Business English- Positive Effects of English Language Learning for your Staff

Have you noticed how every non-English speaking nation has the greatest number of online spoken English classes? English, being the global language, is also the primary language of the corporate world. There are roughly 360 million people whose native language is English with approximately 20 percent of the world's population who speak English all around the world.

There are many companies who do not use English officially, but it certainly is a great asset to several organizations, especially the companies who deal with international clients regularly. Indians who learnt English as their second language (ESL) post colonization were the first to tap the on the rapidly growing software service business in the early 90’s. This success and post the pandemic gave rise to multiple online English speaking courses in India.

English is the language of business across the world. The employees engage with people who speak English at regular intervals, thereby encouraging English speaking skills in the workplace. Organizations are training their employees on how to speak fluent English by hiring tutoring services from online English teachers. In fact, there are umpteen reasons why language learning is an integral part for any staff and the benefits are surely more than just being able to express in that language.  

Why English language learning is important for your staff?

1. Develops Efficient Interpersonal and Networking skills

Interpersonal and Networking Skills are the ways we communicate with people and maintain professional contacts. Communicating to clients in international business is not just verbal communication. It is more than that requiring the staff to compose emails, write reports, and use English in social conditions. Hence, ‘Spoken English fluency’ becomes a key aspect when interacting with others.

2. Boosts Self-Confidence

Learning a new language can often make us feel nervous and dampen our spirit. But, once you learn and can communicate in a second language, it definitely increases your self- confidence. Moreover, learning English makes you feel comfortable around colleagues whom you avoided because of poor English speaking skills.

3. Improves Connections and Internal Communication

Language skills not only improves external communication but also enriches internal communication within people of the organization. Being able to communicate in a similar language provides a platform for working together smoothly and enhances collaborative problem solving among members in a multilingual team. Hoffman and Maier (1961) showed that heterogeneous groups produced high quality solutions as compared to homogenous groups (65 percent vs. 21 percent). Neff and Dossick (2011) further found that communication facilitates interaction and leads to more effective problem-solving among groups.

4. Greater Level of Independence

Communicating in English gives you a greater level of independence, especially when travelling abroad. English, being the ‘international language’ gives freedom to the travelers to enjoy their journey, especially in English speaking countries.

5. Enriches Customer Service

Every company has their own customer care to respond to their clients. It becomes vital to provide customer service in a language that clients understand the most. English, being the most common language globally, unifies people. The queries of the customers can be quickly responded in the same language. For this, effective language training is important for all client-facing staff to ensure that the customers have a pleasant experience with the organization. This process will make the people more productive and self-reliant. This is where online English speaking classes have helped company training programs the most.

6. Increases Productivity

English is known as the “lingua franca” (common language) of international business as well as all for worldwide communication. Therefore, English can be helpful for sharing ideas and references with your colleagues. To be able to function safely at work, employees should be equipped with the language well in order to respond to the customers and colleagues. This will help the staff operate more productively and increase workplace performance.

7. Better Presentation & Speeches

If you need to frequently deliver speeches, it becomes quite important to speak English fluently. If you are not able to do so to your audience, it may have devastating effects on your future career prospects. Using language effectively will improve your ability to be a great spokesperson.

8. Getting Promotions and Opportunity Abroad

Expat job opportunities demand good communication skills in English. It doesn’t mean that you need to master the language but it is necessary to understand basic English. The company might want you to move to a foreign country, enroll you to classes to learn English online but unless and until you know certain nuances of the language, it will be difficult to survive abroad. Therefore, it is important that you know the English language to climb the corporate ladder and succeed at your career.

Importance of spoken and written English fluency for your employees

From writing Emails to corporate documentation, several organizations around the world rely on English as a means of communication. It is the most popular second language and is being used as the official language in more than 70 countries.

Both written and spoken English play a crucial role in various aspects of corporate life from finding jobs to communicating with clients and achieving strong business collaborations around the world. Fluency and good knowledge of English enhances communication with international clients. It helps the organization to build long lasting relationships through cultural understanding. The employees who speak English are smart and can often command higher salaries.

Talking about the internet, over 50 percent of the pages on the internet are written in English, thereby making it the most used language on the Internet. Having access to supplementary information can make a real difference to your professional life, even if you don't work with colleagues or clients who speak English. If you need to research a particular thing or find some useful information from a website written in English, how will you comprehend it if you do not understand English?

Therefore, it becomes extremely important to learn the language as you may find that information from a website (written in English) that may help you gather some useful facts about your project. When working with English speaking countries, ‘cultural understanding’ can be effective for employers. So, if you don’t know it well, you won’t be able to effectively communicate with many other people.

In a survey conducted by Cambridge English and QS in 2016, it was found that the employers have a 40 percent English language skills gap with the highest skills gap. Language is the key to removing any barrier. The biggest contributor to attaining success in a work setting is successful communication which eventually will lead to increased sustainability and career progression in the workplace. It can be hard to maintain business relationships and climb the corporate ladder without proper knowledge of the English language.

Thus, the English fluency is a very important employability skill to soar higher in one’s personal and professional life.