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Business Intelligence

Published June 2008

Globalization and the English Skills Gap

  Deepak Desai

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Business English proficiency is critical for success in the global economy — but most employees in global corporations say their employees’ English skills are inadequate. Successful learning leaders are using technology to break down the language barrier.

Business has changed, and globalization is the most important trend in today’s business environment. The physical location of a company’s headquarters and employees is less relevant than ever in today’s market. The new economy is driven by consumers, and they are everywhere — a worldwide democracy of people voting with money.

As business goes global, so do projects and employees: Labor is mobile, and companies are sourcing highly skilled workers from every nation in a worldwide race for talent. Seventy percent of U.S. companies rate access to qualified personnel as an important or very important strategic driver of offshoring — the work goes “where it logically belongs.”

The flat-world economy means employees at all levels juggle time-zone issues and cultural differences daily. Advanced technologies are connecting workers and enabling interaction like never before, but the convergence of cultures and languages presents incredible complexities for multinational corporations that need to think and act as one.

The Language of Business
Seamless communication and shared understanding are fundamental strategic imperatives for success in the new economy, and English has overwhelmingly been adopted as the common language of business. Twenty-five percent of the world’s population speaks English, and it’s the official language of more than 50 countries. At multinational corporations, even ones in which native English speakers are becoming the minority, non-native speakers from around the world rely on English to speak with one another.

It could be said, in fact, that ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers now “own” the English language — there are as many fluent ESL speakers (400 million) as there are native English speakers, and today 1 billion people worldwide are studying English as a second or other language.

In GlobalEnglish Corp.’s “Globalization of English” research, 91 percent of employees of global corporations said that English is “required” or “important” in their jobs, and studies show that the need is increasing dramatically with each passing quarter. Seventy-six percent of employees use English on the job at least once a week, and nearly half use it daily.

Employees with an urgent need for English represent a broad array of job roles at every level of today’s organizations, with slightly greater numbers among consulting, administrative, technology and accounting/finance positions. Work-related tasks requiring English communication skills span a wide spectrum of activities, including conducting phone calls, participating in meetings, writing e-mails, producing documents and preparing presentations. Employees cite managers, executives and co-workers as the people with whom they most frequently need to communicate in English, underscoring the importance of corporate alignment and its critical role in enabling companies to capitalize on the opportunities that globalization provides.

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