The must-have talent experience capability for global workforces
What does it mean to be a global workforce?
We talk about global citizens, global businesses and global leaders in an aspirational way but there is an ambiguity to the term that can make being a global company complicated for HR, who are tasked with managing a multilingual workforce and bringing that quality to life.
Functionally, global companies present a similar challenge for HR, whether you are managing 30 people of different nationalities in one office or 30 offices in different countries. And that primary challenge is rooted in managing multilingual global workforces.
In theory, not all global companies are also multilingual companies – after all, many choose to adopt an “official” language. But in practice, when your organization is staffed by talents who speak different languages, language barriers will arise.
There are many ways to address language barriers and the most profound are those that address the interpersonal demands of cross-cultural communication, but one of the easiest wins and most efficient shortcuts you can take is in the selection of your technology. The right tool cannot solve the problems of leadership or performance, but it can create one less point of friction in your global workforce’s daily life.
Let’s take three examples.
A multilingual LMS
Learning is a very personal and unique thing. There are a myriad of different learning styles and types of learners, and not every form of study may be effective for every type of talent – and that’s before you even consider language differences.
A multilingual LMS allows your talents to upskill and reskill in the language that is easiest for them to understand and with which they are most comfortable, allowing them to focus their energy and learning on the subject matter at hand. Depending on the LMS, they may even have access to culturally different pedagogical styles as well.
Of course, exceptions will exist when the training program is language-related or pertains to something where the jargon and material is specific to a certain language, but for uptake of both training programs and the material therein, multilingual capabilities can be a game-changer.
A multilingual collaboration tool
Employee engagement is crucial and in a world that is more and more comfortable with remote work, collaboration tools are essentially for maintaining and fostering work culture and productivity. For multilingual employees, boosting engagement can be as simple as using tools that make it easier to engage without the friction of language – for example, a video conferencing tool that allows for live-captioning in another language.
Similarly, Facebook for Work and LinkedIn both offer translation options, so that employees can easily post in the language they are most comfortable in and also easily see and engage with the posts of their peers with minimal linguistic friction.
A multilingual talent marketplace
Engagement is essential to the success of a talent marketplace. Employees must feel like the platform is providing them value, that the matches and suggestions they are receiving are relevant to their interests and experiences. However, much of that initial relevancy rests on the data that the employee inputs or imports themselves at the beginning, and their willingness and enthusiasm to update their profile with skills in real-time, either from prompts and suggestions or of their own volition.
A multilingual talent marketplace allows them to input essential skills data in their own words, in the language they are most comfortable in – while handling the translation and unification of that data into a single source of truth for the ease and visibility of HR and management.
Multilingual capacities can, thus, make a demonstrable difference in their willingness to use the tool.
Talent marketplace in 45+ languages
With 365Talents, you can empower your employees to express themselves authentically and promote a more inclusive talent experience.
365Talents smart AI seamlessly organizes translations, offers intelligent skill suggestions, and enables seamless matching in 45+ supported languages.
It's your key to seamless global talent engagement, offering:
1. Simplified and unified skills frameworks
2. Empowering global talent discovery & mobility
3. Personalized talent journeys
How to choose a multilingual talent management solution
Choosing a multilingual talent management or talent experience solution, whether you are looking for an internal talent marketplace, tool for career development, or source of workforce insights, rests on the same fundamentals you should be applying when choosing any tool.
That is, it’s important to pick a solution that aligns ideologically with how your organization runs or would like to run. If you are a skills-based organization or making the shift to skills-based HR, your tool should be skills-driven. If you consider yourself people-first, your solution should empower and engage your people in the task at hand.
With multilingual solutions, however, there are three additional areas you should be sure to address.
1. Technology
How does your solution achieve its multilingual functionalities? Is the translation being outsourced or run through internal, proprietary AI?
365Talents' solution goes beyond simple interface translation. Our unique technology offers automatic skills and profile translation, efficient multilingual synchronous data management, precise skills detection and matching across over 45 languages. These advanced features empower organizations to overcome language barriers and optimize their talent management processes with exceptional accuracy and effectiveness.
Moreover, internal multilingual skills management means that whenever new skills data is imported or declared by your employees, 365Talents AI converts it into a new skills ID and manages the translation for you. 365Talents AI automatically creates links between new detected skills and automatically translates them into 45+ languages, controlling for and synthesizing duplicates. As a result, you can access your skills framework not only in your company’s official language but also instantly in other languages in one click.
Coupled with integration capabilities that allow for communication with your other multilingual tools, 365Talents fosters an inclusive and personalized talent experience, tailored to the diverse linguistic needs of global companies. The platform leverages advanced artificial intelligence to efficiently organize translations, providing smart skill suggestions and matching in all those supported languages.
2. User experience
What is the user experience like? What control does the employee have over language?
With 365Talents, employees can define their preferred language and specify the languages they speak professionally, ensuring that they receive opportunities aligned with their language preferences and international mobility goals.
For HR and managers, 365Talents offers the advantage of automatic translation for employee profiles, ensuring seamless comprehension. This feature allows HR and managers to gain a deeper understanding of employees' skills and experiences in their native language, fostering stronger connections. Additionally, it facilitates the selection of the right candidates for opportunities, ultimately driving increased performance within the organization without any language barriers.
3. Global case studies & scalability
What companies have used this tool before? In what languages and countries? Do you see comparable companies on their client list? How many languages does the solution support? Can it scale to your future language needs?
Think about your future plans for growth and expansion and see whether the solution can meet your multilingual needs for today, tomorrow and in 10 years.
365Talents developed its expansive multilingual capabilities based in part on the feedback of 40 global customers operating in 60 countries to offer our solutions in 45+ languages.
Veolia, our client since 2020, offers 365Talents unique talent experience to its employees in three languages — English, French and Spanish — to promote employees and their strengths, create an internal talent marketplace, and dynamically map and develop employees’ skills.
Ready to chart a new course for your people at work?
Learn about the tools 365Talents provides for skills management, strategic workforce planning, and more.
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