Being able to communicate in multiple languages is an important skill – a “superpower,” says Katie Brown, Ph.D., founder and chief education officer of EnGen, an English upskilling platform geared towards speakers of languages other than English gain access into the workforce.
Brown joined me for an interview for WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
“The United States meets the needs of only 4% of our adult English learners,” notes Brown. “We don’t, as a country, think about language skills as workforce skills. Getting employers to think about that is something that’s important.”
She continues, “Most people born in the U.S. only speak one language. Many of them will tell you they’ve taken five years of Spanish, and they can’t say anything. This means that they don’t think about language skills as something useful and accomplishable and something that would help them in the workplace.
“Often, it’s just flipping a switch, having that conversation and saying, ‘Hey, look at this part of your workforce. They are multilingual. That means that if they acquire English skills, they’ll be able to deliver customer service in multiple languages and help you take care of more customers, or they’ll be able to improve health care outcomes for many of the residents who live in your community who need to receive care or would benefit from care in a language other than English.
“It doesn’t take a ton of convincing. It’s really just about having the conversation.” Brown notes that EnGen’s employer partners say investing in multilingual talent boosts their recruitment and retention efforts.
Learn more about EnGen.
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
