The Benefits of Language Testing
What are the Benefits of Adult Language Tests for Businesses?
The Benefits of Language Testing
Formal Language Testing for Businesses
When you are recruiting for a new role, how often do you think to include language assessments in your hiring process? What insights could a formal assessment of language proficiency give you?
Depending on your recruitment goals and the role responsibilities and requirements, an assessment of language capabilities may be a valuable addition to your recruitment process, as well as your ongoing learning and development plans for employees.
Language proficiency assessments such as the Versant™ English Assessment provide businesses of all sizes, local councils, and other organisations across all sectors the ability to test their prospective candidate’s capabilities for perceiving, interpreting and effectively communicating the national language. This is needed to understand how the prospective candidate will interact with team members, business associates, clients and the public. Unfortunately, customer service in any industry is likely to be impacted should the level of language proficiency from business to the customer be of insufficient quality. The level of expectation from customers today is to be easily understood and spoken to without the need for repetition or further explanation.
Cognitively, we can be impatient and expect communications to be fluid and become equally frustrated should they not be. Formal language testing negates this - language tests help businesses, HR (Human Resource) and recruitment teams proactively assess language quality and ability. The initial outlay for such testing reaps the rewards commercially and operationally for businesses in both the short and long term.
What are the Benefits of Adult Language Tests for Businesses?
Adult language testing offers multiple benefits for both businesses and your employees. These include:
Improved Relationships with Customers
The most obvious benefit of improved language proficiency within an organisation is improved customer relationships and this is likely to positively impact client retention. Customer service teams who are effective in their language proficiency are proven to retain customers twice as frequently as those who do not demonstrate this. Businesses that have poor customer service language proficiency account for nearly 72% of lost customers. Initially, this is easily avoided with an aligned recruitment strategy that focuses on language skills for maximum customer service and retention, as well as a strategy for language development – the process for fostering improved language proficiency does not need to stop at the recruitment stage. By identifying gaps using tools such as Versant English Assessment, recommended courses (for example UK Learns) and routes for learning can be identified.
Improved time usage and understanding
An inability to effectively communicate either to customers or internal colleagues, can also have an impact on a team’s and individual’s efficiency. Time spent repeating requirements or re-explaining tasks takes time away from supporting customers and carrying out projects. By using a language assessment, you can quickly identify where additional support with language development is required, and using the outcomes from these tools and recommended tips; steps can be made to provide the right form of learning that will improve efficiencies and customer service.
Better Health and safety
Many roles have a requirement whereby strict health and safety guidelines must be followed. You may be recruiting for new staff within the construction industry, transportation or manufacturing for example where clear instructions and rules need to be followed to ensure the safety of colleagues on site and, or member of the public. With a duty of care that needs to be respected, ensuring applicants have a proficient level of language may be a key skill you require, and one that Versant and its outcomes can support you with.
Improved care and protection
Safeguarding, the process of protecting individuals (including vulnerable adults and children) to provide safe and effective care can be improved by ensuring your team has a high level of English language proficiency. Formal language testing is already being implemented by local authorities across England as part of taxi driver applications for example to help assess and support language proficiency and develop safeguarding skills that will best protect their customers.
Improved Internal Relationships
It is known that strong internal communication and good professional relationships leads to better business results. Through clearer communication, better understanding and more professional and social relationship development, language testing allows teams to develop a stronger understanding of their capabilities, skills and when they require help on a more intuitive level.
Optimising Learning Proficiency Within Your Business
Pearson TalentLens has provided the Versant English Language Test to local governments, global businesses, and educational institutions for over 20 years who have used the results to effectively help them with recruitment and language development plans. For more information, please do not hesitate to get in touch today and learn how you can take your team's professional development to the next level.