As we have seen, research shows that, though companies regularly find language and cultural factors a barrier to doing business, they do not always have any strategies in place for dealing with them. Yet companies which are proactive in developing appropriate international communications policies find they reap the rewards and gain a competitive edge. Increasingly, UK employers are also faced with issues of multicultural workforce management.

Put simply, developing an international communications plan (pdf 190kb) involves identifying your business needs and priorities and finding an appropriate package of solutions. The solutions need not be time-consuming or costly!

You will benefit from developing a strategy, however simple, if for example you are:

Selling to customers in overseas markets. Dealing with suppliers overseas. Responsible for multilingual and multicultural teams. There are several tools and services designed to help employers to plan. Have a serious look at your website and decide how you are going to need to adapt it

Consult the Solvit on-line guide for SMEs

Contact International Business Wales (IBW) for advice on how to change the way you communicate with overseas markets and improve business.

Look at our local and UK wide case studies from all sorts of organisations and see how they have tackled international communications issues.

Click here for advice on using professional linguists for your translation work.

Once you have identified your organisation’s needs and completed your planning, it may be worth conducting an audit of the language skills which your staff already have. You may be surprised at the results! The UK National Language Standards and the European Language Portfolio are both tools which you can use to identify and map your staff's language capability. If you are interested in a more formal skills audit, it may be appropriate to engage a language professional.

Developing skills

If you do not already have the in-house languages capacity which you need, you may wish to consider training for existing staff or recruitment of staff with language skills.

Contact CILT Cymru to search for a language trainer in your area. Make sure that you have a clear idea of your expectations; use the National Language Standards to identify the types of skill you would like staff to develop for their various job roles.

Engaging a professional

For some types of business activity, it is not appropriate or cost-effective to rely on a member of staff who happens to have some language skills. There can be huge risks in both the public and private sectors in failing to engage a professionally qualified language service provider. It could be damaging, for example, to enter into commercial negotiations or interactions with patients, without commissioning a professional, qualified interpreter. For more information, go to our using professional language services pages.

Market / Country Guides

The Regional Language Networks (RLN) in England together with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) have produced a series of country specific Cultural briefing guides which offer practical advice for those wishing to conduct business in other countries. These are an excellent basic introduction to each country – and more will be added.

Click on the links below to download a briefing which will give you a quick synopsis on the language and culture of your chosen country or click here to link through to our selection of podcasts.

Please note that these guides are only available in English.

African Countries from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC)

Arab Middle East courtesy of RLN East Midlands. There are also guides available to specific countries, please scroll down.

Argentina courtesy of RLN East. A more dettailed report is also available here.

Australia courtesy of RLN East Midlands.

Azerbaijan a BCC report

Bahrain a BCC report

Benelux a BCC report on Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands together with a specific city guide to Brussels.

Brazil courtesy of RLN East plus a quick Brazilian Portuguese Phrasebook. We are also grateful to our colleagues in the East of England for this report on the Brazilian Bio Tech Sector.

Brunei a BCC guide

Bulgaria courtesy of RLN South West

Caribbean this BCC guide covers a number of Dutch, English and Spanish speaking island countries.

Chile courtesy of RLN East

China courtesy of RLN South West and a Chinese Mandarin Phrasebook from our colleagues in RLN East. If your enquiry is specific to Shanghai, the British Chambers of Commerce publish this useful Shanghai Guide. The Chambers also publisah an informative guide to China and Hong Kong.

Cyprus courtesy of RLN South West

Czech Republic courtesy of RLN South West

Denmark courtesy of RLN South West

Estonia courtesy of RLN South West

France courtesy of RLN South West

Germany courtesy of RLN East.

Hungary courtesy of RLN South West

India courtesy of RLN South West. RLN East have also produced a Hindi Phrasebook.

Indonesia courtesy of RLN East

Italy courtesy of RLN East Midlands

Japan courtesy of RLN South West

Korea (South) courtesy of RLN South West

Latvia courtesy of RLN South West

Lithuania courtesy of RLN South West

Malaysia courtesy of RLN East

Malta courtesy of RLN South West

Mexico courtesy of RLN East

New Zealand courtesy of RLN East Midlands

Oman courtesy of RLN South West

Poland courtesy of RLN South West

Portugal courtesy of RLN East

Romania courtesy of RLN South West and also courtesy of BCC

Russia courtesy of RLN South West

Saudi Arabia courtesy of BCC with some additional culture notes from RLN East

Singapore courtesy of RLN East

Slovakia courtesy of RLN South West

Slovenia courtesy of RLN South West

South Africa courtesy of RLN East

Spain courtesy of RLN East

Turkey courtesy of RLN South West

U.A.E courtesy of BCC who also do specific guides to Abu Dhabi and Dubai

 

Contact