What your non-native English speaker employees and colleagues wish you knew

Collaborative Future’s Community Advocates Sonia (Polish, 26) and Prisca (Italian, 23) along with our community share their knowledge and experiences of navigating employment with English as a second language.

Alt text : Two young people with dark hair sat side by side at a desk, writing on big pieces of white paper and colourful sticky notes.

Out of the world’s nearly 8 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English - the majority aren’t native English speakers - and only about 360 million people speak English as their first language. The most common first language is Chinese, followed distantly by Spanish and then, in third place comes English (Babbel). Yet a lot of the information and advice out there about non-native English speakers in the workplace places the burden of accommodating others on the individual as opposed to the workplace, system or society, prompting them to “just make conversation” or “be social” to thrive in the workplace. This forces individuals to squeeze themselves into a mould to fit a world of work that doesn’t understand and respect them and their experiences.

In the year ending June 2021, 6 million people living in the UK had the nationality of a different country - that’s 9% of the total UK population (House of Commons Library). Being the faces behind this statistic, we - Collaborative Future’s Community Advocates Sonia (Polish, 26) and Prisca (Italian, 23) - along with members of our community would like to share our knowledge and experiences of navigating employment with English as a second language. Just as many organizations shout from the rooftops about “diversifying” their teams, we find that there are so many simple nuances many still forget when interacting, collaborating or recruiting non-native English speakers.

Here are some things we’d like you to keep in mind:

“I’m not being rude”

In hiring, candidates’ lack of “enthusiasm” or “charismatic persona” is judged. Digging deeper, the person is not from the UK and English is their second language. Something that many non-native English speakers mentioned in our conversations is the overbearing nature of communication in the British culture and the want “to please and thank” at every instance. “Italians are much more direct and blunt than English people” says Prisca who moved to the UK aged 15. “People think you're joking when you're really direct.” says Nina who came to the UK aged 17, knowing English language pretty well. This can so easily be mistaken for being cold, uninterested or sarcastic, an assumption costing a perfectly capable and talented interviewee progression and a job offer. This is also the presumption when someone is not joining the office ‘banter’. “In my first roles in hospitality and retail, I felt that not being completely fluent in English added a barrier in both interacting with customers and creating relationships with my co-workers” says Prisca. Even as understanding of the language grows, the cultural differences in humour are often worlds apart - many topics that are laughed about with openness in English workplaces are not talked about in other cultures. “I definitely had an issue with understanding slang although my English was good.” said Nina. Sayings and phrases - “bite the bullet“ or “take it with a grain of salt“ - simply do not translate, and are problematic in themselves.

When we see this lack of understanding play out in work environments, it often stems from teams being made up of people from the same race, age, social background, with limited exposure and understanding of other cultures. With internet at our fingertips, there is no excuse not to seek beyond what the content algorithm might be throwing at you - there are so many podcasts, books and socials run by talented folks (at the moment, we personally love Bernardine Evaristo’s books). In the workplace itself, carry out an active evaluation of bias - when hiring, this can look like a mediated decision making session (have a look at our free Recruitment Guide for conversation starters), in a team, this can look like getting an external perspective to prompt a meaningful conversation about valuing different types of communication (check out our tailored training and coaching offer).

“Respect my name”

Simple elements of interactions such as consistent incorrect pronunciation of ‘hard to read’ names not only are exhausting, but also tell us that you do not care. Sometimes, our names and their specific pronunciation are the only link left we have to our homes, culture and family. Names play a massive factor in hiring “When I shared my disappointment at countless unsuccessful job applications, my mum repeatedly told me it’s because they see my name on top - I didn’t want to believe that that could be a factor.” says Sonia, who moved to the UK aged 11. This leads individuals to sometimes “Anglicize” (or as we originally wrote it, English-ise) their names on CV’s to be seen as more British.

Two simple things to do to respect this is to not partake in anonymous CV’s - the bias that come with choosing candidates based on a name that’s familiar and easy sits deep within the hiring panel and organisation itself, which is exactly where the work should start - anonymous CV’s are just a band-aid. Take a look at our free Recruitment Guide for transparent and inclusive processes that value the individual’s background, experiences and skillsets. Once the individual joins your team, learn how to pronounce their names and stop shortening these to a syllable that’s easy for you to say - which is, as we discovered, so common in English workplaces.

“Understand the why behind my communication”

Many non-native English speakers face discrimination in their daily lives, on the bus or on the street, the trauma of which they carry into every other experience, including work. This can create an overwhelming sense of self-consciousness and low confidence which massively affects communication in the workplace. Looking from the outside, this might look like someone not being communicative, being quiet in group meetings, not wanting to lead on projects or not asking for a promotion. “I had people be impatient because I could not find a word for what I wanted to say, or patronizing because I slightly mispronounced something, and it was deemed hilarious and laughed at - it kind of makes you not want to open your mouth ever again” says Sonia. For those with less confidence and stronger accents, it takes double the effort to complete a presentation or to have a discussion - just think about the amount of translation that needs to happen in one’s head. Non-native speakers also often need to act as representatives of their entire nationality and are not seen as individuals. This adds extra pressure to positions of responsibility where they know their performance does not only impact their career but also the way others view their heritage and culture as a whole.

Consider looking at your processes and analysing whether they are a barrier. For example, think about the way your meetings are run, be it online or in person - is there a lot of background noise? Do people tend to talk over each other? Is there space to share ideas via notes, pair conversations, chat? Is someone making notes? Are you using inside jokes and industry lingo? So much can be missed in these moments when decisions are being made - while you might have non-English speakers in the room, are they really being enabled to take part? If you’re struggling with someone’s way of communicating, instead of penalizing the person for acting in a certain way, invest in external mentors and coaches who will work with the individual to grow their understanding and confidence. To grow your teams’ understanding of how different backgrounds and experiences come across in the workplace, invest in skilled DEI facilitators. Our team offers a range of coaching and training for individuals, teams and networks to improve company culture. Creating this space can also help your team explore other ways (besides banter and pub) to build connections and a sense of belonging so that everyone feels included and appreciated.

“Spot the double standards developing”

Hard working immigrants is a narrative non-native English speakers are often faced with. “When I was a factory worker there was this weird assumption that immigrants/people with English as a second language work/have to work faster and harder; it very much felt like there were double standards towards native speakers and those who are not native speakers. This is a very toxic way of thinking and I wish it wasn’t like that.” says Mika, who moved to the UK aged 15. This perception is a self fulfilling prophecy, while some non-English speakers will work harder to make up for the language barrier, the employer sees this as productive and ups the requirements they have of their employees, employees then respond to this by entering a cycle of burn out for the fear of losing their roles.

Recognise the energy your non-English speaking colleagues or employees are giving to hit a deadline or impress the client. If they laugh about late nights, question whether your communication plays a part in how they perceive success. Working with external coaches and facilitators like Collaborative Future to not only work with an individual to unveil their thinking but to prompt conversation about how the entire team creates and upholds barriers to maintain a healthy way of working, will enable you to challenge any bias or double standards at play.

“Celebrate all types of knowledge”

There are vast differences with skill levels, education and qualifications between countries, and what translates to what we know as GCSE’s or A-levels and whether the equivalent is recognized as worthy by employers. Aside from this, the process of learning a new language itself takes years, even longer to be fluent and confident at it, and longer to learn workplace lingo and industry specific wording. Unfortunately, this isn’t seen as being honorary of marking, it’s seen as a default. “I wish people would stop believing that English is a benchmark for intelligence / having arbitrary preferences for languages that are from “first world countries” says Prisca.

Removing blockers for future hires, such as removing specific education requirements is just one way to do this. When onboarding new talent, you could also take time to discover their ways of learning new information and communicating through exploring the way they learnt the language.

“Learn from our differences”

So much energy goes into learning the language and finding the truly appropriate word for the situation we’re in, without fluffing it up or embellishing it. This is a perspective Collaborative Future has benefitted from by having non-native speakers like us on the team. “As a native English speaker I actually believe I make a lot more flippant grammar mistakes than my team mates, and other native English speakers don’t often challenge my incorrect use of vocabulary or over-use of jargon. Having Sonia and Prisca on the team makes me more thoughtful about the language I use, and they often more easily identify the sections of my blog posts or talks that would be confusing to others." says Tess.

Native speakers need to get more comfortable with being questioned and challenged around their use of language and reminded to think more consciously about what they mean. Actively inviting regular feedback is just one way to embed this as part of a culture. Seeing it as a journey for everyone involved this improves use of language for native speakers and non-native speakers.

“I need a community”

Many non-native English speakers, in the process of moving countries lose their community. This feeling of disconnection doesn’t only impact one’s wellbeing but also employment prospects. “As part of job applications for local creative businesses, so many of them wanted to know the networks you’re in that you can bring into the role - but what if you have none?” says Sonia.

If your team has a few non-English speakers, explore making “circle” communities at work (shout out to Circles - Communities at work). Acknowledge the connections they do have - friends, family, community as well as international work connections in home countries - when hiring with the same importance as if they are coming into your organisation from a competitor. Also, this absolutely is the case for everyone, but give your non-English speakers the flexibility in their work to upkeep their connections and relationships with family and friends in other countries by allowing them to work and live abroad for longer periods of time.

Many thanks to Mika (Creative Future’s Talent Programme alumni), Nina (Software Engineer at Microsoft) and Tess (Collaborative Future’s Founder) for sharing their perspectives with us and allowing us to quote them in our blogpost.