One of the best employee benefits you can offer is language training. It definitely attracts the attention of many hard-working people. And it’s a great opportunity for their personal and professional lives, as bilingualism impacts all areas of a person’s life.
We can’t forget it’s also amazing for your business to have a bilingual and polyglot workforce. So, if you’re offering language classes, congrats!
But there’s a hard truth behind this job benefit that many companies face: Not many employees take advantage of the classes. They decide they won’t – or can’t – take them.
So, you wonder: Is offering this worth it? We believe it is. But you must analyze what you’re doing wrong; there must be a reason why people don’t take the classes.
To help you untangle this mystery, here are 7 reasons why your workforce isn’t interested in the language classes you offer them. Check if you are doing one or more of these things!
You Don’t Talk About It Enough
Some companies present the different employee benefits to the potential employees during the interview process and that’s it. Some others only mention these benefits on the vacancy, but don’t talk about it nor during the job interview nor later.
This might be happening to you. It’s necessary that you tell your possible workers about the language classes option they’ll have in your company. It’s attractive and useful, so they might like it.
But you also need to start talking about this benefit after you’ve hired them. Kind of like a reminder.
Maybe prepare a presentation for your employees, old and new, with the language training company or one of their instructors. In this, they can talk about:
- The advantages of learning a new language
- A bit of the curriculum they’ll be learning
- Their teaching process
You can also do monthly meetings to talk about why learning a second language is important for their job. So they’ll see that you care about it too!
During this, you can also ask employees for doubts or feedback on the language course they’re taking. So they’ll notice that you care about their opinions, and that you want them to enjoy the classes.
Basically, promote the benefit you offer your employees!
You Don’t Lead as an Example
A great thing you could do to make your employees get interested in taking the language classes you offer is take the classes yourself! You must lead by example.
So, if you don’t know the language you offer, why not start learning it? Otherwise, you might be sending the message that it’s not important enough or the classes aren’t good.
Make sure they see you in class or practicing or speaking it. So they know the lessons are working!
The best thing about doing this is that you’ll actually gain some great skills for life! You’ll be learning a new language, which will help you for both your personal and professional life!
See? It will not only make your workers interested in learning, but it’ll actually help you!
The Language You Offer is Not Necessary
If the language you offer is not necessary for their careers, work life and the job they’re doing at your company, they might not want to learn it.
Sure, everyone has a reason that interests them in one specific language. For many, this is simply the sound of it, like how many people say that French sounds romantic and that’s why they love it.
For others, there are personal reasons, like talking to their foreign family, impressing their parents-in-law, or traveling. And for others, it’s more of a professional reason. They want to grow their careers!
This last one is the best reason you can appeal to. Each person might have a different language in mind for their personal lives. So the best you can do is offer one that is important for work and professional careers, especially considering you run a business or company.
So, do your research on which language your company needs the most. For example: If your company has a lot of contact with Japanese business partners or clients, there’s your answer.
Your workforce will want to learn it because it’ll help them be better at work. They’ll see the benefits of this language in their job.
You should also look for teachers whose classes are customized to the students’ goals. This will make students feel like they really need to take those classes, because they’ll 100% appeal to their particular needs.
Lack of Multilingual Workforce
Maybe there aren’t enough employees at your company learning another language and there aren’t many foreigners, expats or people from other cultures.
This can be counterproductive for you, because your employees will ask themselves why learning another language if there isn’t enough representation. Nor there’s any need to speak with international coworkers nor colleagues to practice with.
If there’s a multilingual workforce, other employees will feel more motivated to learn a new language and culture. It’s inspiring! Plus, it’s the perfect opportunity for them to practice. They might not have anyone outside work to practice with.
Having multilingual workers will be yet another reason for the language classes you offer to be a necessity. And if you’re wondering, there are great benefits of having a multilingual workforce.
Rigid Schedules
Your whole workforce probably has a very tight agenda and is very busy. Work is one of the main reasons for this. They spend a lot of hours working. So that keeps them busy.
But on top of that, they all have different personal lives they have to attend. From kids to school to partners to friends to hobbies to problems… So the time they have for learning a language might not be at the same time your company offers the lessons.
Let’s say the language instructors you hired only offer classes from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm. But your employees have that time completely absorbed by other things, probably work. They won’t be able to attend the classes.
You can help them by hiring a language teaching company that offers flexible schedules. So they can adapt to you and your workforce’s agenda, not the other way around.
Bonus points if you offer a couple of the work and office hours for them to take the classes. After all, it’s a benefit you are giving them. And remember, if they know a second language, it will benefit your business.
Long Drive to School
If the classes are at a school or institution, it can represent losing time driving there. And like we said above, employees don’t always have a lot of time.
If the place of study is very far away from work or the place they live in, the situation worsens for your workers. They might not be able to drive there. Sometimes they need things that are close and that you can find all within one route.
Not to mention that many might not have a car nor the income to spend on public transportation for long hours every day.
But this doesn’t mean there’s no solution. Just make sure that the language training service company you hire is not an in-person school. Or that it at least offers options for those who cannot make it to an institution.
Online lessons are a great idea. Or maybe a teaching service that goes to your office to instruct the lessons there. For example: Fluency Corp offers online or onsite classes! That makes it easier for everyone to learn!
Classes are Boring and Lack Practice
If the classes you offer are boring, the few students that go will stop attending. And the news will spread that the classes aren’t good enough, because they don’t engage students.
Even if they’re corporate language classes for your workforce to improve in their job, they want to enjoy the process of learning. And, believe us, learning a new language can be fun and useful at the same time.
So, yes, they must learn the important academic things, like grammar, vocabulary, writing… But it should be done in an interesting way.
A common attribute that boring language classes have is that they lack practice. They only sit down the students to memorize things and never put them into practice.
It’s important they implement their knowledge, because despite that that is often hard, it’s also fun. Because practice engages students.
So, when you hire the teachers or language teaching company, ask them about their teaching style. So you can make sure the lessons will be enjoyable and with practical exercises.
Listen to Your Employees and Enhance Your Language Classes
We’ve mentioned many things you’re probably doing and why your employees don’t respond as you’d like to your language classes benefit.
But along with all these problems, we’ve also mentioned some things you must do to change them. Like implementing customized classes with flexible schedules and the chance of not having to move to take the lessons. As well as one of the most important ones: Interesting classes!
Well, guess what? Fluency Corp meets all of those qualities!
We offer corporate language training for you and your workforce. This means that the lessons are customized to the job and your needs. So you all will actually get the perfect skills to improve your work and professional careers!
Because we know how busy you are, we also offer online or onsite classes with flexible schedules! So nobody has to drive for long hours and lose valuable time there. And you can choose the time that better suits your life.
Oh, and with our native teachers – who clearly know the language perfectly with all its nuances – you’ll never be bored.
There will always be space for practice during our classes, and speaking will be our main focus! We want you all to achieve language fluency! Just take a look at our Bellieu Method to see how we achieve that.
It’s time to listen to your employees and pay attention to what they’re saying about their language classes. And give them a boost with the help of Fluency Corp!
