The 2020 pandemic gave workers their first taste of working remotely. But what started out as a reactive strategic adjustment has now become central to how many businesses around the world structure their operations. Hiring remotely gives you access to a global pool of top candidates while also providing employees the much-needed flexibility they desire.
In 2026, as many as 330 million people around the globe work remotely, with the UK seeing 14% of all workers work in a full-time remote-first position. This growing move toward hybrid or remote working has led to many employee and business benefits, with remote-first organisations growing twice as quickly as in-house competitors.
Source: The difference in company growth between remote and in-person companies since mid-2022.
Yet, with new styles of working, new challenges have also arisen. Especially amongst globally distributed teams, language barriers create issues with communication that can significantly impact productivity and efficiency.
In this article, we’ll turn to language barriers in remote teams, documenting how you can overcome them through internal strategy and outlining the top tools to turn to. Let’s dive right in.
Workers on remote teams don’t have the luxury of being able to walk over to someone’s desk and quickly ask a question. Due to the distance (and potentially major differences in time zones), employees need to rely on clear communication more than ever.
Whether that’s via email or over video meeting platforms, here are some of the consequences of language barriers that remote teams may encounter:
Addressing these issues by fixing their root causes allows you to build an effective remote team without any disadvantages. Especially considering that 98% of surveyed employees who have worked remotely state that they would want to continue working from home for the rest of their career, it’s highly likely that the workforce will continue to globalise.
Remote working isn’t going anywhere, so the earlier teams adapt their internal systems and strategies to face potential language barriers and other roadblocks, the better.
Here are some of the main causes of language barriers in global teams:
Understanding how these root causes surface in a business allows you to take actions to address and mitigate them over time.
Education is typically the best way of overcoming language barriers, with corporate language training providing a flexible structure that your employees can use to enhance their communication skills. Beyond implementing a business English programme such as Busuu, there are several techniques you can use.
Let’s explore some of the main strategies to overcome language barriers in your business.
Communication and language skills don’t materialise overnight. You’ll have to take a long-term approach, looking to develop skills through different programmes. In the meantime, you can boost performance in remote environments by offering multilingual onboarding support.
After completing the onboarding phase, you can work with an employee to set clear, measurable language goals.
Introduce an internal style guide that specifies how people should communicate while at work. Prioritising writing in clear, simple English with standardised terminology will help make sure everyone understands each other. Especially when working asynchronously over multiple time zones, avoiding miscommunication through clear writing standards can go a long way.
Employees can help clarify their meaning by supporting written communication with video walkthroughs, workflow diagrams or screenshots. Additional visual materials can help reduce confusion and help employees to better understand what’s needed of them.
A study from the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology revealed that reducing the number of emails sent by 20% per day results in a significant improvement in work output quality, as individuals can focus on their work instead of just replying to endless emails. You can replace the need for so many clarifying emails by turning toward asynchronous, visual-driven communication systems.
Non-native speakers need to feel confident enough to ask questions and double-check meaning without being singled out. Your business should prioritise building a workplace culture that centres on inclusive communication practices.
Over time, this will lead to less miscommunication and make everyone feel more comfortable at work, providing a range of employee experience benefits that impact everything from productivity to satisfaction.
Busuu enables businesses to overcome language barriers with structured, supportive corporate language training. With courses specifically built for remote workers – allowing them to move through self-paced study modules, work with certified teachers in Live Lessons, and get AI-enabled feedback in real-time – Busuu for Business helps break down language barriers and allows communication to thrive.
Give your employees the gift of cross-cultural collaboration by getting started with Busuu for Business today.