Team morale is a top concern for both managers and HR professionals. For organizations with a global, multilingual workforce, maintaining team morale has some extra challenges.
So today we want to share some insights from our experience as corporate language trainers about the importance of morale in general and how language classes can boost morale in international organizations.
Why Is Team Morale So Important?
You no doubt know from your own experiences that teams with high morale are more productive and have less turnover. Research has also verified what we’ve all seen firsthand:
- Happy employees are 13% more productive.
- Happy employees slack off less and call in sick less often.
- Low morale can lead to less engagement and productivity, but more conflict.
- Low morale can also create a vicious cycle with retention: Employees leave because they’re unhappy. But then the high turnover makes remaining employees even less happy.
What Contributes to Team Morale?
As you can see, morale has a big impact on both employee engagement and retention. But what are the factors that increase or decrease team morale? Here are a few that leapt out for us:
- According to Gallup’s “2022 Guide to Employee Engagement,” organizations must make “clear, ongoing communication” from leadership a top priority.
- Communication, however, is a two-way street. To maintain morale, employees must also feel heard.
- Team activities can increase morale and strengthen connections between colleagues. That’s important because employees who have friends at work are happier and more productive.
- Learning and development opportunities are important to employees, and they want more of them. Employees are more likely to stay with employers who help them grow.
How Language Training Improves Team Morale
And that brings us back to the connection between team morale and language training. Again and again, we see with our global clients that language training helps employees work together more smoothly and feel more connected as they do so.
That’s a great recipe for morale, engagement, and retention. So let’s take a closer look at how language training can affect each of the above areas at a global organization.
- Leadership Communication
We’ve helped executives study languages that parts of their workforce use. These leaders understand the necessity of being able to connect with, and show respect to, those who work with them. Take Fluency Corp client Envoy Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group. Many of Envoy Air’s employees are native Spanish speakers. We helped the English-speaking executives build a beginner’s level proficiency in Spanish so that they could greet Spanish-speaking employees and have simple conversations with them. What a great way to show employees that they are valued and to boost their morale! - Sharing Ideas
A lack of proficiency in the company’s dominant language, or even self-consciousness about a strong accent, can make an employee hesitant about sharing their ideas or fully participating in company life. With language training that focuses on the vocabulary they need at work, employees can quickly make progress in how well they understand, and are understood by, their colleagues. And that helps everyone’s morale. - Team Bonding
Your employees talk about more things than work topics — and that’s a good thing. Getting to know each other on a more personal level will help them collaborate smoothly. However, employees who aren’t native speakers of the group’s dominant language might have trouble joining in the small talk that leads to friendship building. Language training can, for example, help employees who aren’t U.S. based understand their colleagues’ small talk about weekend football games before a Zoom meeting really gets underway. Little things like that can really help everyone feel more included, which is great for morale. - Learning and Development
Telling employees that you value them and see a future for them at your company is great, of course. But what’s even better is putting your money where your mouth is and investing in development opportunities for them, like language training.
Language Training by Fluency Corp
Here at Fluency Corp, we have a strong track record of helping international companies improve team morale through language training. You can hear from our clients in their own words on our testimonials page.
We also invite you to learn more about how both our online and on-site language training programs work so that you can get a sense of what might be the best fit for your team members. No matter which option you choose, know that your employees will be working with experienced, native-speaker instructors who will laser-focus their instruction material based on your employees’ needs.
Ready to learn more? Set up a free consultation with Fluency Corp by contacting us at getfluent@fluencycorp.com or (800) 401-3159.
