Bridging Language and Work to Build Opportunity

Companies are seeking new strategies for investing in their workforces and are diversifying their talent pipelines to gain competitive advantages in the global marketplace. Many are turning to workers from immigrant and refugee backgrounds, a strategy that can help them meet their talent needs and fulfill their social impact goals.

A new report produced in partnership with the Tent Partnership for Refugees (Tent) provides a guide for U.S. employers implementing a variety of solutions that go beyond language training to help workers overcome language barriers, to help people who are learning the local language get into jobs faster while they work toward language proficiency. Read Bridging Language and Work: Solutions to Invest in Immigrant and Refugee Talent on Tent.org.

The solutions featured in the report can be implemented in each phase of the talent management cycle and include providing recruitment and onboarding documents in multiple languages, showcasing the job or company in creative ways that don’t rely on language proficiency, pairing local language learners with peers for on-the-job training, and evaluating candidates during trial work periods.