Language strategy 

• What are the official working languages of our organisation? How does our organisation take language into account in communications?   
• What are the unofficial languages used in the organisation? How do we take them into account in communications?    
• What languages do the organisation's clients and stakeholders use? How do we take them into account in communications and marketing?
• How do we view the parallel use of languages in the workplace?
• What is our position on language learning in the workplace and how do we support language learning?
• What kind of values do we want to commit to as an organisation? Supporting the diversity of the work community? Supporting inclusion? Strengthening the experience of belonging? Supporting language learning?
• How do we monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Language Strategy?
• How do we involve the employees of the organisation in implementing the strategy?
• How do we update the language strategy?
• How do we communicate about the language strategy?

In addition to the language strategy, prepare a more detailed plan or implementation programme that discusses how the principles of the strategy are implemented in practice. Use the language strategy also in orientation, in which case the issues related to using the languages and the support available are already on display at the beginning of the contractual employment relationship. 

Language strategies from Familia and the University of Copenhagen illustrate that there is no single correct language strategy template. Work communities differ in many ways and a given solution may not suit everyone.

Familia ry:n kielistrategia 2022

Language strategies from Familia and the University of Copenhagen illustrate that there is no single correct language strategy template. Work communities differ in many ways and a given solution may not suit everyone.

UCPH language policy

A language strategy refers to linguistic guidelines on what languages are used in the organisation and when, and how the organisation perceives language learning, multilingualism and parallel language use. The language strategy in part illustrates the company's values, objectives and operating methods.   
 
Language strategies often encourage inclusive language use, i.e. interaction in which everyone can participate in discussion regardless of limited or dissimilar language proficiency. A language strategy that emphasises inclusion promotes an open-minded approach to interaction, respecting the diversity, different speaking styles, and language proficiency of each participant.    
 
The language strategy discusses at least the main working language or languages of the work community, but drawing attention to other languages spoken in the community is advisable. Drawing attention to multilingualism may help international employees better integrate into the work community. If the language strategy also includes Finnish learning opportunities for international employees, it supports not only commitment to work but a more comprehensive integration into the society.   
 
Diversity and multilingualism are often seen as values that organisations want to uphold: monolingualism, regardless of language, has disadvantages. Strict monolingualism easily leads to feelings of inequality, exclusion and professional inadequacy. In addition, using just one language can limit thinking and creative problem solving.  

That said, multilingual operating methods are not created overnight, but require planning and collaboration. The advantage of the language strategy is that it supports the structural development of multilingual practices, and thus their implementation is not the individual employees’ responsibility.    
 
In practice, drawing up a language strategy requires joint discussions on the languages used in the work. In addition, it requires consideration how everyone’s language proficiency can be respected, how communication can be encouraged, and language learning supported in the everyday functioning of the work community. The strategy may be a kind of roadmap towards best practices or a description of practices already in use in the organisation. However, in both cases the language strategy is necessary for supporting the creation and implementation of a language-aware operating culture.  

A stronger commitment from the management to language strategy and language-aware operating culture translates to better implementation of operating culture. Once the language strategy has been recorded for the work community, it can also be utilised in orientation. In doing so, issues related to the use of languages and the support available are already discussed during orientation and the employee knows how to improve their language proficiencies as part of their everyday work.  

Even a sound language strategy does not guarantee that measures are implemented in practice. It may be appropriate to draw up a more detailed plan or implementation programme detailing how the principles of the language strategy are realised across units and how the existence of the language strategy is communicated to employees. 

For more information on language strategies and other tools for building a multilingual work community, please see the Monikielisen työyhteisön opas guidebook.