Why an English Test is the New Weapon in the War for Talent

Finding top talent is TOUGH

US business spends over $72 BILLION

a year on recruitment services and products

It’s even TOUGHER in emerging markets…

…where according to McKinsey, less than 1 in 5 GRADUATES is suitable for employment with multinational companies…

…primarily because of a lack of ENGLISH skills

Why is ENGLISH so important?

Employee success today is built on COLLABORATION

Key drivers of employee success in a more complex, interconnected environment

2012 Global CEO Study

67% 61% 61%75%

COLLABORATION Communication Creativity Flexibility

Business success is built on MASS Collaboration

The Evolution of BUSINESS

“Just like mass production, mass distribution and mass marketing before it, mass collaboration is the next big evolution in expanding business impact. !We now have hundreds of examples of organizations that have substantially magnified their capabilities by tapping into the power of the masses.”

The Social Organization

Mass Collaboration requires a COMMON LANGUAGE

“Companies with a global strategy need a language strategy. !A one-language directive is likely the most important policy that multinationals can institute for their globalizing companies.”

Tsedal Neeley, Assistant Professor

Harvard Business School

Global business requires a LANGUAGE STRATEGY

The Tour de France has a LANGUAGE STRATEGY

“In the 100th edition of the Tour, English has become an equal of, if not superior to, le français. Teams with multinational rosters, seeking unity, are adopting English, not French, as their lingua franca.”

English has become the LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS

“A growing number of firms worldwide are adopting English as their common language…”

15 February 2014

Even local companies in emerging markets are looking to recruit ENGLISH SPEAKERS

“Lenovo is one of a growing number of multinationals from the non-Anglophone world that have made English their official language.”

15 February 2014

Making competition even fiercer in the 21st CENTURY WAR FOR TALENT

Yet most recruiters are still fighting a 21st CENTURY WAR FOR TALENT

20th CENTURY RECRUITMENT TOOLSwith

COSTLY, TIME CONSUMING & INCONSISTENT

Typical assessments for English proficiency are still based on one-to-one human conversation, which is…

The current process leaves everyone unhappy

RECRUITERSCANDIDATES LEADERS

TALENTED CANDIDATES

!

with multiple job offers, are increasingly reluctant

participants in an antiquated process that leaves them hanging around for days &

weeks waiting for test scores

BUSINESS LEADERS

!

are increasingly frustrated with the number of candidates who pass the English test, but

fail in the workplace

RECRUITERS !

have a time-consuming, expensive and inconsistent

process which pleases neither candidates or clients

The 20th Century methods -testing for grammar and written classroom skills - are failing the 21st Century business demands

for cognition and personal communications skills

With 21st CENTURY tools we can…

REDUCE COSTS

SPEED UP THE PROCESS

IMPROVE RESULTS

Assessments can be completed by candidates in under an hour

across a range of computing and mobile platforms

SPEED UP THE PROCESS

IMPROVE RESULTS

Language proficiency is assessed within practical

business situations, testing both written and verbal skills

REDUCE COSTS

Automated tools can easily and accurately assess up to thousands of candidates at any stage of the application process - delivering

scores within 1% of human scored tests

But the problem still remains, that the talent pool of A-GRADE TALENT is not big enough to meet demand

Three ways 21st Century tools can help EXPAND YOUR POTENTIAL TALENT POOL

Create a more attractive offer than the competition 1

Candidates are desperate to improve their ENGLISH skills…

…they understand that English skills hold the key to career

progression and earning power

Offering further English learning as part of the job offer can help candidates see a clear career path ahead of them, and differentiate yourself from the competition

Test for the exact skills that your positions require2

Different roles require different levels of

English proficiency

!

Benchmarking options allow you to determine the level and type of language proficiency needed to meet your specific job requirements

BENCHMARK FOR JOB

CBA

Improve borderline candidates3

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY GAP

CBA

!

Gap analysis can show the level of improvement needed for borderline candidates to meet your requirements

Customized English learning programs can provide a pathway for borderline

candidates to make the grade

ENGLISH PROFICIENCY GAP

CBA

CUSTOMIZED LEARNING PROGRAMS

Integrating English learning programs into the recruitment

process can be a cost effective way of broadening your potential talent pool

EXPAND THE TALENT POOL

ONE MORE THING…

Even after you manage to identify and attract top talent… !

…the biggest challenge is usually still to come

How do you RETAIN

your top talent?

“About 20 percent of GSK’s sales force in China and India quits each year in favor of better offers from rivals. !There’s a huge war for talent. It’s hard to do anything about. If you have a good person, they could find someone else willing to pay twice as much.”

Integrated English learning can also be used

to retain top talent

Japan’s largest online marketplace, implemented

English as its common business language in 2010

Today, 3 OUT OF 6 senior executives in their engineering organization aren’t Japanese. They

represent the best talent from around the globe

Ongoing English learning drives a virtuous circle of…

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

CAREER PROGRESSION

TALENT RETENTION

With 21st Century Recruitment Tools You Can Identify, Attract and Retain Top Talent For Less

Pearson English Business Solutions helps corporations develop talent to realize their potential enabling them to communicate, collaborate and operate using a common language of business, English.

Click here for your free 30-page guide

to acquiring and developing top talent in a global economy.

Pearson English Business Solutions is part of Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. Learn more at www.globalenglish.com

FREE GUIDE

Pearson English Business Solutions harnesses the power of technology and premium content to enable talent to communicate, collaborate and operate using a common language of business English, whether down the hall, across continents and across business boundaries.

Pearson English Talent Management Solutions augment English learning products with a range of assessment, benchmarking and diagnostic tools to help you discover and develop global talent

Pearson English Business Solutions is part of Pearson, the world’s leading learning company. Learn more at www.globalenglish.com