Grow Your Healthcare Talent Pipeline with English Training
As healthcare systems continue to face acute staffing shortages, HR leaders are rethinking how to build and retain talent. One powerful lever is often overlooked: English upskilling.
Why it matters: 1 in 10 working-age adults in the U.S. has limited English skills. Many are already in your workforce—or could be. They work in food service, environmental services, and other support roles. Some are foreign-trained healthcare professionals who could re-enter clinical practice with the right support. Others are ready to grow into new roles but are held back by English barriers.
Tapping this talent pool strengthens your pipeline, improves patient outcomes, and boosts employee retention. EnGen joined HR leaders from across the country in a series of panel discussions to share how English instruction can power talent development.
Here are three key insights:
1. English instruction isn’t just a perk. It’s a workforce strategy.
In today’s multilingual healthcare environment, English skills are about more than communication: They drive collaboration, improve patient outcomes, and fuel career mobility.
Immigrants make up 17% of the healthcare workforce, including nearly 30% of physicians, direct care workers, and health aides. And with 74% of hospitals serving multilingual patient populations, the ability to communicate directly with patients matters more than ever. Waiting for translation services is costly, time-consuming, and can result in worse health outcomes.
When you invest in multilingual workers through English instruction—especially when it’s tailored to healthcare roles—you boost efficiency, elevate care quality, and drive patient satisfaction. It also helps employees gain the confidence and vocabulary they need to thrive on the job.
2. Make employee benefits visible to maximize their impact.
Many healthcare employers already offer English instruction as part of their employee benefits—but it often goes unused due to a series of disconnects.
First, employees may not know the benefit exists or how to access it. Second, English is frequently treated as a pre-requisite to career advancement rather than an integrated part of training and internal mobility. And third, the teams responsible for hiring, advancement, and retention are often siloed from those overseeing education and training—leaving new hires and frontline workers without a clear path forward.
Closing these gaps is key. When you align benefits, career pathways, and team priorities, English upskilling becomes more than a resource—it becomes a catalyst for employee growth, retention, and long-term workforce stability.
To unlock the full value of your benefits:
Integrate English upskilling into onboarding and internal communications.
Share real employee success stories to show what’s possible.
Use plain language and multiple formats (and languages) to reach everyone.
Make information visible—in team huddles, break rooms, intranet pages, and more.
By making these benefits clear, accessible, and personalized, you can help employees not just stay on the job—but also grow into new roles.
3. English is the first step on the credential ladder.
English proficiency isn't an endpoint—it’s a gateway. Once your employees gain confidence with English, they’re more likely to pursue additional healthcare credentials, apprenticeships, and “earn while you learn” opportunities.
When English instruction is the foundation of your career pathways, employees can move from entry-level roles into clinical positions. A CNA today could become a Surgical Tech or LPN tomorrow—with the right support and clear visibility.
Using a combination of coaching and transparent pathways helps multilingual employees connect learning, credentials, and opportunity.
Grow Your Workforce from Within
Your workforce is already filled with potential. English upskilling unlocks it.
EnGen partners with healthcare organizations to provide contextualized, career-aligned English instruction and coaching that fits into your existing training and talent development programs.
Let’s talk about how to bring this benefit to your employees: https://getengen.com/contact-us