One Simple Trick To Improve Employee Retention

When you invest in your employees, chances are, they’ll stick around.

Employees can feel the difference when you’re using resources to invest in their well-being. And once they do, most will increase their own work efforts simply because they feel like they’re valued. This kind of positive relationship is rooted in give and take: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.


### How to Bring the Team Together

Some common examples of getting the team together may be through the act of volunteerism or supporting a cause together. Whatever helps knit together the fabric of your HR team or business culture a little tight, consider it! A dinner together, a catered lunch or even a rival softball game between HR and Finance – you get the picture! How many ways has your corporation in the past incorporated fun in between the facts and figures?

More and more innovative companies are embracing another way to unite corporate teams, and it’s through the addition of language learning initiatives.

Why Language Learning?

From boosting productivity, to bringing coworkers closer together, language learning can help in a number of ways. In just one class, you’ll boost brain power and help individuals connect with one another and also themselves. Language learning is an easy way to help everyone get on the same page and to level the playing field. No matter where people are from, or what their first, second or even third language is, learning a new language together means that everyone is starting from square one. All in all, language-based learning is the great equalizer.

How so? When learning a new language, failure is inevitable – and don’t we all need a healthy dose of failure once in awhile? Life will never be 100% success! Learning a new language keeps us honest, because it’s hard. Not only does the size of your brain actually grow, but research shows that new neural pathways are created, helping you become more “cognitively creative” and “mentally flexible than monolinguals”. 

Learning a new language also breaks down barriers, gets everyone on the same page, and adds a healthy dose of humor to the day. In fact, learning a language is actually a perfect mirror to the reality and the daily struggles of growing a business! The feelings of camaraderie that take root during the first few days of the language course will grow and boost office morale overall. These moments of language learning instruction, then, can affect productivity and help retain employees.

For prospective employees who may be vying for a job at your company, to see that you offer language learning options gives you a leg up. Oftentimes people are more likely to apply for a job that they think is meeting them halfway and offering them opportunities to grow their lives outside their corporate responsibilities. Knowing you dedicate company dollars in the name of education and inspiration for current employees, well, the more qualified individuals may be inclined to apply and take the job!

The teams that begin language learning in some regard will finish the courses as entirely different people. They’ll be smarter, savvier, and chances are, quicker on their feet. The office environment may shift for them in a positive way, too! Individuals who may have been shy might become more confident, and those who previously might have been quick to speak may learn to better consider their options before spouting off their final answer. The new neural pathways that have been formed may have helped others understand just how their very own brain works. And for those who already knew how to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, now they may be more easily able to see the strengths of co-workers who they work alongside every single day.

**In the end, language learning is a chance to bring people together, and a fantastic way to savor the elements of life that make us all human. Interested in learning more? Fluent City offers a range of languages at all levels. Check them out here.