Search Consultancy talks the language of business

UK recruitment specialists, Search Consultancy, has launched a new language division, ìSearch Your Languageî to provide native speakers for business and customer service roles across the UK.

In a modern day equivalent of the biblical camel fitting through the eye of a needle, the worldwide trading community in many cases can now flow cheaply and easily through a web-enabled phone.

The challenge this poses for contact and customer service centres is to respond in the variety of languages encompassed by their markets and to meet the demand of customers who sometimes need to speak to a person rather than an automated response system.

Simone Corcoran, Director of Search Consultancy, said, ìWe estimate there are around one hundred companies in Scotland alone who have a need for fluent speakers, chiefly in European languages. Many brands target customers in France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Germany, the Netherlands as well as the Nordic countries, so the need for foreign language skills is huge even to serve our near European neighbours.

ìSearch Your Language allows us to utilise the depth of our UK network of offices and extensive database of candidates to deliver full and part-time linguists suitable for a wide range of roles. Many of our candidates are students, immigrants or international travellers who may be staying in the UK for a defined period of time. They bring a variety of skills with them but it is their language fluency which makes them suitable for training and shaping into the multitude of roles our clients require.

ìWe work closely with clients to define the required skillsets and can help with training where required to deliver candidates fully job-ready and able to represent their employersí interests in whatever language is required. We believe we are currently the only recruitment consultancy in Scotland offering bilingual and multilingual temporary and permanent staff in this way.î

Simone says that the greatest business demand remains for Western European languages; French, Spanish, Italian, German, Finnish, Dutch, Greek, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. Although Search Your Language also has Eastern European speakers on their books, demand is less since the consumer markets are less mature.

Lesley Sawers, Chief Executive of the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, said: ìWith so many businesses looking to internationalise, the ability to communicate effectively is essential. Search Your Language is a valuable service which will help support businesses when competing and expending into global markets.î