Five steps to implementing an effective communications strategy

Munich - Tuesday 17th April 2012 - dp (digital publishing), the global provider of award-winning corporate language training Speexx, has issued a five point guide for organisations looking to improve their communications skills ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. Millions of spectators are expected to attend the Olympic event later this year, and some 50,000 athletes, officials and media are also expected to take part - from 250 countries.

Armin Hopp, Founder and President of dp, comments, “The 2012 Olympics is a significant year for London, but it is one of many scheduled international sporting events like the UEFA EURO 2012 that will bring non-English speaking visitors to the host country. Learning a new language not only helps to facilitate sporting events but it can open up new channels of communication within the business world. Alarmingly, most organisations are not fully equipped to communicate with their customers and suppliers other than in their native language. Although English remains as the most internationally recognised and spoken business language, investing in learning other languages can further bring a company in line with their clients’ needs, and gain significant advantage over their competitors.”

According to a recent report by the Business Forum for Multilingualism established by the European Commission, entitled Languages Mean Business, a significant percentage of European SME’s lose business every year as a direct result of linguistic and intercultural weaknesses. The report also highlights that languages are not only needed to boost sales and marketing, but upstream supply chains cross borders to the same extent as international services and finished goods for export.

dp outlines five steps to help organisations that are reviewing their language strategy:

1. Begin with awareness: Organisations need to ensure that staff are aware of the latest and most effective methods of language learning, and how to implement learning programmes within the business. Equipping staff with the skills to manage their own learning in their daily schedules takes time and there is no one size fits all approach.

2. Assessment: Conduct a thorough assessment of staff language and communication skills across the board. This comes in the form of an organisation-wide language and self-assessment. A skill gap analysis will help identify who needs training and when, and what it will take to achieve the desired results.

3. Identify skill sets: The next step is to identify the levels of communication within the organisation and pinpoint who the key people are, where the talent is and the best way to address their skills need. With a streamlined, blended learning approach, management will be able to identify the current profile of employees within the organisation, identify their language skills and determine the potential successors for different job roles. This can then be matched to where vacancies might occur, address which areas suffer from a scarcity of talent and provide solutions to job roles that tend to be difficult to fill within the entire organisation.

4. Gain co-operation: Blended learning strategies means that all corporate stakeholders need to co-operate and understand each other’s resources and limitations. One measure HR can take is get IT and L&D together at the very early stages to plan how to improve the language and communication skills within the organisation without wasting time or affecting the workflow. This also gives the IT department the opportunity to understand and resolve any unreliable ICT infrastructures, broadband or technical restrictions that may be impeding the implementation of new learning tools.

5. Change from the top down: The key to changing learning habits within a company needs to start from top management. In a rapidly changing workforce, language skills provide the key to communicating with clients and shape the organisational leaders of the future. Yet many organisations are still failing to adopt new technology or more efficient workplace practices and are setting a bad example for the rest of the staff.

A free European whitepaper entitled, ‘Online communication skills training for a diverse global workforce’ which offers a valuable insight on why diversity and inclusion is important for securing business success is available by visiting www.speexx.com/en/whitepaper.