Career & Compensation Alerts
Companies Weakly Facing Employee Language Barriers
May 5, 2008 2:49 PM
Approximately 15 percent of the US labor force is comprised of foreign-born workers, and employers are currently making little effort to overcome language limitations, according to a survey by The Conference Board. While 80 percent of the companies surveyed report employing "English deficient employees," 66 percent do not include English language learning in their training programs. These same companies admit that they would include English language skills in their training practices if they knew it would boost the productivity of immigrant workers. "Whether and how companies choose to accommodate these workers could have significant impacts on the sustainability of success," explains Chris Woock, author of the report. "Latest evidence suggests companies could do well to recruit and hire the best available talent, irrespective of their language limitations, and invest in language training."
Save This Page
Other Career & Compensation Alerts
- Six Sigma for Breakthrough Leadership
- The renowned business performance management system can be used to drive defects out of a product line, overhaul a complex business process, or utterly revolutionize an enterprise. [more]
- 4 Guiding Principles for Successful Leaders -- and Companies
- Many great leaders don't build successful organizations, according to this article by Bain consultants Mark Gottfredson and Steve Schaubert and nonprofit leader Elisabeth Babcock. [more]
- What Drives Women Leaders?
- The McKinsey Leadership Project interviewed 85 successful women leaders in diverse fields around the world to learn what drives and sustains them and to help organizations get the best out of this talented group. [more]
- Developing Leaders in China
- This case study describes how Agilent Technologies employed rigorous metrics to assess the leadership capabilities of managers in its operations in China. [more]
- Experienced New Hires May Not Be Successful
- Companies often seek to hire skilled, experienced workers with a track record in the same industry, but this report proves that this strategy may not always work best. [more]
- Business Leaders Are Transforming Social Enterprises
- A new generation of business leaders and philanthropists is experimenting with hybrid forms of social enterprises while demanding more transparency and accountability from the organizations they are funding. [more]
- How a CEO Slows Down To Improve Business
- The CEO of insurance brokerage Dawson Cos., who works out of the firm's Naples, Fla., office, describes in this article how he uses "Zen management" to build strong relationships with staff members in Ohio who suffer through winter's chill. [more]
- Want More Profits? Hire More Women
- Well, it might not be quite that simple -- there are only preliminary
indications of a causal link -- but evidence is mounting that companies with
higher numbers of women at senior levels outperform their peers. [more]
- More Career & Compensation Alerts
Podcasts
Research