Misunderstandings due to multilingualism in the workplace

© ANP / Vidiphoto
The majority of respondents (64 percent) say that when colleagues speak more than one language, this rarely leads to misunderstandings. In the agriculture and manufacturing sectors, it is quite common for workers to speak multiple languages. Language-related misunderstandings are also more common in these sectors, as well as in construction. This is according to newly released figures from the Netherlands Working Conditions Survey (NEA), conducted by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).
In 2024, research into the languages spoken in the workplace was conducted for the first time. When multiple languages are spoken among colleagues, English is the most spoken language after Dutch, at 23 percent.

Linguistic misunderstandings occur most frequently in construction, agriculture and manufacturing

More than 1 in 3 employees (36 percent) who speak more than one language at work indicated that they do not always understand each other. Language-related misunderstandings occur most frequently in the construction (49 percent), agriculture (48 percent), and manufacturing (46 percent) sectors. In public administration and education, multilingualism in the workplace leads to misunderstanings the least often, at 20 and 23 percent respectively.

Mistakes as a result of multilingualism in the workplace

The most frequently cited problems by people who work in multilingual companies were mistakes at work or not getting the job done properly due to language-related misunderstandings, at over 10 percent. In addition, 4 percent of respondents indicated that multilingualism leads to feelings of exclusion and over 1 percent said it leads to dangerous situations or accidents.


Language-related misunderstanding in customer communication

Language differences can lead to misunderstandings in communication with customers - who can also be patients, passengers, parents or pupils. A total of 37 percent of workers said that customers do not always understand what they mean, or vice versa due to language differences. This occurs the most often in the health care sector (50 percent), accommodation and food services (44 percent), and the trade (43 percent) and transport (42 percent) sector. In 15 percent of cases that involved misunderstandings due to language differences, the work was not done properly. Language-related misunderstanding in communication with customers also sometimes led to arguments or conflicts (6 percent).

Over one-third of employed persons work in a multilingual workplace

Thirty-six percent of workers said that more than one language is spoken among colleagues. Multilingualism in the workplace is the most common in the ICT (59 percent), manufacturing (57 percent), and agriculture (54 percent) sectors. Workers in public administration and health care were the least likely to indicate this, at over 15 and 12 percent, respectively.