How to hire Dutch speakers for your company – the easy way

The Dutch language is spoken by 22 million people worldwide, with around 3 million speaking it as a second language.[1]

Dutch is one of the official languages in the Netherlands and Belgium, and several other countries, including Aruba and Suriname, use it as the language for administration.

Dutch speakers can therefore be a great asset to companies, as they may help build up and form closer partnerships with firms from the Dutch-speaking world.

One of the most efficient ways to test the applicants’ Dutch language skills is to use Dutch language-level tests, such as an Intermediate Dutch test or the Dutch Proficiency test. These tests enable you to quickly and objectively evaluate your candidates’ fluency in Dutch during the application process before the first round of interviews. 

In this article, you will find a step-by-step guide to selecting and hiring Dutch speakers, as well as information on the different methods you can use to assess Dutch proficiency. 

But first, let’s look at the roles for which Dutch is important.

For which roles do candidates need Dutch proficiency?

If your company has a strong presence in the Netherlands, a Dutch speaker is certainly an asset. This valuable employee can help you remove language barriers and improve the overall communication flow in your company.

Dutch fluency is helpful for many jobs. However, it is especially useful for client-facing roles and customer-service teams where employees need to communicate with Dutch-speaking clients, such as in call centers. It’s also a valuable skill for retail when hiring locally in the Netherlands, or for roles that involve negotiating with Dutch partners and suppliers. 

How can you evaluate candidates’ Dutch proficiency during recruitment?

Your candidates’ Dutch language skills must be properly evaluated during recruitment. There are various ways to test their fluency, and some of them are faster and more efficient than others.

Here are the main methods to assess applicants’ language skills:

1. Rely on candidates’ self-assessment

The first method to assess Dutch fluency is to use candidates’ self-evaluation. Unfortunately, not everything written in a CV can be considered as factual (according to Indeed, 40% of applicants lie in their resumes), so this method is the least objective and reliable.

2. Ask for diplomas or other proof

The second option is to ask the applicants to present a diploma or certificate proving their level of language skills. However, this approach can also be unreliable: Candidates might have passed the exam a long time ago and no longer have the same level, or, on the contrary, they may have the skill but no diploma to prove it.

3. Create and administer a Dutch exam

The third method is to test the skills of your candidates by creating an exam yourself. This assessment may consist of a written assignment related to the position, writing a test, or conducting an interview in Dutch.

This approach can be effective in evaluating the current language level of potential employees. But it can be time-consuming and costly to hire a Dutch speaker to manually assess applicants’ skills or conduct interviews. 

4. Use automated Dutch language tests

The final approach is to use a ready-made Dutch language level test, such as TestGorilla’s Dutch B1 test or the Dutch C1 test, which enables you to evaluate candidates’ actual language skills quickly and accurately.

Language tests are automated, so you only need to invite applicants to take them and then compare the results. 

Why use a Dutch language test during recruitment? 

Automated online Dutch tests help companies to evaluate candidates in a non-biased and objective way, enabling them to find and hire the right person for the position – and not just the one who is best on paper. 

So if you want to test a candidates’ language skills there are many ways to do so, but one of the most advantageous is using the online Dutch B1 test or C1 test.

Use these Dutch tests in the early stages of the recruitment process to select the best applicants to invite to an interview, saving time and resources. 

These two tests permit you to quickly identify suitable candidates with the necessary language skills for the job. They also enable you to make an objective decision based on actual information and not on candidates’ self-evaluation, which can be unreliable. 

A step-by-step guide to hiring Dutch speakers for your business

In this section, you’ll find a quick step-by-step guide on the best way to hire Dutch speakers for your company quickly and efficiently. 

1. Define the skills required for the job.

Determine all the skills and abilities you require for the role, including the level of Dutch language skills. Define the skills indispensable for the position and those that are only advisable. Use this information to write a job description and to decide which skills you will evaluate during recruitment.

2. Post a job ad.

Write a detailed job ad and post it online on relevant sites, such as social media and job boards. 

3. Use a skills assessment to evaluate Dutch language ability and other relevant skills.

TestGorilla gives you the option to combine up to five tests for your assessment, so you can target the skills you defined in step one. Don’t forget to include a Dutch B1 test or a Dutch C1 test to successfully determine your applicants’ language level.

You can replace the time-consuming and inefficient CV-screening process with skill tests, which are much more accurate and objective.

4. Review the test results.

The completed tests are graded automatically, so no  you waste no time gathering the results. You can immediately compare the scores and identify the most promising applicants. 

5. Select the most suitable applicants and invite them for an interview.

Interviews give you an in-depth understanding of your candidates’ skills and motivation, completing the information you’ve already collected with the help of skills tests. Structured interviews, in which you ask applicants the same questions in the same order, are generally more objective and reliable than unstructured ones.

6. Hire the best.

Now that the interviews are finalized, you can make an informed decision and hire the right person for the job. Afterward, you just need to have a final discussion of the conditions and a starting date with the best candidate and notify the other candidates that their applications were not retained. 

Hire Dutch speakers easily with the right Dutch test

Online skills tests enable you to hire the best applicants for your company, without having to go through hundreds of CVs.

And with TestGorilla, you can assess applicants’ proficiency in Dutch quickly and objectively.  

TestGorilla gives you the right set of tools to streamline your recruitment and reliably assess candidates’ language skills without wasting time on outdated CV-screening processes. 

Get started with TestGorilla today and hire Dutch speakers in a fraction of the time you’d otherwise need. 

Sources 

1. Dutch language. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved September 27, 2022.