How to hire Italian speakers

Language skills are like gold to businesses.

The demand for bilingual employees has increased in recent years. This is because bilingual employees have skills critical for their organization’s success.

Italian is among the most popular languages in the world. If you want to expand your company’s operations, it’s a good idea to hire employees with Italian language skills.

Proficient Italian speakers not only bring diversity to your business but also possess other valuable characteristics, such as versatility and sensitivity to other cultures. These qualities draw positive attention to your company and bolster your success.

Identifying Italian speakers requires a thorough approach.

As a recruiter, you must focus on not only fluency but also proficiency. In this article, we will distinguish between fluency and proficiency and provide an effective guide to hiring Italian speakers.

Why do you need to hire Italian speakers?

Generally, multilingual employees tend to have higher cognitive abilities than those who only speak one language. This quality makes them valuable in the business world. They are often adaptable, flexible in their understanding, and great decision-makers.

Italian is a widely spoken language, with around [61.8 million people](https://www.worlddata.info/languages/italian.php#:~:text=The%20Italian%20language%20(native%20name,Italian%20as%20their%20mother%20tongue.) speaking it as their mother tongue worldwide. Hiring Italian speakers can increase your organization’s diversity and broaden its reach.

Furthermore, expert Italian speakers can confidently use the language and easily engage in conversations that arise during their work. Consequently, by hiring Italian speakers, you’re providing your Italian clients with better customer service.

However, there’s more to hiring Italian speakers than meets the eye. There are two major classifications of language understanding: fluency and proficiency.

You should consider both of these classifications while recruiting Italian-speaking candidates.

Hiring based on fluency and proficiency

Fluency and proficiency are different terms related to a candidate’s language understanding.

A candidate can be proficient in Italian but not fluent and vice versa. When you’re hiring Italian speakers, it’s critical that you know the difference between the two.

Meaning of fluency in Italian

Fluency in Italian is the ability to communicate smoothly during conversations in Italian. Italian speakers who are fluent in the language can engage in intellectual conversations and have the correct intonation and accent while speaking.

Meaning of proficiency in Italian

Italian proficiency is the ability to understand the concepts of the language. Candidates who are proficient in Italian can use the language accurately and have a high degree of comprehension.

Levels of Italian proficiency

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) classifies Italian proficiency according to various levels of understanding. Below are the CEFR levels of Italian proficiency:

A1: Beginner

Candidates at this level can understand and use basic expressions and phrases in Italian. They can also communicate about simple topics in the language. However, their abilities are still very basic, and they likely struggle in more complex conversations.

A2: Elementary

At this level, applicants can understand Italian expressions and vocabulary at a slightly higher level than beginners. They can communicate about simple and direct topics.

B1: Intermediate

Candidates at the Italian B1 level of proficiency can understand the main points of slightly demanding statements or conversations in Italian. They can deal with many day-to-day interactions in the workplace without making mistakes.

B2: Upper-intermediate

Applicants with this level of proficiency can grasp the core ideas of complex Italian text and speech. They can participate in challenging conversations, though they might slip up occasionally.

C1: Advanced

Advanced Italian speakers have operational proficiency and can take part in challenging, complex conversations. They have a firm grasp of the Italian language and can easily grasp the main ideas of most topics.

C2: Proficient

Italian experts at a C2 level have mastered the language and can understand practically anything spoken or written in Italian. They can express themselves fluently and accurately, grasp the main concepts of a topic, and draw appropriate inferences from it.

Steps to hiring Italian speakers

While you’re recruiting Italian speakers, you need to be meticulous and apply efficient recruitment methods.

Below are five ways to hire Italian speakers:

1. Identify your requirements and draft a recruitment strategy

Before venturing into recruitment, you must know what your company needs. You must understand the job role you’re recruiting for, and the level of proficiency it requires is critical to hiring the right Italian speaker. 

This step is crucial to avoid recruiting underqualified candidates into an overly demanding position or recruiting overqualified candidates into a role that doesn’t challenge them. Furthermore, you need a comprehensive recruitment strategy to guide you during each step of the hiring process. 

2. Publish a stellar job description

Drafting great job descriptions helps draw in top talent. One of the characteristics of a perfect job description is a clear statement of all the requirements of the role. This enables you to filter candidates before they even apply.

A job description can also help you screen candidates who apply for the post. Simply comparing their skills with the requirements stated in the job description helps you identify and hire Italian speakers who can function effectively in the role.

3. Screen your candidates

There are many ways to screen your candidates, but one of the easiest and most effective methods is to use a pre-recruitment test.

TestGorilla offers various Italian tests, including the B1 Italian test. This test evaluates candidates at the B1 Italian level of proficiency. Hence, if you’re looking to hire candidates with intermediate Italian knowledge, this is the right addition to your recruitment process.

Our B1 Italian skills test is a reliable assessment method that reduces bias and stress during hiring.

4. Add personality tests

Testing applicants’ proficiency will provide you with valuable insights into their skills, but it won’t tell you much about their personalities or how they deal with different situations in the workplace. Adding a personality test to your recruitment process helps you gauge how candidates express themselves and relate with other people.

TestGorilla has a wide range of personality tests to choose from. As you build your pre-employment assessment, you can incorporate these tests to understand your employees at a deeper level.

5. Hold interview sessions

Conducting an interview is an effective way to see firsthand how candidates handle situations. Physical screening also gives you an opportunity to evaluate their Italian communication skills firsthand.

Moreover, interviews are a great way to verify applicants’ Italian fluency. For example, you can give candidates some Italian text to read and explain.

After screening the candidates thoroughly, you must extend offers to those who pass the hiring process, preferably on the day of the final interviews, if you’re sure of your decisions. In doing so, you secure top talent, and you can begin onboarding the recruits.

The most effective way to hire Italian speakers

TestGorilla has a vast library of pre-recruitment tests that make it easy to recruit the best candidates.

When you use our B1 Italian test and C1 Italian test, you don’t have to compromise or settle for less.

TestGorilla’s assessments provide a fair way to test applicants for all the qualities you need so that you can hire only top Italian speakers. You can be sure of the quality of our tests since they have been scientifically tested and approved.

With TestGorilla, you can streamline your hiring process and reduce the time and stress of recruitment. Our assessments sort through your candidates and present you with accurate results so that you can make hiring decisions easily.

Register with us today to get started.