According to a recent study by Cone Communications, employers can increase workplace engagement by offering benefits to their employees beyond the basics. The key findings of the study were as follows:
64% of employees feel their work and personal lives are becoming increasingly blended
93% want to work for a company that cares about them as an individual
51% won’t work for a company that doesn’t have strong social and environmental commitments
74% say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided opportunities to make a positive impact at work
How does this relate to language learning? Simple: language learning is part of individual passions, social commitment, as well as opportunity & impact.
Individual Passions
When telling friends, family, and co-workers what we do, we often hear people say “I’ve always wanted to learn Italian.” Learning a language is a common passion. Whether your employees are looking to learn for a hobby, for planned vacations, or for professional improvement, supporting them in their passions can be rewarding for their engagement in their company. Employers can even go beyond just access and set up conversational groups in the company so that employees can encourage and engage with each other in their language learning adventure.
Social Commitments
Learning a new language greatly expands your understanding of the world and engages people with their communities. By offering language learning opportunities to employees, companies are increasing their employees’ ability to reach out locally and globally, as well as expressing to their employees that they are involved in global awareness.
Opportunity & Impact
Many of us here in the United States, and even elsewhere, work in increasingly mixed-culture and global workplaces. Whether a company has employees who are native Spanish speakers hoping to improve their English for professional advancement or native English speakers who want to communicate with their Japanese colleagues in the Tokyo office - finding ways to improve an employee’s access to opportunity is easily met by offering them language learning.
An added bonus: learning a language improves corporate communication, and as we all know, communication is an essential part of workplace engagement too.
Want to increase your workplace engagement by offering language learning opportunities to your employees? Visit our corporate page and contact us via the form or email [email protected] to find out more about our corporate partnerships.