04 Jun
Different languages, one platform – Overcome the odds of linguistic barriers.
Does your organization have a global footprint? Does your workforce span across geographies and is more mobile and remote than ever? Do your employees speak different languages? If you answered in the affirmative, it’s time to consider implementing a multilingual intranet.
Forbes Insights, in conjunction with Rosetta Stone, surveyed more than 100 executives across large US businesses (annual revenues of more than $500 million) and found, “Language barriers have a broad and pervasive impact on business operations. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (67%) said that miscommunications were leading to inefficiency. More than 40% noted that miscommunication made collaboration difficult, and a similar percentage noted that productivity was lower than it should be due to language barriers.”
The Challenge
One poor translation. One misinterpreted comment. And the challenges are manifold.
Research shows, Out of the world’s approximately 7.8 billion inhabitants, 1.35 billion speak English. The majority aren’t native English speakers.
When an organization is multilingual, and the top management does not take proper measures to ensure everyone is represented well, employees may feel intimidated and withdraw from conversing and socializing with the team. When instructions aren’t clear, the chances of committing errors also increase. As a result, productivity, efficiency, and quality plummet.
Moreover, if employees are not provided training in their native language, the chances are that their understanding, particularly in complex, technical areas, remains limited.
Additionally, a single misunderstood remark may result in people taking offense, leading to problems in working relationships.
Imagine your intranet content is displayed in English only. In such a scenario, adoption rates amongst non-native speakers or those who aren’t comfortable with the language decreases.
In an increasingly global economy, expecting each employee to speak one common language undermines the potential of international talent and hampers the organization’s capacity to compete in a multinational environment. People need to collaborate with teammates who live in different geographies and speak different languages. In the absence of a multilingual environment, such collaboration is complex and may cause a lag in communication.
The Solution - A multilingual intranet
Whether it’s your search engine or the main navigation menu or your communication and collaboration apps, a centralized multilingual intranet delivers consistent messaging across various languages.
Offering native language options on a single platform overcomes linguistic barriers, accelerates localization efforts, boosts employee engagement, encourages cross-border collaboration, and drives intranet adoption rates.
Real-time text translation for multiple languages provides a personalized intranet experience, promotes diversity, and fosters company culture without compromising the quality of communication.
Let’s understand further.
Different languages, one platform - How does a multilingual intranet work?
A multilingual intranet allows content authors to publish language-specific content from a centralized location. Subsequently, machine translation and 1:1 translation editing functionality enable employees to view content and engage with the intranet in their preferred language.
As seen above, translation capabilities are not limited to the homepage. Instead, they extend to all the core features, including the search engine, the main navigation, and all communication and collaboration tools (blogs, messaging apps, etc.).
Moreover, organizations can build custom translation models to handle industry and company-specific jargon better. Users may also switch back and forth between languages when they desire.
Your intranet is the touchstone for every employee and must be designed to be relevant to every user. For employees whose native language isn’t English, it’s imperative to provide them a translation in the language that is easier for them to comprehend.
How can Acuvate help?
At Acuvate, we help clients deploy robust multilingual intranets with our employee experience platform intranet solution called Mesh 3.0.
Mesh 3.0 brings the best of Microsoft AI, machine learning, and cognitive technologies to help understand the intent and deliver accurate translations.
We leverage Microsoft Azure translation services to deliver a powerful multilingual environment. Our translation solution supports real-time text translation for more than 60 languages and provides the highest levels of security certified by SOC, FedRAMP, HIPAA, ISO, and HITRUST.
Besides advanced translation capabilities, Mesh boasts features, such as cognitive enterprise search, AI-driven personalized content recommendations, knowledge mining with applied AI, and flexible integrations.
If you want to deploy a multilingual intranet and know more about Mesh 3.0, please feel free to schedule a personalized consultation with our experts.
Poonam Chug is AVP - SaaS Strategy & Business. She has worked in various areas, right from designing and executing sales & account management strategies to reengineering digital workplace solutions. With her determined focus on our mission and progressive approach, she has achieved customer delight in the space of AI, Knowledge Mining, Content & Collaboration, Virtual Assistants, RPA and more. Backed with a deep understanding of customer needs and technology, she leads the SaaS business unit with an upshot of maximizing revenue while ensuring customer satisfaction.
Poonam Chug