Finding A Common Language: Cuilding Confidence, Connection, and Careers

In today’s diverse workforce, talent knows no language barrier—but communication often does. Multilingual employees bring valuable skills, experience, and perspectives to the workplace, and bridging communication gaps by enhancing their English skills can expand their potential for growth, strengthen team dynamics, and improve customer service. Accessing community English language learning services in the Commonwealth can sometimes be a challenge due to high demand – over 20,000 people sit on waitlists – and conflicting schedules with work and other responsibilities. Through the Workforce Training Fund Program (WTFP), businesses can integrate customized English language courses into their schedules and unlock their team’s full capabilities.

In Boston, the restaurant group Cushman Concepts introduced English training to their employees to promote strong communication and encourage staff retention and advancement. In a restaurant setting, where relationships among teams and with customers are crucial, supporting English development has many positive outcomes – both expected and unexpected.

Hojoko, one of Cushman Concepts’ restaurants, trains their employees in English language concepts directly related to their workplace. They provide training sessions that align with the team’s working hours, typically four hours a week. Located in Boston, Hojoko provides specific scenarios, recipes, and operational standards to the training provider, English for New Bostonians, to ensure the training is as relevant as possible to learners. The customized training strengthens communication around ingredients to maintain customer safety and addresses common workplace conversations like requesting time off and receiving paychecks. “To be in control of your communication and understand the situation around you is important for agency,” said Kate Gilarde, VP of Talent and Culture for Cushman Concepts. The team attends training each week knowing how they will use what they learn in their role each day, creating stronger buy-in and a sense of belonging to a team that cares about them.

English for New Bostonians (ENB) supports community-based English learning programs serving immigrant workers and small business owners and parents by partnering with companies across Massachusetts to offer workplace English training to their employees. Their goal is to provide free or low-cost English classes to everyone who needs them. Partnerships with employers like Hojoko are effective in creating wider and more sustainable opportunities for accessing English language learning. “Our goal in partnering with employers is to promote the value of a multilingual workforce,” says ENB Business Partnerships Manager Suzanne Metro. “Businesses work more efficiently when everyone can speak together.”

Hojoko was committed to delivering English training from the start, experimenting with different time frames and locations to find what worked best for their team. Now that they successfully integrated it into their routine with support from ENB and funding from WTFP, it’s there to stay. English learning is a key training goal and staff response is consistently positive, in part due to the high-quality instruction delivered by ENB. Classes are growing as employees spread the word and demand for participation increases.

"Receiving respect and being heard are tied to creating a healthy workplace – it takes time and effort to make it work but if an employer is open to trial and error at the onset, they will see the results firsthand,” says Metro.

The Hojoko and ENB teams are seeing significant improvements in employee confidence, interpersonal dynamics, and customer satisfaction from better communication. According to Gilarde, staff retention is steady, and several employees have received promotions. Team members are moving from after-hours to daytime roles, and from part-time to full-time. In addition to these improvements in staff performance, the extra time spent together in this program has led to better rapport and respect among the team, as well as a stronger ability to address challenges in the workplace.

"We don’t understand each other 100% of the time but we’re all there trying,” Gilarde shares. “We’re all doing something better for the business and ourselves. It's a beautiful program.”

Hojoko is actively applying for additional funding from WTFP to continue the training and ensure that all their employees have the tools they need to thrive at work. "We'd love to offer this everywhere, as much as possible,” says Gilarde.