How to attract the best Banking and Finance talent with your language program
As many of you will know from firsthand experience, Banking and Finance are competitive industries when it comes to where talent ends up. Potential employees are becoming increasingly savvy about what a company offers and how it’s going to affect their job fulfilment, personal and professional growth, and earning capacity.
If you are a company based in Germany in the Banking or Finance industries, your employees are going to want to learn German (and English if they don’t already know it).
This is how a language program specifically tailored to Banking and Finance can help you with your talent attraction strategy:
The best Banking and Finance talent want to learn German to succeed in Europe
The best talent is always looking to learn more to succeed in their careers. And in the banking and finance industries, that means current and potential employees are trying to position themselves to make the most of where the largest banking industries are located.
For them, learning German is a huge advantage because Germany is one of the banking centres of the world and also the largest economy in Europe. Additionally, German is also spoken in Austria and Switzerland who, like Germany, are in the top 10 countries in the world for consolidated banking assets, alongside French, English and Spanish.
Employees in the banking and finance industries realise that who you know is incredibly important to make deals happen and showing people that you speak their language commands a great deal of respect and makes conducting business deals that much easier.
A tailored language program is a huge value-add to attract the right talent
So, we know that the best talent is trying to position themselves to learn the right skills, like learning German, to succeed in the Banking and Finance industry. And we also know they’re serious about it.
They don’t just want to know how to order ‘ein Bier, bitte’; they want Banking and Finance German. Which can be complex.
Technical terminology, relationship building, understanding complex concepts in a foreign language are all skills that the best talent are looking to master when they learn German.
Let’s say a potential employee has two job offers:
- A company that offers an online language class as part of the perks and benefits of working there;
- A company that offers a language program tailored to their industry that will get them to their desired language proficiency level in a concentrated and focussed way.
Which one do you think they’re likely to choose?
High talent employees will often go for the best learning outcome because they know that this strategic positioning early on will lead to more fulfilling roles and better pay opportunities in the future (10-15% better according to some studies, depending on where you are).
Not knowing German, a language that is used frequently in banking and finance in Europe, can often feel like the barrier to success for employees. Offering it as a value-add for a company can be incredibly low-cost for the return on investment.
Top talent improve their work output when they learn a language in an industry-specific way
Learning the terminology, especially technical terminology, in an industry is a different process to a regular language class.
It’s not just a case of rote learning vocabulary – employees need to understand how and where to apply terminology. That’s where language classes that have a situational based training approach are fantastic. At Barlingua, we tailor these situations to a particular industry.
So, for banking, we will set up learning situations in which our banking and finance language students give presentations on how mergers and acquisitions work or practice the best way to handle a customer service call. It’s a double whammy learning situation – not only do the students learn the language in a way they can directly apply it to the workplace, but they also learn more about how they work.
We’ve had some great stories from banking professionals who found themselves improving the way they deliver a presentation in their native language as well. The situational learning environment of Barlingua made them stop and really reflect on their delivery process.
Success in Banking and Finance = Networking and relationship building
The gulf between communicating directly with someone and communicating through a translator is huge. And it’s a constant challenge when it comes to crossing language divides to build important business relationships.
The Guardian looked at in-house language skills and their ability to win clients over translators. Partner at law firm, Moore Blatch, Ciaran McCabe had this to say, “Many businesses will rely on the help of translators, but we have found that investing in a dedicated service has led to stronger relationships with clients – so much so that the majority of work the firm receives under this service is through personal recommendations,”
The banking and finance industry is similar in the need to build relationships in order to win new business and make deals. Being able to communicate in the local language opens new doors for employees to grow their networks, for instance, through social outings with potential clients.
A language program tailored to Banking and Finance avoids misunderstandings
Mistakes are a part of life. Mistakes in Banking and Finance can be a very expensive or unfortunate part of life, however. Avoiding them, in the likes of deal-making, relationship building, or lobbying can be the difference between hitting a quarterly goal and not making it.
The best talent in the Banking and Finance industry also realise how important it is not to be misunderstood or make mistakes for their reputation. They know that who you know is so important and a company that provides them with the learning opportunities they need to make sure they’re setting themselves up for success is a great part of any HR talent attraction strategy.
Whether an employee is heading to a small private equity firm or a large bank, they want to know that the ‘office perks’ aren’t just gratuitous. Any top Banking and Finance talent is well aware of the advantage learning German is going to give them in Europe and they actively look for companies that will ensure they can succeed in this area.
We kept that in mind when we created Barlingua Plus – Banking and Finance. Firstly, we conduct an in-depth analysis of your company to understand the kind of scenarios and language learning your employees will need. Then, our language trainers will set up situation-based classes in a warm, safe zone where your employees will feel free to experiment with industry terminology, delivering presentations, and generally feeling at home with a new language in the workplace.
