If you’re looking for a multilingual candidate, or sourcing talent from different countries, language proficiency is an absolute essential for a successful hire.
Language proficiency – which is the ability to communicate in a given language – is important to build a successful workforce, especially when your organization has multilingual customers or a global workforce. If workers cannot properly communicate with customers or teammates, it can cause a whole lot of extra work for everyone involved. Language barriers can easily cause miscommunication, lower productivity, and even affect your brand reputation.
Testing for language proficiency before hiring can ensure that you’re choosing the best-fit candidate for the role, and verify that they’ll be able to effectively communicate, are well-aligned with the role and the organization, and hold essential cultural competencies.
By testing for language proficiency in the beginning of the hiring process, you can save time and resources for the organization and candidates, reducing time-to-hire and ensuring that you won’t have to pay the price of a bad-fit hire.
What is language proficiency?
Language proficiency is the ability to effectively communicate in a language. Proficiency can include anything from basic communication to native fluency. In hiring, language proficiency shows organizations if an individual can appropriately understand, speak, read, and write in a target language.
Language proficiency isn’t just a "nice-to-have" – it's essential for many roles, particularly in global organizations and customer-facing positions. When workers can clearly and effectively communicate in a desired language, it can facilitate:
- Better customer relations and stronger cross-cultural understanding
- Enhanced internal communication between employees
- Increased business opportunities, especially globally
- Better collaboration in multicultural teams
For hiring purposes, it provides insight into whether a candidate can perform their role effectively within the language demands of the job and workplace. Testing for language proficiency helps establish a baseline for language proficiency, as well as how those skills can be applied in a work setting.
Evaluating for language proficiency involves several different communication elements that are essential to language, including:
- Listening proficiency involves understanding spoken language in different contexts, including native speakers, different accents, different speeds of speech, and contextual nuances.
- Speaking proficiency is the ability to verbally express thoughts, ideas, and information, including proper pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary usage, and the ability to communicate in different settings, such as social and professional environments. Speaking also includes using the right tone and intonation with others.
- Reading proficiency involves understanding written text, such as complex documents, reports, and emails. It also includes interpreting context, identifying main ideas and key points, and the ability to effectively extract relevant information.
- Writing proficiency is the ability to construct clear written communication that is coherent and grammatically correct, including professional documents like reports, proposals, and emails.
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) categorizes proficiency into six levels:
Different industries and roles will have different language proficiency needs. For example, in sales or hospitality, workers may need an advanced or mastery level of speaking and listening proficiency to facilitate positive customer interactions. IT and other technical roles may need strong reading and writing skills to collaborate with teammates and create technical documentation, but may not require the same level of speaking and listening proficiency.
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)’s five-year outlook, healthcare and social assistance sectors will see a 64% increase in demand for foreign language skills, followed by trade, education, and technical services.
How to test for language proficiency
To measure language proficiency in hiring, recruiters may use standardized tests, such as IELTS, TOEFL, or specific language assessments to help evaluate proficiency and performance.
Language proficiency testing starts with a strategic assessment of what the specific role requires, and what level of proficiency is needed, what type of test will be the most effective, and how the test should be administered.
When testing for language proficiency, you can use the CEFR framework to set expectations around each of the four core language proficiency areas. For example, in a sales role, you may want to focus more on speaking and listening to help build customer relationships and persuade customers, so you may require a C1 or C2 mastery for those areas, while only an A2 or B1 for reading and writing. On the flip side, analyst roles will need a higher proficiency in reading and writing than speaking and listening.
Depending on what you’re testing for, there are several different methods to utilize:
- Listening: Transcription exercises, scenario-based listening tests, and live interactions
- Speaking: Role-playing job-specific scenarios, recorded interviews, and presentation tasks.
- Reading: Document analysis, timed reading tests, and problem-solving.
- Writing: Email drafting, report writing, and grammar/syntax exercises.
How you test for proficiency will also depend on the minimum level of proficiency candidates need in order to be successful.
- If the role requires A1-A2 proficiency, you should test for basic communication like understanding simple emails, introducing oneself, and common phrases.
- For B1-B2 proficiency, you may use scenario-based testing, like understanding nuanced conversations, identifying context, and analyzing intermediate-level documents.
- For C1-C2 requirements, you can test for advanced proficiency through creating and presenting presentations, leading discussions, or understanding complex technical materials and documents.
No matter how you choose to evaluate language proficiency, it is essential to make sure that all candidates are evaluated fairly and consistently. Results should be documented and tracked in your ATS or similar database.
Best practices for testing language proficiency
Here are some additional best practices to test for language proficiency during hiring:
- Utilize technology to streamline assessments and reduce bias.
- Keep tests comprehensive but concise to respect candidates’ time and effort; consider combining multiple testing methods to improve efficiency while still getting comprehensive results.
- Ensure that evaluations are checked for fairness and accuracy, and results are evaluated holistically.
- Use real-world examples and scenarios that are relevant to job duties when possible, especially for intermediate or advanced proficiency.
- Be transparent with candidates – ensure instructions are clear, constructive feedback is given when possible, and provide reasoning about why tests are used and how they are evaluated.
Conclusion
Language proficiency is essential to certain roles, especially in global businesses. However, even when it isn’t an absolute necessity, it can still bring a competitive advantage. In fact, companies that invest in language skills outperform their competitors by an average of 2.5%, according to Harvard Business Review.
Testing for language proficiency at the top of the hiring funnel can help organizations save time, resources, and effort, and ensure that everyone in the candidate pool has the necessary linguistic skills to succeed in their role.
FAQs
How do I decide if a test is necessary for a role? Strategically assess different aspects of the role, including role requirements, team dynamics, and language complexity needs. Ask yourself: “Will language proficiency significantly hinder the quality of work and internal communication in this role?” If the answer is yes, chances are you need to test for language proficiency.
What if the candidate has strong technical skills but weaker language proficiency? Unless advanced language proficiency is absolutely necessary for success in the role, language proficiency can be strengthened just like any other skill. New employees can be given time, training, and mentorship to sharpen their language skills before fully diving into tasks that require language proficiency.