That’s all folks! Speexx Exchange is over for this year. And what a fantastic month it has been. A big thank you to all the speakers, partners and guests who joined us this year and made it such a huge success. And a very special thanks to our sponsor ChapmanBlack, the leading Technology, Engineering & Operations Executive Recruiter. We’re already looking forward to seeing you at Speexx Exchange 2014 but first, here are the 2013 highlights. Speexx Exchange - A truly global event series 4 cities, 450 attendees and dozens of exciting presentations, discussions and opportunities to collaborate, connect and exchange. This year’s Speexx Exchange was all about finding innovative approaches to global talent management and getting practical solutions that can be applied in the workplace right away. Over 400 attendees from over 25 countries joined this year, representing global organizations such as JW Marriott Maqruis, Bulgari, Brückner Group, ALSTOM, SGS, Saint-Gobain, Generali, UniCredit, BCD Travel, E.ON, Volkswagen, eBay and many more. Together, we created a unique exchange of ideas over the course of several weeks. Paris We started out in Paris on November 19 in the beautiful Salon des Miroirs. The venue was filled with e-learning experts and HR Managers for half a day to share findings on the current state of the e-learning industry. The speaker panel included Charlène Berneau of Saint-Gobain, Patrick Galiano of Cegos, Olivier Charbonnier ofGroupe Interfact and Ahmed Limam of Wipro Technologies. The conference was followed by open discussions and networking opportunities over some great cocktails. Madrid The journey continued in Madrid on November 27 at the German Chamber of Commerce. Here, our event was kindly hosted by Adrián Murcia of IFAES and Maite Sáenz of Observatorio Recursos Humanos. Our speaker panel included Markus Kemper, Vice President of the German Chamber of Commerce for Spain, Enrique Sueiro and Enrique de Mora of Top Ten Business Experts, Montse Font of Grifols, Raquel Calvo of GREF and Jose Antonio Viejo of Fundación Laboral de la Construcción. Exclusive research findings and discussions gave attendees a unique insight into the latest e-learning and talent management trends. Rome Next up was Rome on November 28. Here, Speexx Exchange took place as part of the HRC Best Practice Day, one of the most important HR events in Italy. The speaker panel consisted of an impressive line-up of experts, such as Franco Bellini, Antonella Gesualdo and Elizabeth Crane of UniCredit, Lucio Sindaco of Gruppo Lillo MD Discount, Roberto Manzi of Yamamay, Rossello Asaro of Bulgari, Immacolata De Bonis of AXA-MPS and Renzo Manzin of Generali Business Solutions. An intensive afternoon of presentations and workshops left delegates with some great food for thought to take back to the workplace. Berlin The final Speexx Exchange edition kicked off in Berlin on the morning of December 4th. The conference was held as part of Online Educa Berlin and in close cooperation with our sponsr ChapmanBlack. The room was packed, with no seats going spare. Around 100 international guests and speakers from all over the world and a broad range of industries gathered together to get an in-depth reality check on what is happening in e-learning and talent management right now. An impressive line-up of eight international experts from HR and L&D joined to share their insights. We were delighted to welcome Laura Overton of Towards Maturity as our host, who guided us through the day with new learning approaches, lots of opportunity for the audience to interact and live votings about e-learning usage in the workplace. Laura started her session by sharing some of the key findings of this year’s Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey and showing what the top quartile do differently in terms of learning in the workplace. This was followed by Nabil Senyonga, Director of Learning at JW Marquis Hotel Dubai. Nabil gave us an insight into the e-learning advent in the Middle East and the reasons for its fast uptake. In particular, he highlighted how the learning culture in the Middle East differs from that in other parts of the world and what role the government and infrastructure play in fostering learning technologies. Barry Trout, CEO of ChapmanBlack and HireStorm took the floor next, by showing us how to hire and retain the best talent in organizations worldwide in seven crucial steps. Barry shared a comprehensive and practical set of guidelines which simplify the hiring process for any organization aiming to find and keep the right people. Did you know that there are 4 million people in the UK alone who seeking new job opportunities and available to change right now? Our final session of the morning was held by Stefan Linge, Head of Training & Development at SGS Germany. With an in-depth set of statistics, Stefan helped us to see what really remains of the learning process in self-directed scenarios. In order to really measure the transfer of skills and knowledge, we must use the formular of Learning x Ability x Motivation x Work Environment. Stefan also raised the question of how many organizations really help their staff grow their ability to learn and relearn. After a delicious lunch served by the famous Hotel InterContinental cuisine, we heard how Petra Pongratz-Kolbig of Brückner Group manages intercultural awareness in a globally engaged organization. As Head of HR, Petra is faced with the daily challenge of managing intercultural teams that not only have very different approaches and expectations in terms of their work, but also in the way they acquire new skills. Next up was Michael Salone, CEO and Co-Founder of 3-6TY, who gave us some first-hand advice on integrating learning and talent through peer-to-peer talent identification. It turns out that our colleagues often know much more about our skills than our bosses do. Michael gave us some fresh perspectives on how to deal with this and other challenges in talent management. The next session featured Bernd Binzenbach, Training Manager of the Business Travel Academy atBCD Travel. Bernd showed us why he truly believes in the power of blended learning and how to get buy-in from colleagues and management when implementing blended learning formulas. Above all, as we discovered, it is crucial to compose different learning modules and not just throw them together. Donald H Taylor, Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, wrapped up the event with an impressive insight of learning trends and pitfalls that we can expect in 2014. In particular, Don touched upon maturing delivery, the rise of the networked individual and the demanding business as the key trends. And the 2014 pitfall for HR and L&D? Organizational agility. Our final session involved a World Café with round table discussions, where our delegates got their final say on what is really driving learning and performance in global organizations. This was followed by some refreshments and networking opportunities to end a truly eye-opening day. To see the full day in pictures, visit us on Facebook and Twitter. To find out more, visit our conference website. To see the events in pictures,  join us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. And to register your interest for Speexx Exchange 2014, sign up for our free Newsletter.  

With 2013 coming to an end and a well-deserved holiday break around the corner, we’re looking back on what has been another great year for Speexx . Events We were delighted to present and network at loads of international trade fairs around the world this year, covering China, Thailand, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, the USA, and many more. Our annual Speexx Exchange conference series is now in its third year and continues to help HR and L&D Managers from a different countries and industries get new insights on talent management and learning solutions and network with industry peers. This year’s events took place across four major European cities and we were so happy with the outcome, we’re already planning Speexx Exchange 2014. See a recap with pictures and highlights here. Awards We added a number of new global industry awards to our list, including the International E-Learning Award, the Seal of e-Excellence and the eLearning Journal Award. We were also shortlisted for the Eurelea Award, the Training Journal Awards and the E-Learning Age Awards. In addition, our consumer products came first in Germany’s Stiftung Warentest audit of English language learning solutions. Content 2013 has also been a great year for publishing our content about talent management, business communication and e-learning innovations. A big thank you to all the publishers and online magazines who have featured our articles and podcasts this year, in particular to Training Journal, Training Zone, HR Magazine, Wirtschaft und Weiterbildung, America Learning & Media, IDG Connect, Strategic HR Review, Learning Technologies and Real Business. Two Speexx Whitepapers were published this year, both based on our own industry research from the Speexx Exchange survey. "Setting the Agenda for Global Talent Management" and "Empowering Communication - What’s in it for the bottom line?" help HR and L&D Manager wordlwide recognize industry trends and deal with new challenges. Stay tuned for our next whitepaper which will be available in 2014. A Million Chances Each year just before Christmas, we donate 1 Million Euros worth of online learning content to charities all over the world as part of our A Million Chances initiative. A Million Chances aims to make education accessible to disadvantaged people of all ages and backgrounds, and also to those who help them. We’re proud to partner with DisasterReady.org for several global charity projects this year. DisasterReady.org is a collaborative, non-profit effort informed and supported by prominent aid agencies and the Cornerstone OnDemand (CSOD) Foundation—a leader in the field of online learning for nonprofit organizations. The goal of the initiative is to increase the preparedness and effectiveness of humanitarian aid workers by making training more accessible. Support for DisasterReady.org is provided by participating aid agencies and by the CSOD Foundation. In close cooperation with DisasterReady.org, Speexx provides aid workers of NGOs and humanitarian agencies with free online language courses for English, French and Spanish. This year’s organizations include the French Medical Institute for Children, E.L.I.S.A. MEDICOPTÈRE, Mercy Corps, UNHCR, Save the Children, and many more. Humanitarian aid workers access Speexx courses through the DisasterReady.org portal and start their language training right away. We hope that with better language skills, these aid workers will be able to communicate better in the affected areas and help those in need more quickly. For more information about the projects we support, visit our A Million Chances page. A big thank you to our partners, customers, friends and colleagues for their continued support. Merry Christmas and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

This week, while writing an email to someone I’ve never met, I came up against a thorny question: What’s the best way to address someone you don’t personally know? He’s another American, roughly my age. And an artist. I was contacting him with a work question. So, after some debate, I opened the email with, ‘Dear Mr. Smith.’ I was surprised when Mr. Smith wrote back and said, ‘Hello Holly. Mr Smith is my dad, my name is Joel!’ My first thought after this faux pas, was, will we ever be able to do business together? Was he insulted? Was I being stuffy and old fashioned? Or am I just that out of the cultural loop? In the end, I decided I hadn’t been too old fashioned, and I probably didn’t insult him. Artist or not, it would have been very rude to write ‘Dear Joel.’ English is kind of sticky that way. Unlike many other languages, there’s but one set of pronouns to work with, and they apply to everyone, no matter how old or young, or how well you know them. It’s been that way since the 17th century, when we English speakers dispensed with the rather awkward ‘thou’ and ‘thee.’ Naturally this raises questions for learners of English: If there’s only one ‘you,’ how do you show someone respect? Where’s the formality? Are English speakers well, just, rude? Politeness is a serious matter for the English Actually, English speakers take politeness very seriously. It’s just that the tools are a bit different. Let’s start with titles. Especially for introductions, the titles ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’ are used, or occasionally, ‘Dr,’ although that should only be used with doctors of medicine. So, in spoken English at least, introductions might go like this: ‘Holly, I’d like you to meet Mr Davy Jones from Monkey Music.’ Notice that the title Mr. isn’t really doing anything in the sentence, but it does add a tiny glimmer of respect. In formal business, this makes a difference. However, as an English speaker who isn’t too keen on upholding unnecessary formality, I’m likely to throw that right back out the window. Here’s my likely answer: ‘Nice to meet you. Please, call me Holly.’ And that’s that. Now Mr. Jones tells me his given name, we shake hands, and we’re on a first name basis for life. Avoiding embarrassment English seems so intent on dropping formality that even Mrs. and Miss are starting to disappear. Blame feminism if you like, but many women prefer to be introduced as Ms., which incorporates both unmarried and married women. This is especially true in business settings where women want to be recognized for their ability, and not their marital status. From my point of view, you can always think of ‘Ms’ as a way to avoid embarrassment - if the woman you’re writing or speaking to is not married, and you choose ‘Mrs,’ you might insult her. If she is married, and you choose ‘Miss,’ you might insult her too. So stick with ‘Ms.’ Really, this is progress! Back to my email. Maybe now it’s clear why I initially chose to write to ‘Mr Smith,’ rather than ‘Joel.’ It was the most polite option at the time. However, since Joel made a point of writing to Holly, and signing his email with just Joel, I now know all of our emails will be between Joel and Holly. Ditto for phone calls, and so on. Nice, huh? But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna be hangin’ wit’ my homey, Joel. I still don’t know him, and I still need to have a business relationship with him. It’s time to go back to my toolbox. The most important words in English: please and thank you Have you ever noticed how often English speakers say ‘please’ and ’thank you’? In spoken English at least, you can’t actually say those words too often. In fact, if in doubt, throw one in - it can’t hurt, and it certainly might help. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ are social lubricators. They grease the way. The English are famous for social lubrication. Any typecast Brit will pepper his or her speech with seemingly meaningless phrases, like, ‘Pardon?’ ‘Allow me,’ and ‘may I?’ These fill the gaps, and make English sound more polite, even when the meat of the sentence is quite direct. All Englishes function on this principle. Social lubricators don’t work as well in written English though. Modal auxiliaries are the best tools there. By modal auxiliaries, I mean those little helping hands: would, could, might or may. Beat around the bush To many non-native speakers of English, they make the language sound uncommonly wishy-washy and indirect, but hey, that’s language for you. A good example: complaining. You’ve bought a camera, it doesn’t work. You take it back, but the clerk doesn’t want to either fix it or give you your money back. You get mad. What do you say in English? Option 1: ‘I’m sorry, but that’s just not acceptable. May I speak to the manager, please?’ Or Option 2: ‘You’re wrong. Where’s your boss?’ Believe it or not, option 1 will get you tons further in English-speaking countries that option 2 will. ‘Keep calm, and carry on,’ as the English would - no, might - say. And trust me: the clerk will get the message. ’2′ on the other hand, will just make them stubborn. Still confused about that civilized behavior in English? That’s okay. As I said, every language has its sticky points. Just remember: mind your manners, lubricate your speech, and be - just a little bit - indirect. Want to become a real pro in written and spoken English? Check out our free webinar series for Automotive, Banking and HR English. Find more business English podcasts here. So how much did you understand? Now I’ll ask some questions. Questions Q: What’s the problem with ‘you’? A: Nothing, really. It’s just that in English, ‘you’ is used for everyone, no matter how old or young, and regardless of their relationship to you.   Q: What did I call those useful little phrases, ‘allow me’ and ‘pardon’? A: I called them ‘social lubricants.’ That’s because they grease the way.   Q: What did I have to say about please and thank you? A: In English, you can never use them too often. If in doubt, throw one in! It can’t hurt, and it might actually help.     Some useful English vocabulary for you Here is some of the vocabulary you heard in the audio. Do you know what these idiomatic expressions mean? thorny - difficult to be stuffy - to be stiff to be out of the loop - to be unfamiliar with current trends to be rude - impolite a glimmer of sth - a little bit of sth to throw sth out the window - to refuse sth to be on a first-name basis - to know and use someone’s given name, rather than family name to stick with sth - to keep doing sth ditto for - the same is true for hangin’ wit’ my homey - to be good friends with sb if in doubt, … - if you’re unsure, … to grease the way - to make sth easier to be typecast - to be stereotypical to pepper one’s speech with sth - to fill one’s speech with sth to be wishy washy - uncertain, indirect or undecided to get the message - to understand sth

We’re back from this year’s Learning Technologies in London, which has, once again, proven to be one of the most inspiring e-learning events of this day and age. Thanks to everyone who dropped by our stand to find out more about the Speexx solutions and get a free demo. Busier than ever Over 6,000 HR and L&D professionals and e-learning experts attended this year, offering exciting opportunities to connect and learn from each other. From the minute the doors at the Olympia 2 venue opened, the halls were bustling with international visitors from small and large companies worldwide, eager to see what’s hot in e-learning and talent management this year. More than 230 exhibitors joined the Learning Technologies and Learning & Skills trade shows and displayed their latest products and solutions - ofted topped with some delicious and brightly-colored macaroons or cupcakes. The spaces between the booths were filled with a total of 140 impressive seminars, delivered by industry experts. This year, our very own Mehdi Tounsi of the Speexx London office held a 30-minute seminar on redefining learning strategies through cloud-based talent management. Mehdi explained to us why so many people talk about moving into the cloud, yet so few actually use it and what its benefits could mean for your business. If you’d like a to receive a copy of the full presentation, give us a shout at info@speexx.com. Some of this year’s trending topics at the show included: Human Capital Metrics Compliance Bespoke content development Our latest Whitepaper "Championing business agility through better workforce communication", printed exclusively for the Learning Technologies ahead of official release, went away like hot cakes, making us wish we’d printed more. But fear not, you can still get your copy of the whitepaper, along with loads of other free learning resources, via our website. Find out how better foreign language and business communication skills can benefit your workforce and deliver better productivity and profitability for your organization as a whole. Check out the Learning Technologies in pictures on our Facebook page. About Learning Technologies Now in its 16th year, it’s Europe’s leading showcase of technology supported workplace learning. And it’s literally bigger and more vital than ever before. It’s Learning Technologies 2015 and it all happens again on January 28-29 2015 at Olympia 2, London. Official event hashtag: #Lt14UK It’s not over yet Didn’t make Learning Technologies this year but attending LEARNTEC in Karlsruhe instead? If so, join us at Stand E21 for a coffee and a chat about boosting communication and foreign language skills in English, French, German, Spanish and Italian among your employees. We’ll be there for the full three days and would be delighted to meet you. To arrange an individual appointment, sign up on our events page. Hope to see you soon, bye for now!

The need to focus on talent acquisition, developing deeper skills and fostering employee engagement will continue to be a major driver for deploying better technology and learning in 2014. Moreover, identifying and retaining your best talent will play an even bigger role for businesses. I really enjoyed the Learning Technologies 2014 in London last month. The challenges of supporting employee performance are, not surprisingly, echoed throughout this year’s conference programme. The Speexx team and I attended the show for the 6th time in a row and it was interesting to see how attitudes to development are becoming intrinsically linked to business performance. Technology and learning have moved a long way in just those years. HR and L&D professionals are ideally positioned within their organisation to make a direct and valuable contribution to the bottom line. Technology has opened up the opportunity for business to be conducted across borders and this has in turn opened up opportunities for greater talent mobility. Delivery of an integrated, unified talent management system that is consistent across the board is the key to achieving both short-term and long-term talent mobility goals. No longer can one section of an organisation operate in a silo. One unified language training system, which is accessible to staff anytime and anywhere, is becoming an increasingly vital component of multinational organisations’ talent management strategy. A standardised, consistent approach is also essential to accurately measure the outcome of every component of talent management and development. One of the major things Speexx has seen companies get wrong is the perceived language skills level of their workforce. Most companies assume language skills are much higher, however when the unified tests are conducted there is a large gap between the assumed skill level and the actual level of communications skills. Once the standardised system is in place, the measurability of skills becomes far more accurate, and the results more visible. Facilitating a common business language through technology and learning In a recent global survey, we found that English is the dominant corporate language in organisations (44 percent) however those audited acknowledged the need to improve the competency for non-native speakers and to also support other languages such as German, Spanish and French. 85 per cent of HR directors, CXO and L&D senior managers consider communication and foreign language skills to be important or very important for business success. Technology is helping to bridge the gap between workforce learning and business success. The ‘perfect blend’ of combining virtual classrooms, mobile learning and e-learning is revolutionising the way organisations approach business communication skills training and development. With a blended approach, companies can combine self-paced learning, assignment tasks and classes, which can be attended virtually or over the phone. These technology and learning tools can then be customised to suit staff needs and level of skill - and companies should encourage staff to use and develop their skills in ways that are both motivating and compatible with the demands of the workplace. That said, individuals and organisations now have greater flexibility on how linguistic skills are delivered and effective results can be achieved regardless of skill, nationality or age. See full article via Training Journal Blogs. To find out how better communication skills can boost your orgnisation’s business agility, get your free copy of our latest white paper here.

Smaller innovative firms have something all big businesses are talking about, but many can only dream of - business agility. Young, energetic SMEs can respond quickly to evolving industry trends and customer demands and keep one step ahead of the competition with innovative products and solutions. SME-sized businesses may be powered by low cost or even free cloud-based systems, which are globally accessible. They work across borders and time zones in a way that, before the 21st century dawned, was only possible for massive enterprises with the financial resources to build a multinational IT infrastructure. Businesses that have tapped into this new technology-enabled business agility are succeeding where others are falling by the wayside. Yet, increasingly, smaller businesses can only reap the benefits of all this cloud-based collaboration and productivity if their employees have the language and communication skills to speak to each other and their customers worldwide. Even big business sometimes gets this one wrong; the web abounds with amusing marketing translation failures, such as a well-known brewer’s attempt to sell beer in Spain by translating its English slogan "Turn it loose" into "Suffer from diarrhoea" in Spanish. Growth beyond borders In 2014 the workforce is multinational and as we climb out of the recession, many businesses will be looking at opportunities beyond their country’s border. Employees in different countries, who at one time would never have communicated with each other, now collaborate daily. In a smaller business, employees are not lost in huge departments, their skills atrophying with the passing years. Instead, workers are assigned to different projects when and as needed, with no skills going to waste. Business agility is about implementing and communicating internal changes more quickly and this now means communicating them to workers in different countries and in different languages, as small businesses tap into the global talent pool to get things done. The Speexx Exchange 2013-14 Survey, an audit of 250+ organisations worldwide, revealed that business agility is top of directors’ agendas. Respondents cited several areas where enterprises benefit directly from better communications, including increased collaboration across borders (43%) and faster time-to-decision across borders (41%). Workers across the globe now collaborate on projects, while enterprises source talent from the whole organisation as needed. Cloud-based collaborative systems allow global teams to work around the clock, speeding up decision-making and time to market. A full list of Speexx white papers for download is available here. 39% of respondents mentioned that better communications improved competitive advantage in global projects, while increased quality of customer care was a factor for 38% of business leaders. Cloud-based customer care systems enable even small UK companies to provide customer care round the clock improving sales and customer retention. UK SMEs might feel at an advantage on the global stage, with English as a native language, but just having English as a mother tongue does not automatically make someone a good communicator in business. Foreign language skills are an excellent start but learning to communicate in a clear and efficient manner, while taking cultural differences into account, is key. For example, a manufacturing company may need to use specific technical vocabulary unknown to most native speakers, and needs to explain this to customers from another country in a way that is easy to understand. Even businesses that do not have any immediate plans to operate beyond UK borders may find themselves facing communication challenges. According to the latest census, 140,000 people living in the UK cannot speak English. Responses to the census uncovered that English is not the first language of about four million people. After English, the second most spoken language was Polish, spoken by 546,000 people, followed by Tamil (with 420,000 speakers) and Urdu (369,000 speakers). These people may have the right skills for employment but lack the linguistic abilities to perform and deliver in the workplace, be it within an SME or larger business. Training these employees in Business English will allow organisations to tap into a new resource while providing their employees with the skills they need to function in their working and domestic lives. The global workforce is increasingly mobile as workers travel to pursue employment opportunities abroad and companies may have good reasons for taking on employees who are not skilled in the language of their adopted home. One of Speexx’s customers, a fast-growing manufacturer with over 2,000 employees worldwide had a clear need to introduce a common business language for employees to work together effectively. The company has employees worldwide, including Germany, Slovakia, China and India. These engineers typically stay on building sites for two to three week shifts at a time before moving on. For work to be done on time and in the right way, staff need to communicate with each other in a common language, English in this case. Due to their frequent travels, they also require a flexible learning solution. This need is met by providing more than half of the company’s employees with a cloud-based language training solution to improve their business English skills. Even training employees in some basic skills in a common language has sped up processes, reduced mistakes and helped to make the customer more successful and agile. The organisation extends its communication efforts beyond simple language skills too, acknowledging the cultural differences of employees from different countries, such as by celebrating the Chinese New Year on its website. Read more via Ingenious Britain. Learn more about Speexx on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

The recovering global economy now offers increased career mobility to a larger number of employees. At the same time, with the changing generational dynamics of the workforce and the retirement of the baby boom generation, vacancies may arise in parts of the business that need to be addressed promptly in order to maintain continuity. A number of strategies can be put in place to create greater staff mobility and support succession management as well as address potential skills shortages. A key strategy is to tap into the global workforce. Employees with the skills the business needs may well be available within the organisation already, working in overseas offices. Collaboration across borders Companies and their employees have a greater opportunity to work across borders now thanks to technologies such as cloud-based collaboration tools and free VoIP communications. Technology has broken down borders, enabling a truly global workplace, but in many cases the language barrier remains an obstacle to skills-based succession planning and employee mobility. A thorough succession management strategy includes foreign language and communication skills training for all staff, across the board. Organisations need to identify the availability of language skills and knowledge first, before planning how to make the most of staff talent and where to place people within the company. Building a global talent pool Once communication barriers have been broken down, skilled staff can be identified easily within the global talent pool and moved into different areas of the organisation. This also enables greater career mobility for highly skilled staff. An employee working for a German company with specialist IT skills might be transferred to fill a vacancy in the company’s Italian subsidiary, for example. The Speexx Exchange 2013-14 Survey, a global study involving more than 250 global HR directors, L&D professionals and C-level executives, revealed five main issues that were hampering cross-border communications: lack of foreign language skills among employees (39%); Intercultural differences (28%); dispersed subsidiaries (16%); and lack of management support (10%). Only 6% of interviewees cited the lack of technology as a barrier to better communications and in fact the evidence shows that the latest cloud-based learning technology is boosting communication skills training. The 2013 Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey revealed that over 43% of organisations are now e-enabling foreign language skills training - a staggering 350% more than two years earlier. The uptake in organisations using language learning technology comes as a direct result of a global shift towards more international business and the need to improve workforce communication across borders. Mobility through communications HR directors, CXO and L&D senior managers who contributed to the Speexx Exchange Survey all acknowledged that there were substantial gains from having a strong communications strategy and cited five specific areas that directly improved mobility through better communications. The highest percentage of respondents (43%) cited increased collaboration across borders as a key gain with 41% noting quicker time-to-decision across borders. Improved competitive advantage in global projects was also key to over a third of respondents (39%) and a similar number (38%) noted a corresponding increase in the quality of customer care that resulted in an agile workforce able to respond to customers across borders and time zones. 33% of respondents also reported a reduction in internal conflict arising as a result of improved communication. Difficulties caused by the language barrier and cultural variations in communication can lead to frustration, mistakes and delays, hampering the agility of a global mobile workforce. Almost a quarter (23%) of organisations also reported that they had achieved cost savings through their efforts to improve workforce communications. Significant cost savings might arise from identifying and using appropriate internal resources for cross-border projects, rather than hiring expensive contractors. Organisations can also make substantial savings on the costs of recruitment and training and development to address succession planning, if enhanced communications skills enable global employee mobility. Retaining versus recruiting Of course there are benefits that may be less easy to quantify. Employee retention is likely to see improvement if staff are offered the opportunity of global deployment, overseas travel or postings and the chance to grow and apply their skills within a larger enterprise pool. Research suggests that the recruitment cost of replacing employees can be as high as 60% of an employee’s annual salary, with total costs associated with the impact on company turnover adding up to 200% of salary. Increasingly, HR, learning and development professionals and IT departments are recognising the challenge and working closely together to implement a reliable, technology-driven learning strategy that is delivering communications training efficiently to employees who are dispersed all over a multinational organisation. This may include incorporating everyday business communication tools such as phone, email, video conferencing, and social networking into the training process and making sure that learning materials are integrated into employees’ everyday workflow, enabling them to learn on the job as and when they need to. Read more at HR Review.

We have just secured the German eLearning Journal Award 2014! The award goes our Speexx Live solution, which was implemented for a leading biopharmaceutical company. The official award ceremony will take place on 29th March 2014 at the didacta in Stuttgart, Germany, the largest international trade fair for education and training. Now in its fourth year, the eLearning Award 2014 selects outstanding state-of-the-art e-learning and educational projects and showcases them as best practice examples. The eLearning Award judging panel assesses projects in terms of their user-friendliness, technology, learning content and overall value for the customer. This year, more than 100 e-learning providers and their partners submitted applications from all over Europe for the eLearning Award. The judging panel consisted of renowned experts from the e-learning and educational industries. Speexx was chosen as the winner of the Language Training category for its Speexx Live solution, which has been helping its customer boost staff business communication skills since 2010. Speexx allows employees from different departments to focus on their job-specific language needs, while helping HR managers to monitor their workforce’s learning progress. Speexx Live combines self-paced e-learning tools with live communication skills training in the virtual classroom, as well as ongoing support and motivation by personal coaches. Several hundred students at the pharmaceutical company’s worldwide offices currently use Speexx to improve their foreign language and business communication skills. "We are very proud to receive such a highly acclaimed award", says Armin Hopp, Founder and President of Speexx. "Winning the ‘Language Training’ category shows that we are setting the standard in delivering excellent foreign language and communication skills training to organisations worldwide. On behalf of Speexx, I would like to thank our partner for trusting in our solution and of course, the entire eLearning Award 2014 judging panel for selecting our project as a winner." A full list of the awards won by Speexx is available here. To view and download the press release on the Speexx website, please click here. To learn more, connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

At Speexx, we love languages and we believe in the power of learning and communicating online. Our solutions help millions of people in large businesses and organizations around the world understand each other better every day. And the teams building our online language learning solutions - developers, product managers and marketing experts - are our heroes. Come join our dynamic team in the heart of Munich as Web Developer. Get a glimpse of what it’s like to work in our Munich office: What you’ll be doing as a Web Developer Work in our Munich office developing web-based applications in a fast-paced team of talented developers and designers. Help develop our cutting edge iOS und Android mobile projects. Drive innovation by coming up with new ideas for our products and processes. Ideally, you already have Solid software development experience. A thorough understanding of object-oriented programming and computing fundamentals. A passion for web-based applications and technology (Java, JavaScript , XML, HTML5, CSS3, JPA, REST). A good knowledge of SQL databases, Git, Maven. What we offer Global offices with brilliant people from over 17 different countries who help us make Speexx the world’s best online language learning experience. We hate cubicle farms. Our offices are open, with huge personal desks and tons of natural light. Ergonomic workstations, Mac or PC, your choice of OS. You decide how you want to work. We offer a competitive salary, flexible working hours, friendly coworkers and the best coffee in town. Now, if you have a proven track record in developing some of your own projects and are up for working in a dynamic and international team, send across your resume to careers@speexx.com today. Ideally with desired salary and starting date. See you soon! Check out http://www.speexx.com/careers for more opportunities. Speexx Human Resources Tumblinger Straße 32 80337 Munich (Germany) careers@speexx.com About Speexx More than 7 million users in 1,500 organizations - including Ericsson, ArcelorMittal, UNHCR and Credit Suisse - use Speexx to learn a language smarter and deliver results on time. Speexx is easy to use and scales to the needs of users and training managers in organizations of any size. The Speexx branded Perfect Blend integrates online business communication skills training, mobile and social learning, expert coaches located throughout the world and personalized live online activities into one fully standardized, globally consistent learning experience. Speexx was founded in 1994 and is based in Munich, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Sao Paulo and Shanghai.

With English as the dominant world business language, it is easy for English-speaking companies to assume that they do not need to learn another language. But having bilingual staff can have huge benefits for a business. If a manufacturing company from the UK was to meet a supplier from China and a partner from Germany, the common language would most probably be English - the German and Chinese staff are sure to have learned English in school and probably speak it regularly in their working lives. By contrast, the chances of the UK company’s employees speaking German or Chinese are much lower. There is no sign of this situation changing. In 2013, the number of students taking up a foreign language at UK universities was said to have dropped sharply. The Guardian reported that over the past 15 years, one-third of universities have given up offering specialist modern European language degrees. The number of universities offering degrees in the worst affected subject, German, has halved in that time. Once these generations enter the business world, there will be even less time and encouragement to study a foreign language and the UK workforce may continue to rely on their foreign peers to be able to communicate in English. Language barrier English-speaking businesses in the UK and the US that do not have employees able to communicate in foreign languages are missing a huge opportunity. For example, there are 420 million native speakers of Spanish in the world. Spanish is the official language in 20 countries and it has become an increasingly important language for US businesses because of their proximity to Latin America. Furthermore, there are 220 million native speakers of Portuguese, which is spoken in Brazil - an important emerging market and the world’s seventh largest economy. With an annual GDP growth rate of 5%, Brazil represents lots of potential business for enterprises that can speak Portuguese. Better communications deliver workforce performance Good communication skills are more than just about grammar and vocabulary. Sector-specific business communication skills are just as vital and communication also encompasses cultural considerations, such as how to greet one another, when and how to exchange business cards, how to show gratitude, and gestures or comments to avoid. The Speexx Exchange Survey - a global study that looked at the attitudes of more than 250 global HR directors, learning and development professionals and C-level executives - found that the main benefits of a strong communications strategy were better collaboration across borders (43%) and improved competitive advantage in global projects (39%). A similar number (38%) noted a corresponding increase in the quality of customer care that resulted from an agile workforce able to respond to customers across borders and in different languages. One-third of respondents also reported a reduction in internal conflict arising as a result of improved communication. Difficulties caused by the language barrier and cultural variations in communication can lead to frustration, mistakes and delays, hampering the agility of a mobile, global workforce. Read the full article via Personnel Today.