Language Learning Services & Technology

Hiring the right talent is a challenging task, especially in today’s fast-evolving job market. Many hiring leads hold strong opinions about what makes an ideal candidate, but these expectations sometimes be counterproductive. Below, we address several common concerns and offer alternative perspectives that can help hiring leads approach recruitment more strategically and effectively. 1. “I do not want to hire anyone who has not stayed in their role for at least two years.” Long tenures are considered a sign of stability and loyalty, but the job market has changed dramatically. Studies show that many professionals, particularly younger generations like Millennials and Gen Z, change jobs more frequently than previous generations. In fact, the average tenure of sales people is 18-24 months, and this is not necessarily a sign of instability. Moreover we are experiencing one of the most turbulent job markets in nearly 20 years with Covid, Tech layoff’s and the rise of AI leading to even the most talented people being laid-off a couple of times over the last 4 years. Our solution Rather than focusing solely on tenure, it’s essential to assess the quality of the work they accomplished during their time at each company and evaluate the previous employers stability. A short tenure in one role may have allowed them to gain diverse experiences or work in fast-paced environments where adaptability is key. 2. “Good performers do not get made redundant.” A common misconception and one of the most frustrating judgements made by hiring managers. Even high performers are sometimes impacted by factors outside their control, such as company restructuring, economic downturns, or industry-wide layoffs. For example, during the pandemic, 60% of workers globally considered quitting or were laid off, regardless of performance. Redundancies often have more to do with organizational priorities or budget cuts than individual performance. Our Solution Instead, explore their contributions in previous roles and ask about the context of the layoffs. In some cases, these individuals may bring valuable resilience and experience gained from navigating challenging environments. Asking specific questions at interview and utilizing references both formal and informal help present a more complete picture of a candidates performance. 3. “A jumpy CV makes me nervous, so I want to keep the position open longer.” A CV that shows frequent job changes can indeed be a red flag, but context is crucial. While a "jumpy" CV might make a hiring lead hesitant, it's important to delve into the reasons behind the moves. Perhaps the candidate was pursuing opportunities for growth, working in high-turnover industries, or facing personal challenges. With 45% of workers globally actively seeking new opportunities, frequent changes are not uncommon. Our Solution Consider conducting a deeper interview to understand why the candidate moved between roles and what they learned in each position. Delaying hiring because of assumptions about a CV can cause you to miss out on candidates who could be a perfect fit for the role. 4. “The candidate will not share some of their results, so I will not take them forward.” While transparency is important, there are legitimate reasons why candidates might not disclose certain details about their previous work. Many candidates work on confidential projects or under strict NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) that prevent them from sharing specific metrics or results. In such cases, it’s essential to assess their overall approach, problem-solving skills, and how they describe their contributions in general terms. Our Solution Instead of immediately disqualifying candidates, ask them to explain their processes, methodologies, or team dynamics in ways that do not violate confidentiality. Their ability to explain the steps they took to achieve success can be just as valuable as sharing exact numbers. Conclusion Hiring leads need to be open to adapting their expectations to the realities of today’s job market. By focusing more on the quality of a candidate’s experience, flexibility, and adaptability, rather than adhering to traditional benchmarks, hiring managers can make more informed decisions and ultimately build stronger teams.

Adaptive Globalization speaks with thousands of professionals in the language services and technology industry every year about their career ambitions and development.Alongside job specifics such as responsibilities, location and pay, corporate culture is one of the major topics raised by of those exploring new career options. Often when discussing job opportunities Adaptive’s recruiters are questioned not only on culture as regards the local office space in which a candidate would be working, but on the role that corporate culture plays in the hiring company’s business operations and overall identity.For some organizations, culture is only peripherally addressed at a leadership level, with top and bottom-line considerations driving daily decision-making. For others, culture is a foundational component of business success and a key aspect of strategy.Defining and implementing corporate culture can be challenging, especially within a global business where international offices and local cultural differences must be factored in.To learn more about how to address these challenges, Adaptive spoke with Mark Brayan, CEO of Appen.AG: The first step in building a successful corporate culture is to have a clear vision for what culture means within an organization. How is this interpreted at Appen?MB: Culture is how people work together, how they get things done. If the culture isn’t going to achieve business objectives, it will fail. Strategy needs to be supported by culture – you can have the most elegant strategy in the world, but if you don’t have an enabling culture, that strategy won’t get implemented.When developing business plans, culture is a fundamental consideration as both culture and strategy have to be aligned in order for the organization to be successful.AG: How is culture created at Appen?MB: You can’t write down culture on a piece of paper and make it so – you have to create conditions, and culture creates itself within those conditions. Conditions can be formal, such as business structures, or informal, such as respect for the customer.As a business, you don’t create culture – you create conditions for culture. Where the business can help shape, culture is through creating the right structures and via the leadership of the business displaying the desired cultural behaviors.To reinforce this, Appen does have formalized culture and value statements, which in fact preceded my joining the business. These do have a physical and online presence around the business, and there is a system of encouragement to adopt these standards via employee awards based around the values.AG: Is culture within Appen static, or does it evolve? How is this evolution managed?MB: We shape the direction of our culture through ongoing feedback. We try to continually integrate employee input through tools such as engagement surveys. The primary values which emerge from these as important to Appen’s teams are respect for each other and respect for customers, and we work to ensure these are built into our norms and behaviors.Another major way in which culture should evolve is in accordance with shifting stakeholder requirements. When Appen transitioned from a private to a public company, a new group of stakeholders had to be integrated. From staff and customers, we then had to ensure that investors were considered and positively impacted by our culture.There are internal leadership meetings to discuss cultural goals and propagating culture – understanding what people value and what binds them to the company. it’s talked about, it’s an active part of dialogue, but it’s up to leadership to adopt it and work to implement it.AG: The first step in building a successful corporate culture is to have a clear vision for what culture means within an organization. How is this interpreted at Appen?MB: Culture is how people work together, how they get things done. If the culture isn’t going to achieve business objectives, it will fail. Strategy needs to be supported by culture – you can have the most elegant strategy in the world, but if you don’t have an enabling culture, that strategy won’t get implemented.When developing business plans, culture is a fundamental consideration as both culture and strategy have to be aligned in order for the organization to be successful.AG: Much of the discussion around corporate culture happens from an internal viewpoint. How does Appen’s cultural and value mix impact customers?MB: There is a definite benefit for customer, with regard to quality of work, time-frames, responsiveness and other aspects. Appen’s corporate culture is, in many ways, almost more customer-facing than internal-facing.The mindset is “how do we help the customer?”. There are direct links between culture, how Appen works with customers, and how the company performs. Good corporate performance is good for culture – it attracts talent, provides challenge and opportunity, and strong financial performance feeds culture.But if a company is struggling, then strong corporate culture is also vital – culture can be relied upon to support periods of poor performance.AG: What allowance is made for international variance in corporate culture?MB: Appen has offices in Australia, the Philippines, the US and the UK. That gives us a very rich set of cultures. However, there is consistency in those core corporate cultural elements that define Appen as a business.We have a wealth of cultural nuance around regions of the world which are a benefit in adding color and diversity to our teams.However, how people work together, how we treat each other, how we get things done – that’s the variable we work to keep consistent.

Growth is something that happens around a team. Sometimes to a team. But what’s it like viewing LSP growth from the top? To help answer that question, Adaptive Globalization’s Global Recruitment Director Tom Newman spoke with Véronique Özkaya, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer with Xplanation, Chair of the Board with GALA and a former CSO with Moravia and VP with Lionbridge. Adaptive Globalization works with candidates across all areas of the language services and technology industry, with over 200 candidate placements made in 2016 so far. Throughout this large volume of interaction with industry professionals, without a shadow of a doubt the most commonly-heard aspiration among candidates is a desire to join a ‘growing’ company. Growth is exciting – it means change, it means progress, it means a move into the unknown. While growth certainly permeates almost all areas of a translation agency, it’s not often that members of the core production and sales teams are offered the chance to view the corporation’s development from a bird’s-eye view. AG: Xplanation’s growth has been rapid and spread across multiple geographies (11 countries and counting). What has been the reason to expand so fast across the map, and not focus on consolidation in primary markets? Veronique: Initially it was purely down to the circumstances of knowing a number of people in those geographies. They really had a startup attitude and could stretch from business development to admin tasks and recruitment.  If you take an office like Sweden in the beginning, we had these multi-talent profiles so we knew we could afford to start from scratch and build around the skills of our team. We knew that the opportunity of regions like Denmark or Sweden was there – we saw strength in the manufacturing sector and a growing need for exports so it was an obvious move. Phase two of growth is a little bit more difficult, once hubs are established. That is more driven by our customers. What we do now is look at our customers and where we’re going to reinforce our capabilities. It’s not just geography – you need to reinforce your services, customers, and regional presence. We have a base, we know it has potential, and we want to accelerate that. But the core is really the people. The talent. AG: Why did you build production teams at each country? Veronique: We try to build production teams in-country wherever possible. It’s our approach to have a customer-facing capability at least at a production level as often as possible. In countries like the USA, for instance, we wanted a PM in that time zone. But beyond that, we have been careful to match cultures where possible, and not be purely time-zone or geography led. We need our customers and their support teams to mesh culturally and work together for best results. AG: Is the US market still a major target among Europe-based LSPs? Veronique: I’m a firm believer that there remains a lot of potential in the US. What is different from Europe is that decisions are made quicker, which is appealing. Selling to the US from a primarily Europe base is a challenge, however. We do have an offering with a lot of automation and cool technology, processes, and people – but the first engagement can be tough. We’ve definitely seen a big difference between having one office, to having multiple offices and country managers. This global platform has been a major accelerator in our ability to sell internationally. AG: With respect to your office in Beijing. Has the Far East been the most challenging region to establish yourself in, as a Western European business? Veronique: I think it is certainly more difficult than the US. It’s the culture, market, and trust-building. Even in America, people want to do business with Americans. In Japan and China, I’ve seen it repeatedly. A Chinese company will always feel more comfortable dealing with a Chinese company.  I think it is just down to human nature to feel comfortable to what you can relate to. Despite our own industry’s best efforts, we haven’t reached a truly ‘global world’ yet! Local presence and cultural fit are still extremely important. AG: Does Xplanation have any plans for South America or other areas of the globe? Veronique: Our plans for the next 3+ years are principally strengthening significantly in Germany, the UK, and USA. Beyond that… many exciting things are coming! Not another geographical location, but we do have other a number of plans on the horizon which we’re very excited about and will contribute substantially to our continued growth. Keep your eyes open for news over the coming few quarters!