Employee language learning: an app for everyone or a course for a few?
Choosing a language training provider? Here’s how to choose between an app the whole team can use, and a high-touch option for a select few.
Let’s be real. Sourcing language training for a team of employees isn't cheap. So, when making the decision to invest in a training provider, it usually boils down to one question: which one gives me the most value for money?
Answering this question isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. If you're on a tight budget, it's tempting to assume that the best-value option is the cheapest one. But you also need to factor in your team’s needs and goals. While language-learning apps that anyone can use may seem like the best short-term option, in the long term you may find that they don’t help you to achieve your original objective: improving your employees’ language skills.
That’s why at Chatterbox we believe that our personalised, high-touch language courses that suit a select few get better results than low-touch apps that suit the masses.
Here are a few things you may want to consider when weighing up the options.
Employee engagement rates
When a language-learning experience is personalised, engagement skyrockets and learners make tangible progress.
So we’ve added contact points along the way and made our courses as flexible as possible - it’s one of the reasons why our retention rates are 3x the industry average!
Let’s compare our method to that of other leading language-learning apps:
Coach-learner relationship
Chatterbox
Your employees will be matched with one of our degree-educated, native speaker coaches based on their job sector and interests.
There are trained accountants teaching Arabic to financial consultants and former actors teaching Spanish to film buffs. As our team of native speakers are seen as peers rather than teachers, learners are able to converse with another professional in their field in a natural environment.
Made-for-everyone apps
When learners don’t practise their language skills with another person, they are less likely to engage in their learning. Understandably so, what’s the point in learning new vocabulary if there is no way of seeing its real-world use?
While animations, badges and bots can admittedly go some way in motivating learners, their effects pale in comparison to the encouragement that another human being can give you.
Language support
Chatterbox
Our coaches aren’t the only human touch point in our language courses. Learners also have access to a Language Helper; a language expert who is on hand to provide support throughout their learning journey. They can message them at any point between Live Practices and expect a prompt answer.
Made-for-everyone apps
Many low-touch apps, that is to say that involve little human interaction, are designed for learners to be able to progress with minimal support. In other words, if a learner has a problem, it’s their responsibility to figure out how to solve it.
Flexible learning
Chatterbox
From our self-paced independent study to learners creating their own schedule for their one-to-one Live Practices, employees learn at their own pace. When work just gets too busy, they are able to edit their schedule freely to fit their learning around other commitments (and not the other way around!).
Made-for-everyone apps
While most apps are also pretty flexible and allow you to pick up your device and start learning on-the-go whenever you want to, they don’t necessarily motivate you to keep going. Without the accountability of a coach, the freedom of knowing “I can log in any time!” soon becomes “no one will know if I don’t...”
Employee satisfaction
Whether language training is obligatory for your team or it’s being offered as a perk, the warm, fuzzy feeling we all get whenever we excel at something is universal.
At Chatterbox, we know how much that feeling of success can improve employee satisfaction so we made sure to design our language courses with measurable progress in mind, as opposed to apps that are designed to be low-commitment.
Accountability
Chatterbox
Our human-looped approach, which encourages learners to stick with their favourite coach throughout their learning journey, means that your employees are held accountable. And who is accountability’s best friend? Progress!
Made-for-everyone apps
Without coach continuity, learners are left to their own devices, and even the most motivated learner can fall off the tracks on the journey to language proficiency.
Functionality
Chatterbox
Our syllabi are designed with real-world use in mind. From business-related vocabulary, to how to greet someone in a different country, to writing practice so that you cover all of your language skills, everything you learn at Chatterbox has a purpose.
Made-for-everyone apps
Creating apps for the masses means that there is a huge number of language-learning needs to cater to. Ever used a language app and the first sentence you learn is ‘the cows are eating bread’? We have – and we know that this isn’t useful (especially not if you want to impress a client!).
Efficiency
Chatterbox
Our courses are an efficient way to gain language proficiency. Our placement test places learners at the right level and, within just 6 months, your employees can gain a CEFR-aligned certificate showing their progress.
Made-for-everyone apps
With some apps, it can feel like you’re learning a language at lightning speed. But when it comes to having a real-life conversation, you’re back at square one. These gaps in knowledge are often due to a lack of structure and specific learning goals to work towards.
Social impact
Language training with the added bonus of creating social change? It seems like a no-brainer to us.
That’s why at Chatterbox we provide corporate language training with a difference. By investing in our language courses, you are creating meaningful work for native speakers who have been unfairly excluded from the job market, through no fault of their own.
Read about some of Chatterbox’s incredible coaches.
And while we should all contribute towards making society a little fairer from the goodness of our hearts, in partnering with us there are actually some added benefits for your company too:
Support D&I efforts
By showing your team that you care about having a positive social impact, you can also improve the way your employees view the company and its culture. A previous learner from a leading FMCG brand stated: “It increased my engagement and pride to work in a company aligned with my values.”
Create a more inclusive company culture
Our coaches come from diverse walks of life. By having weekly conversations with them, your employees will gain new perspectives which will translate both into their personal lives and the workplace, fostering a more inclusive environment.
Build cultural intelligence
There’s no point being able to speak a different language if every time you say something you end up putting your foot in it. Through conversations with our coaches, your employees not only gain language proficiency, they gain cultural fluency too. This is transferable to any business setting, from liaising with clients and colleagues who are native speakers of the language, to collaborating more effectively within a diverse team.
Don’t just take our word for it…
If any of these factors are important to you and your team when choosing a training provider, then Chatterbox could be the language learning solution you’ve been looking for.
But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s take a look at how employees from some of the leading brands who trust us with their language training feel.
“We chose Chatterbox quite simply because the learning offer that they have is of a much higher quality than other options that we considered.”
British Red Cross
Since 2020, we’ve been working with the British Red Cross to provide a bespoke language training service to suit their needs. There has been a 96% employee adoption rate and 71% of learners feel closer to their goals. More specifically, employees are particularly impressed by the quality of training provided:
“We chose Chatterbox quite simply because the learning offer that they have is of a much higher quality than other options that we considered.”
A leading FMCG brand
More recently, we began providing language training to a leading FMCG brand. Since the first of their learners were onboarded, we saw the program triple in size due to demand. What’s more, 100% of learners wanted to continue after their course ended. One learner valued how quickly they improved, saying
“[Chatterbox] improved my efficiency, and reduced the time it took to use the language”.
So, join the growing number of leading brands who have invested in our language training and are already feeling the positive impact that these benefits are having in the workplace.
