Interview With Mr. Shirish Nadkarni
From APEC HRDWG Wiki
This interview was held on October 22, 2010 with Mr. Shirish Nadkarni, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Livemocha. This interview is provided with Mr. Nadkarni's permission.
What skills do you see as necessary to work in multinational companies in APEC economies?
These days multinational companies are looking for global talent from countries all around the world. Many have even moved a significant portion of their operations to other countries. For example, IBM now has a large portion of their employees based in India. This means that it has become even more important for employees to work with other co-workers in other countries. This requires employees to work across cultural boundaries and have language skills to interact effectively with their co-workers. It has, therefore, become essential for employees at global multinational companies to become proficient in English, which is increasingly becoming the dominant language for business communication. For example, the CEO of Rakuten, a leading Japanese e-commerce company, has mandated that all Rakuten employees have to learn English in the next two years. This is an absolute mandate to learn English. As you can see with this example, it is not only multinational companies that encourage or require English. Increasingly, it is local companies, too.
What challenges do these companies face in recruiting young people?
A key challenge that companies face is to assess the English language proficiency of their global workforce. While potential employees may have taken English language courses, most lack the confidence and conversational skills to function effectively in a business environment. This situation arises because most English language learners don't have the opportunity to practice their language skills with native speakers. Fortunately, with the rapid penetration of broadband Internet around the world, language learners now have the opportunity to utilize large language learning communities like Livemocha to practice their language skills with native English speakers.
After young people are hired, what challenges do these companies face in working with them?
Even if new employees entering the workforce have good English language skills, they will still face significant challenges adapting to an environment where they work with co-workers in other parts of the world. Multinational employers, therefore, need to ensure that new employees have opportunities to work on cross-national teams at an early stage and they need to provide these employees with cultural training to make sure that they can work effectively with their co-workers. In this way, they can avoid unnecessary biases against people who don’t share the same cultural expectations and tendencies. Companies also need to provide employees with mentors who have had experience working in cross-national teams, so they can seek guidance from more seasoned and experienced employees within the company.
What challenges are there in hiring and retaining women?
While most Western economies have made significant strides in hiring and retaining women, there is still significant room for improvement in hiring of women in many developing economies in the world. Culturally, there can often be bias in some economies against providing women with access to quality education. In addition, women might be expected to get married and stay at home instead of entering the workforce. Companies need to implement a number of programs to encourage women to enter the workforce. These might include providing scholarships to young women to complete their education, mentoring programs, and recruiting initiatives to reach out to women and encourage them to enter the workforce. Companies also need to institute programs that will allow women to take sufficient time off or work part-time to raise their families and re-enter the workforce once their children have reached a certain age. In other words, companies must demonstrate pro-active leadership in encouraging women to see joining and continuing in the workforce as a viable opportunity.
What are international employers in APEC economies doing to strengthen cross cultural and business language competencies? What are their challenges?
Many multi-national employers are now investing in English language education for their employees. This can be a significant challenge especially with an entrenched employee base that doesn't want to invest the time and is afraid that lack of English language proficiency will reduce their opportunities to advance in their careers. Companies also have to make sure that they don't put employees who are non-native English speakers at a disadvantage compared to employees from English-speaking countries. Employers, therefore, have to make a commitment to English language education and create many opportunities for native and non-native English speakers to interact so they can further develop their language skills.
In addition to English language education, there need to be programs to help employees understand differences in culture and how to operate in a multicultural environment. For example, if two project teams are working across country boundaries, they need to be trained and sensitized to cultural differences. In the absence of this training, employees can form biases that prevent them from working effectively together. When employees receive such training, they recognize the existence of cultural differences and can adjust their behavior accordingly. This is a very important part of the training that companies can provide.
Is there anything else you’d like to say about this topic?
English language proficiency has become an essential requirement for success in the global workforce. However, not everyone can afford the expense of going to private language schools to receive English language tutoring. It is also not sufficient for learners to simply be proficient in vocabulary and grammar. Being conversationally proficient is essential to gaining access to the best employment opportunities as well as advancing in one's career. Fortunately, today there are many high-quality, affordable language learning courses available on the Internet that learners can take advantage of to advance their English language skills. For example, Livemocha offers an award-winning Active English course that takes learners from beginner to advanced levels and includes opportunities for learners to practice with native speakers. Over 7 million learners around the world are taking advantage of Livemocha courses, interacting with native speakers, and learning English.
