 60 per cent of the time, with the instructor coaching. The pace can be monitored, along with the corrections, to ensure the sessions are effective.
“We don’t want to de-motivate the learner,” he says, so that means correcting them properly. “There’s a lot of psychology involved.”
Offices in Canada are increasingly multicultural offices, so there’s certainly a demand for that kind of training, says Stephen Cryne, president and CEO of the Toronto-based Canadian Employee Relocation Council.
“It may not be that we’re physically working with people either. A lot of the work is being done remotely and virtually, so although English continues to be the primary language of business, there certainly is a lot of need for additional skill sets,” he says.
While many companies provide translators for international relocations, that’s not the preferred option, he says. And the training is not just valuable for the employee, as it also helps family members settle in.
“If they’re worried they’re not able to function daily in the community, struggling to do shopping, to find health-care assistance and financial assistance — all of those things become challenges and distract the employee from the main task, the assignment. So a lot of forward-thinking companies arm their employees with as much assistance as they can.”
Getting past the barriers
The ABCE Language School in Ottawa provides language training almost exclusively to federal government employees. The school provides full- or part-time classes at its downtown location, or on-site teachers, with group or private classes.
“It does help build confidence because many organizations, whether federal or not, government or not, deal with Quebec or other countries that speak French, and these people have to understand what they are working with, dealing with, and it makes the communication much easier,” says Moe Chaouni, director general at ABCE.
“It makes them more confident at work, when attending meetings or conferences. If they don’t understand what is said, they become quite insecure.”
Canada is unlike Europe, where people speak two or three languages, and to be more competitive, it would help if governments had some kind of subsidy.
“We used to see lots of investment in language training and lots of encouragement for employees to take language training, but now it’s gone in the other direction,” he says. “Before, if someone wanted to get into a position where they must be bilingual, they were sent for training. Now, it works the other way, you can’t apply unless you have the language profile required by that position.”
As a result, some highly qualified people are disqualified for positions because of language — and people with lower professional qualifications end up in the position because they have the desired language profile, he says.
