Member Article

Globalization and the employment market

Nowadays employers expect a lot of flexibility from their staff. Especially high-skilled employees have to get used to the idea of leaving their home country to work abroad. New markets emerge everywhere and globalization is a key word in understanding the economy today. Many still wonder what has triggered this process, but the answer is quite simple:

it’s technology. Especially as the internet has made it possible to communicate with people from the opposite side of the planet and to share new ideas and concepts with them. New ways of transportation also play a crucial role when it comes to global markets. Goods can be shipped from one country to another within hours and travelling has never been easier.

Many companies hire foreign employees to broaden their horizon and to work with different cultural approaches. The number of foreigners working in the UK keeps rising and so does the number of British expatriates.

Languages are the key

Many companies are looking for native speakers who can deal with clients from all around the globe. English as a lingua franca can be helpful in many situations but unfortunately you can not always expect everyone to speak it on a business fluent level. Employees are therefore often watching out for people who learned French, Spanish or Chinese as their mother tongue and who are proficient in English as well. Language skills have never been as important as they are today and work and life in the UK is attractive to so many people since they have learned English from quite a young age on and are therefore fluent in this language. Especially for EU citizens it has become a lot easier to move to another European country thanks to the Schengen Convention. Many employees even expect applicants to have spent some time abroad regardless of whether they will have to work in a foreign language or not, it’s the experience that counts.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jonny Marshall .