Explore how language upskilling is redefining excellence in the BPO industry.
Learn how it eliminates communication barriers and ensures future readiness.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) remains one of the most resilient industries today. It serves as the linchpin of organizations worldwide. It is one of the largest sectors, with staggering projections marking its sustained growth.
In 2023, the Information Technology (IT) industry is forecasted to reach $1.241 trillion in revenue. BPOs will seize a large share, around $0.35 trillion, making up 28% of the total market.
These figures highlight its dominance in the global business stage. They are evidence of how well it adapts to client demands and embraces digital transformation.
With the tremendous growth in operations, how can BPOs continue to deliver top-tier service and ensure future readiness? The answer lies in upskilling for BPO employees.
In this article, we’ll delve into the evolving BPO sector, the need for upskilling, and the role of language training in driving success.
The Shifting Landscape of BPO
BPO services have evolved from basic tasks like customer assistance and back-office work. They now perform more complex functions. These include IT support, knowledge process outsourcing, legal work, research, and analytics. They also extend to other areas such as finance, accounting, gaming, and animation.
But, like any industry, BPOs face challenges, including talent retention. This issue impacts their productivity, dulls their competitiveness, and increases their hiring costs.
One talent survey revealed that:
The numbers emphasize the need for solid talent development strategies. Upskilling has been proven to be a practical approach.
Upskilling equips employees with important competencies to remain valuable in their roles. It bridges skill gaps and becomes a vehicle for career growth. Without upskilling, fast-growing companies like BPOs will fall way behind their competitors.
Language Training as an Upskilling Solution
The World Economic Forum’s report highlighted critical and analytical thinking as the most valuable today. Following these are empathy, active listening, and social influence. Language is the common thread that binds these competencies together.
Herein lies the crucial role of language training. As a strategic upskilling solution, it elevates these skills and unlocks many benefits:
Enhanced Client Service. Language upskilling enables better communication with clients from different linguistic backgrounds. It removes speaking barriers and ensures smoother workflows.
Better Performance. With better language skills, BPO professionals feel more confident to share their ideas.
Puja Bhatia, L&D Executive Vice President of Teleperformance, emphasized in a roundtable discussion that the end goal for any leader overseeing diversity is inclusion. Language skills empower BPO professionals to have a voice. They bring a wealth of diverse ideas and opinions.
“Regardless of one’s background, language, or orientation, every individual should have a voice and a seat at the table to share their ideas. It’s about recognizing the value of diverse perspectives. Specifically relating it to our industry, there’s so much automation, [and] machine learning that is happening. So every interaction with humans needs to be empathetic, needs to be understanding, needs to be human… Language and communication play a pivotal role in that.”
Cultural Awareness. Complete language training includes cultural sensitivity training. It improves employees’ grasp of the customs, etiquette, and preferences of customers and colleagues. This, in turn, fosters more respectful interactions.
Expanded Market Reach. As BPOs expand to new markets, language skills enable them to negotiate deals with clients from different locations. They can pivot to new projects with language-specific requirements.
Why Choose goFLUENT for Language Training
BPOs have in-house training teams for language instruction, especially for English. However, partnering with an integrated enterprise language solutions provider like goFLUENT will supercharge their efforts.
Personalized Language Upskilling for BPO Employees
goFLUENT Language Academy provides learners with comprehensive, seamless, and personalized training. When they access the eLearning platform, they will find:
A library of industry-tailored courses and multimedia resources. goFLUENT has over 10,000 language-learning materials. BPOs can leverage this library to conduct industry-specific training for sectors including aviation, banking and finance, customer service, energy, retail, food and beverage, technology, legal, sales and marketing, among others. Alongside industry-specific training, job-relevant language upskilling for BPO employees can involve honing skills in negotiation, phone calls, business writing, and presentation.
Aside from English, goFLUENT also trains in strategic business languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Tailored content recommendations. Learners won’t get lost browsing through thousands of content because Language Academy is powered by an advanced AI. It personalizes training paths based on their job functions, goals, and interests. This curation helps learners focus on what matters to them.
Accessible learning anytime, anywhere, and on any device. BPO employees cover different time zones and shifts. For this busy industry, learning should fit within their schedules. Language Academy brings learning closer to employees by making it available 24/7. Whether self-paced eLearning or trainer-led virtual classes, studying is convenient.
High-impact training with virtual classroom technology. goFLUENT offers Individual Lessons, Group Lessons, and Writing Lessons within the eLearning platform. These lessons can be booked using Virtual Classroom Technology (VCR). This allows learners to attend virtual classes alongside their onsite training. Having both means they experience uninterrupted learning.
Seamless Language Training Deployment for L&D Teams
For training managers, goFLUENT drives the success of their initiatives with these capabilities:
Seamless integration with learning ecosystems. goFLUENT optimizes Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Experience Platforms (LXP). This ensures scalable and accessible language upskilling to any location.
With an LMS, managers can incorporate goFLUENT into their structured account-specific training. They can facilitate autonomous learning through an LXP. This approach boosts effectiveness across the board.
Reliable client and learner support. goFLUENT has the capacity to support global upskilling operations. It has a responsive team of learning consultants, customer success managers, and learning engagement specialists, all ready to address client and learner needs.
Accurate language assessment. As language training is a huge investment, BPOs need to know how their workforce is progressing. goFLUENT offers a language assessment tool that evaluates learners’ abilities in comprehension, grammar and vocabulary usage, and spoken communication.
Commitment to data compliance and sustainability management. goFLUENT adheres to top IT compliance, data privacy, and responsible management standards. Companies like BPOs are assured their information is safe and secure.
Achieving BPO Excellence Through Language Upskilling
The BPO industry is resilient and continuously invests in talent development. Among the many upskilling solutions, language training is the most effective.
To enhance your BPO’s internal training initiatives, choose goFLUENT language training. Our vast library, AI-driven eLearning platform, multilingual options, varied classes, integration capabilities, assessment tool, and dedicated support unlock the full potential of language upskilling. Embrace the future of BPO excellence with goFLUENT today.
