In an increasingly globalised world, bilingual recruitment is a smart strategy that can prime your business for overseas success. There are many benefits associated with bilingual employees. Not only do they help to expand a business’s horizons internationally, but studies have also shown that bilinguals are often better at multitasking and conflict management. They also have a less biased approach to decision-making.

For HR leaders, that is a pretty compelling list of benefits. But how does a business attract multilingual talent and create a strategy for bilingual recruitment success? Here are four strategies you should embrace…

1. Argue the case for bilingual recruits

Hiring a bilingual recruit can cost more than an equivalent monolingual hire. Not only are they more difficult to find in the first instance, but they also tend to earn more. For this reason, you may have to fight your corner and explain the reasons why you want to recruit bilingual workers for specific positions within the organisation. Highlighting initiatives in the company that could benefit from language skills is an excellent place to start.

For example, a bilingual recruit could help to:

• Support marketing efforts across multiple regions;
• Reduce the cost of communication and translation;
• Allow your business to keep more key activities in-house to ensure the consistency and quality of delivery.

2. Develop processes for hiring multilingual talent

Developing a pipeline of bilingual talent requires a strategic investment and a clear policy. Language requirements need to be built into job postings and screening processes should be developed. Many businesses choose to hire a bilingual recruitment agency that has an existing network of the type of candidates they need and this approach can bring success.

3. Build language testing into the recruitment process

A diverse range of terminology is used to describe different levels of language ability. Scanning a few bilingual job ads will reveal phrases like ‘fluency in Spanish is a must’, ‘must be comfortable communicating in Spanish’ and ’Spanish speaking is an asset’. The trouble is that each of the terms can mean very different things, both to candidates and their prospective employers.

For that reason, an essential part of the bilingual recruitment process is to understand precisely what level of language skills is needed and develop objective language tests that allow you to assess the written and spoken skills of applicants.

4. Help bilingual employees succeed

When you have gone to the trouble of recruiting bilingual employees, it’s essential you develop ways to harness their valuable skills and help them succeed in your business. Ongoing monitoring and onboarding sessions can help bilingual employees find their place in the organisation while developing clear approaches to partnering employees with projects can help to make the most of their language skills.

How can we help?

Bilingual employees can be a huge benefit to organisations with ambitions to expand overseas. At Linguistica Recruitment, we can help you build a talented base of bilingual employees with the language skills you need. For more information, please get in touch with our team.