With the current state our market is in, more and more business opportunities are rising all over the world, and it is becoming highly competitive. If there’s one thing that’s stopping you from taking that opportunity, it’s the language. That means, now is the best time for you to diversify the workforce.

Whether you’re a small or big business, having a multilingual workforce is a big competitive advantage for you. Being able to communicate and partner with other companies, businesses, and customers who speak a different language is something you can use to your advantage because not everyone is can speak more than one language. Various US business have a hard time connecting with non-English speakers because despite the fact that there has been a rise in multilingual households in the US, it seems that only 23% of the overall population speak more than one language.

Having a multilingual workforce will allow your business to tap into Asian markets for partnerships. Asian markets are becoming home to some of the biggest populations and fastest growing economies. If your employees can speak any Asian language, you can definitely engage with them much better and maybe even have the chance to partner with them. Additionally, partnering with international markets will give you access to expertise. This will give you the opportunity to team up with workers from different parts of the world ready to complement your team.

If I have convinced you at this point, the next thing you’re wondering might be about how to move forward with that in mind. One way to expand your workforce is to hire employees that speak more than one language. You can also ask for language certifications from your employees as proof of their competency. Another way is for you to train your employees by probably offering to send them to a crash course in a certain language or encourage them to use a language learning app. A third way is for your employees to be exposed by the target language on a regular basis. This can be done by asking them to practice conversing in the language or filling the break room with foreign language forms of media like books and movies.

A business that promotes diversity has higher chances of coming out successful. Promoting multilingualism in the work environment not only benefits the business, but also helps your employees be exposed to different values, histories, and cultures.