Do you and your company want to appeal to the widest possible audience? Of course you do! Hiring bilingual or even trilingual staff to work within your business and promotional campaigns can help you to rapidly expand your client base.

Most stats in this article are taken from the 2011 Census.

UK Language Breakdown

Despite approximately 98% of the population speaking English, there are 864,000 people living in the UK who do not speak English. A significant number of people who are linguistically isolated. Additionally, although the majority of the population are English speaking, not all are native speakers. English is the second language of 7.7% of the population. This figure is actually likely to be higher due to increased immigration (since the 2011 census).

Of those who reported their main language to be a language other than English, the most commonly spoken language was Polish, followed by Punjabi and Urdu. These three languages have hundreds of thousands of recorded speakers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, as the nation’s capital, London is by far the most linguistically diverse city in the UK. 22% of London’s population does not consider English to be their mother tongue. The Midlands is next. 7.2% of the West Midlands population, and 6.2% of the East Midlands population have a native language other than English. 

The following infographic shows the concentration of these languages around the UK.

Infographic from Statista

Learning Languages

With over 6500 different languages in the world, people have always been keen to learn new languages e.g. for school, work, and travel. However the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this further, with national lockdowns giving us more time to invest in learning a new language.

The popular language-learning app Duolingo publishes an annual language report which shows the world’s language-learning trends. Their 2020 report shows that 13 million Brits had downloaded the app and that Spanish, French, and German were the most popular languages studied. 

Moreover, Welsh, Hindi, and Japanese were the fastest-growing languages on the app in the UK. Welsh and Hindi perhaps indicating that people want to connect with their own and their friend’s cultures. Japanese highlights the increasing popularity of manga and anime. Additionally, the prominence of sporting events such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2019 Rugby World Cup may have had some influence.

Why You Should Hire Bilingual Staff

There are many reasons why your business should consider hiring employees who speak more than one language, here are 5 important ones:

1. Save Money

Hiring bilingual staff can prevent your business from having to hire a contract translator or interpreter every time you need one. Both of which takes time and money. Additionally, having someone in-house who can translate documents also prevents any embarrassing and costly Google-translate errors.

2. Proof Of Other Skills

Not only do you get the obvious language benefits when hiring employees that can speak multiple languages. Studies have shown that bilinguals are also better multi-taskers, can process information much faster and efficiently, and are better decision makers.

3. Connect With the Local Community

If your business operates in an area with a large non-English speaking population then having staff that speaks their native language will show that you care. People like to feel acknowledged, and so your business making the effort to connect with your customer’s culture and language will not go unnoticed.

Having bilinguals is especially important to consider when planning marketing campaigns. Hiring brand ambassadors who can speak different languages will enable them to engage with a more varied audience. Push Promotions has over 3000 staff members on our books for promotional events and campaigns. So please inquire if you require bilingual staff.

4. Appeal To International Clients

Now, this reason should be an obvious! If you want to expand your business internationally then you need to be able to understand the language and culture of international customers. Having a thorough understanding will help you to create a rapport with international businesses and clients. It will also help you to avoid giving any accidental offence.

5. Create A Diverse Workforce

Having linguistically and culturally diverse employees helps to create a more tolerant and understanding work environment. By working with people from a variety of backgrounds people develop more empathy skills. In theory, your staff will then be able to apply when working with customers and other businesses.

SIGN LANUGAGE (BSL)

In 2022, Labour MP Rosemary Cooper introduced a bill to make British Sign Language an official language. This was then backed by the British Government. There are thousands of Deaf people for whom BSL is their native language, and hundreds of thousands more who use BSL to communicate with them. As the language becomes official and grows in the UK, this is another language to consider using within your workplace. Furthermore, classes are available online.

n conclusion, hiring multilingual or bilingual staff is an important marketing strategy for businesses, as well as a moral and inclusive way to connect with underrepresented communities.

Moreover, this article is bought to you by Push Promotions. We are a promotional staffing agency that supplies staff nationwide to support some of the UK’s largest brands at their promotional events. For example, we have worked with brands such as Duracell, Innocent Drinks, Cider, and more. We can supply a variety of staff including leafleting staff, product sampling staff, hosts and hostesses, and promotional models.

Here at Push Promotions, we have a network of over 3000 staff with varying experience and skills, who we handpick for each event. Therefore if you were to require bilingual staff for your promotional campaign, we will aim to meet those requirements.

For more information check out our website or get a quick quote here.