Daijob Global Recruiting Co., Ltd. | An Investigation into the Use of a Non-native Language in the Workplace

REPORT2015/2/20

An Investigation into the Use of a Non-native Language in the Workplace

25% of our respondents said that a non-native language was the official language of their company

Daijob.com has conducted an investigation on their own users to clarify how much non-native languages are used within companies and how much the ability to use a non-native language at work influences the job-seekers decision to join a company.

【Investigation Outline】

■Objective：To find out how much of a non-native language is used at work and how much the chance to use a non-native language is valued by job-seekers.
■Investigation Period：From January 6th to 27th 2015
■Respondents：Readers of the Daijob.com Newsletter: 198,000 people (as of Oct. 2014)
■Answering Method：One-click voting in the Daijob.com Newsletter
■No. of valid responses: See each question.

【Investigation Results】

◆For what purpose do you mainly use a non-native language at work?
A non-native language seen to be mostly used for internal communications.（No. of responses: 181）

When asked for what purpose a non-native is used at work, 25% of respondents said that a non-native language was the official language of the company while 19% said it was used for communication with a boss or foreign colleagues. This means a total of 44% of respondents used a non-native language for "internal communications".
23% of respondents said that writing/reading mails was the main use of a non-native language in their position, 12% said that it was used for writing/reading documents and only 6% said that the main use of a non-native language was to negotiate with customers.

◆What do you prioritise when looking for a job?
"Something that matches my experience" and "the chance to use a non-native language" receive roughly the same number of responses. (No. of responses: 128)

While 34% of respondents mentioned that they would prioritise a job which matched their previous experience, 32% said they would place most importance on the opportunity to use a non-native language. This reaffirms the fact that the chance to English is a significant factor when job-seekers consider their options.

◆What type of company would most appeal to you?
Not a type of company but the opportunity to work globally considered most important.（No. of responses: 252）

43% of respondents answered that a company in which the boss and colleagues are foreign would be most attractive to them. While the answers were split relatively evenly between "a Japanese company that is expanding abroad", "a Japanese company that plans to expand abroad" and "a branch of a Japanese company overseas", 55% of respondents indicated a desire to work in a foreign-affiliated company as opposed to 45% who showed a desire to work in a Japanese company.
18% of respondents wished to work in a Japanese company that would expand overseas in the future, which showed that companies that were not already overseas were preferred to those already established.

To see the full report, please click here (Japanese only)→職場での英語の使用頻度と優先度に関する調査

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