3 Methods to Test Bilingual Candidates
Companies who hire bilingual talent need employees who can effectively communicate in another language; most often in the United States, the second language is Spanish. When you need an employee who can deliver products and services to customers in a foreign language, you’ll need to make bilingual skills a priority.
Thorough phone interviews, online tests and video interviewing are all great ways to assess surface language skills. However, before you offer the job, you’ll need to assess if that candidate is as fluent as he or she claims to be. If you’re a recruiter or a hiring manager who isn’t fluent in verbal and/or written language, assessing one who is can be a bit of a challenge.
Written Assessment Tests
This type of language evaluation is used to measure a candidate’s ability to write in the target language. If your opening is one that relies heavily on an administrative assistant who can write communications, emails and documents in multiple languages, then this type of test could be your best fluency assessment.
Speaking and Listening Assessment Tests
With a series of intentionally designed questions, this bilingual assessment analyzes a candidate’s ability to converse in the second language. By asking a series of questions that gradually increase in complexity, the job applicant must perform various spoken tasks, which accurately rate how well a candidate can converse in the language.
Translation Assessment Test
If your job opening requires an expert level of proficiency in speaking, reading and writing in both languages, a translation test may be the optimal choice. Perhaps you have a line supervisor who will manage Spanish-speaking employees. Maybe you have a machinist who will need to read foreign technical documents and explain the contents to others. A good translator can preserve the meaning of the source document, while putting the information to the context of the dominant language.
Workers with skills in a second language may have an edge when it comes to climbing the professional ladder. These employees are more likely to land managerial roles and deal with an array of clients. The demand for these workers is growing, especially in manufacturing and technology jobs. These employees will likely be the most profitable and productive, but also the most challenging to land. They know they have an in-demand skill set and they will want greater compensation.
Are you looking to enhance your workforce with bilingual candidates? Expand your reach with our diverse talent pool. We have job candidates in Texas, bringing you top bilingual talent with skills that surpass your needs and expectations. Give Burnett and Choice Specialists a call today and find out how a bilingual employee can improve your workforce.
