"Addressing English skills gaps and ensuring that employees can immediately perform at the necessary proficiency level should be viewed as a strategic imperative for multinational businesses," shares GlobalEnglish President, Tom Kahl.
Philippines: Displaying Economic Growth Through English Proficiency
The organization cites the Philippines, Business English Index's (BEI) top scorer this year, as one of the countries with "communication and collaboration proficiency that enables optimal global operations."
Receiving a rating of 7.11 from a scale of 1-10, The Philippines was the only country surveyed where employees "can take an active role in business discussions and confidently perform relatively complex tasks across a wide range of business situations," notes Kahl.
This, too, relates to the latest GDP data from World Bank which shows that the country's economy is improving.
"I would expect the Philippines to continue to reap the rewards of having English-proficient workers because the ability to communicate and collaborate in the international language of business is essential to actively compete in today's global economy," he adds.
The country is now overtaking India as a hub for call centers with over 400,000 Filipinos employed in the industry, despite being only 1/10 of India.
Following the growth of the business process outsourcing industry in the country, GlobalEnglish also sees that "outsourcing of high-value services such as medical transcription, financial services, and software development" are likely to flourish given the skills set of employees in the country.
Breaking The Barrier
However, the 2012 BEI also shows that a lack of Business English proficiency is threatening the productivity of companies, industries and country-specific economies this year.
The average 2012 BEI score of the 76 countries included in the proficiency rankings is only 4.15. This low score confirms that current Business English skills are not sufficient enough to meet the performance demands of today's global economy.
"Businesses must adopt effective solutions that help all their non-native English employees develop their skills over the long term, while also immediately improving their workday productivity with relevant performance support tools," advices Kahl.
"Countries and companies that don't address the need for global teams to effectively communicate and collaborate in a single language of business will be unable to successfully operate across borders, and they'll suffer efficiency and profitability losses that will impact their ability to compete in the global economy," he concludes.