Multilingualism is a Superpower: Four Ways to Elevate This Talent in Your Workforce

“We hear over and over that we are having a ‘talent crisis’ that drives staffing and productivity challenges across the country. But what we actually have are many talented people who simply aren’t able to access opportunity,” said EnGen founder Dr. Katie Brown, addressing an audience at the 2024 Horizons conference organized by Jobs for the Future (JFF). 

Among those untapped talent pools are adult English learners, who represent 1 in 10 working-age adults in the U.S. When given an opportunity to connect with English skills, these workers offer a superpower to U.S. employers: Multilingualism is linked to creativity, problem solving, innovation, and global communication – high-demand skills in any industry. 

Yet despite this potential, adult English learners are more likely to be unemployed or underemployed than their English-speaking peers. 

Employers can help close this gap. Brown convened a powerhouse panel of workforce leaders, including Valerie Wasielewski, Human Resources Director at Chobani and Annie Fenton, Senior Director of State and Local Partnerships at Welcome.US, to discuss how to elevate multilingual talent. Here are four takeaways from the panel.  

1/ Reimagine your hiring processes. 

“I work with companies small and large to prepare them for hiring [refugees and immigrants]. The most important thing you can do as a company is understand what you are hiring for, what are the specific skill sets that you need to match in, and then ensure your hiring process is able to successfully lift up the most qualified candidates, regardless of where they are from,” says Fenton. 

Fenton urges employers to audit their recruitment practices to reduce barriers for applicants who speak languages other than English: Can job descriptions be translated to other languages? Does your hiring software automatically filter out candidates with international credentials or experience? Can you adopt skills-based hiring practices instead of requiring degrees or credentials for certain positions? 

Chobani has embraced these practices to successfully hire hundreds of workers from refugee and immigrant backgrounds. 

“We were founded by a Turkish immigrant, so this work is important to us,” said Wasielewski. “We partner with local refugee resettlement agencies [to connect with potential employees], and we’ve had up to 30 to 40 percent of our workforce that come from multilingual backgrounds.” 

2/Prioritize language access AND acquisition. 

It’s critical to support multilingual talent beyond the hiring process. Successful companies invest in translation, interpretation, and universal signage to ensure that multilingual employees can successfully complete onboarding and training – and thrive in their jobs. 

“We’ve implemented a language line at work that people can access 24/7. The line offers interpretation in almost 200 languages, so it’s quick and easy on the spot,” said Wasielewski. “There are so many different languages and dialects spoken at Chobani, so we use lots of visuals. A lot of our training is hands-on versus relying on translated text.”

Savvy employers realize that language access and language acquisition are two sides of the same coin. They offer English instruction as part of employee benefits packages. 

Chobani partners with EnGen to offer on-demand, job-aligned English instruction to their employees. Learners can access EnGen via smart phones or computers, completing personalized lessons in as little as 10 minutes. The investment supports employees’ career mobility and their business bottom lines: 93% of learners have improved their confidence at work, 90% save time at work, and 89% have improved both their job skills and their English skills. 

“The U.S. meets the needs of just 4% of our adult English learners,” said EnGen’s Brown. “This means that most of your workers are not going to have access to English upskilling unless it's a benefit that you’re offering.”

3/Cultivate multilingual leadership. 

No matter the size or the sector, a company needs internal champions who are invested in the success of your efforts to elevate multilingual workers  – and responsible for impact and outcomes. In many organizations, this champion is in an HR or benefits administrator role; others are in supervisory or integrated positions.

“Support from your leaders is super important to gain upfront. These programs really need to be driven from the top. Because we can offer all sorts of employee benefits, but we need [leaders’] support to bring people off the floor to train them during work hours,” said Wasielewski. 

Panelists spoke of other out-of-the-box efforts to foster multilingualism at work: Set concrete goals for multilingual worker inclusion and integrate them into company-wide KPIs. Connect English-speaking supervisors with Spanish and French classes to ensure that they can communicate with their multilingual teams. Arrange opportunities for C-suite leaders to meet directly with frontline multilingual workers to share experiences, and perspectives. Elevate stories of multilingual workers in company-wide communications. 

“These kinds of programs build empathy for managers who often don’t understand how difficult it is to live and work in a language that’s not your first,” said EnGen’s Brown. 

4/ Leverage local partners. 

Employers are pivotal stakeholders in building a workforce that fully champions multilingual talent – but they don’t have to do the work alone. 

“We believe it takes an ecosystem approach to elevate multilingual workers,” said Brown. “We need community colleges to optimize  instruction for English learners, equipping them with language skills and job skills needed for roles with local companies. We need community-based organizations to come together and work with a common purpose of creating talent pipelines for employers.”

Chobani’s partnership with its local refugee center extends beyond hiring to ensure support and success for multilingual hires. Chobani has created a custom onboarding program, based on internal training, documents, and testing programs, that the resettlement agency reviews one-on-one with new employees. 

On-the-job training can also provide opportunities for English acquisition by equipping learners with real-world English vocabulary that they can immediately put to use on the job. EnGen partners with employers, adult educators, and workforce development organizations across the country to provide English upskilling that makes apprenticeships, CTE and IET programs more accessible to multilingual learners. These partnerships build multilingual talent pipelines that have both the language skills and job skills needed to fill roles with local employers. 

Multilingualism is not just for big companies. 

Companies like Chobani provide excellent blueprints for like-minded employers – of any sector or size – that are committed to leveraging multilingualism as a superpower in their organizations. 

“There are lots of examples of smaller organizations that are doing this well, by necessity,” said Fenton. “I want folks to feel empowered if you are coming from a smaller organization or you work for a small company, this isn’t just for massive corporations. The opportunity exists to take some of these lessons learned and right-size them for your company.”   

EnGen is committed to supporting employers, adult educators, workforce development organizations, and state governments  in championing multilingual workers and building multilingual workforces. Learn how our platform can work at your organization: https://getengen.com/contact-us