Why It#8217;s a Good Idea to Make Your Team Multilingual

Why It8217s a Good Idea to Make Your Team Multilingual We believe that the largest limitation to any company with international ambitions is no longer technological its human, says Jake Jolis, cofounder and CEO of online language-learning platform Verbling. Companies that want to successfully strengthen their international geschftliches miteinander arent limited by how equipped their computers are, but rather by how equipped their people are.Thats why Joliss companyrecently launchedVerbling Enterprise, a new service that enables companies to set up language lessons for their employees.The Problem Language BarriersVerbling Enterprise aims to address one of the biggest problems in international business language barriers. Although email, chat, and video conferencing make it easy to communicate acrosslong distances, international colleagues do not necessarily understand one another when they do get in contact.According to a 2013 U.S. Department of Comme rce report, foreign-owned companies employed 5.6 million people in the U.S., and U.S.-owned businesses employed 11.6 million workers abroad. While some companies strictly hire multilingual employees to make sure employees can communicate across national boundaries, that requirement disqualifies talented individuals who are willing and eager to learn.Normally, companies would address the language barrier by hiring language consultants who visit their offices during set hours to teach group lessons. Human resource managers get stuck coordinating schedules among dozens of employees, and inevitably, there are conflicts, which means attendance for these classes is low. Few employees learn new language skills, and the company doesnt see much, if any, return on its investment.Learning Language Through TechVerbling Enterprise wants to change that by making corporate language programs digital. When companies sign up for Verbling Enterprise, employees are able tobook their language lessons wi th professional, native-speaking teachers. Employers dont have to worry about scheduling lessons, contracting instructors, or tracking language proficiencies. Their teams can learn new languages from the office or at home, and lessona are available 24/7.We are a technology company, and we dont believe the role of technology is to redistributions-mix teachers. Its to empower them, Jolis says. Software is good at many things, but its awful at the spoken conversation practice people desperately need. When learning a foreign language, access to the human-to-human speaking practice is what usually makes the difference between novice and expert.Lessons take place with individual teachers over video chat, and Verbling vets prospective teachers to ensure they meet rigorous standards. Instead of codifying a certain way of teaching, Verbling believes learners are unique and their teacher should be, too.That is what makes us so powerful for businesses, says Jolis. HR doesnt have to worry about trying to find a one-size-fits-all teacher for their company, and employees get to pick a teacher who matches their style of learning.Different companies have different needs. Moreover, different employees within each company have different needs. Verbling Enterprise personalizes lessons around the individual employees goals.Setting Companies Up for International SuccessTwo of the biggest challenges international businesses face when battling language barriers materialize in internal communication and efforts to expand. For some of these businesses, internal communication between offices in different countries functions as a central concern. And for companies that want to offer their services to customers whose first language is different from their own, international expansion becomes problematic without a linguistic common ground.In both cases, we reduce language barriers within the company through investment in foreign language skills, Jolis says.From growing revenue in a new ma rket to cutting costs by improving a supply chain, conducting business across language barriers remains critical to any company with global ambitions.