A pleasant French conversation does not establish whether someone can explain a disputed invoice, guide a user through troubleshooting or qualify a sales opportunity. Assess the language through the work the employee will need to perform.
Choose the tasks that carry the most risk
Start with two or three recurring situations. Identify what the person must understand, communicate and document. Decide whether spoken interaction, reading, writing or switching between languages is central to the job.
Keep the exercise proportionate. A short task with a clear purpose is easier to assess than a long test that mixes unrelated skills. Use fictional information and avoid asking candidates to complete unpaid production work for your business.
Match the exercise to the role
| Role | Work sample | Look for |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | French discovery call from a supplied product brief. | Questions, understanding, accurate value explanation and next step. |
| Customer service | Explain a delayed order and confirm the update in writing. | Clarity, empathy, boundaries and follow-through. |
| Finance | Clarify an invoice mismatch with a customer. | Accurate amounts, questions and a clear account note. |
| IT support | Guide a user through a safe diagnostic step. | Comprehension, sequencing and useful documentation. |
These are starting examples, not validated tests. Adapt them to the actual role and have someone with the relevant language and functional expertise review the materials.
Separate language quality from job judgment
A candidate might speak confidently but give the wrong answer. Another may pause for a word while making a sound decision. Record both dimensions instead of allowing confidence to stand in for competence.
- Understanding: identifies the request and asks useful clarifying questions.
- Accuracy: preserves the facts, amounts, dates and limits in the brief.
- Clarity: gives an explanation the intended audience can follow.
- Interaction: listens, responds and checks understanding.
- Work outcome: reaches an appropriate action or escalation.
Define examples of sufficient and insufficient performance before interviewing. Assess intelligibility and job effectiveness rather than accent preference. Language requirements should relate to genuine job needs; see the OHRC’s hiring guidance.
Give candidates a fair comparison
Use the same core brief, preparation time and allowed tools. Explain the format and arrange appropriate accommodations. If the real job permits a glossary or approved reference material, consider whether the assessment should too. Make independent language tasks explicit where independent performance is required.
For a bilingual handoff, ask the candidate to summarise the French conversation in English. Compare the meaning across versions. A small grammatical error and a changed payment amount have very different consequences.
Use the result to inform a hiring decision
Document what you observed and what remains uncertain. Do not turn a short exercise into a claim about every aspect of someone’s fluency. Decide whether a gap is trainable within your onboarding plan or essential from the first day.
A generic conversation may be enough for an initial check. A high-impact bilingual role usually merits a closer look at the actual tasks. Internal assessment can work when you have the expertise and time; a specialist partner can add value when either is missing.
Assess bilingual ability in context
MS2’s approach connects language screening with role-specific competencies. Compared with relying only on résumé labels or a casual conversation, it gives your hiring team more relevant information about the work a candidate can demonstrate.
Published · 3 min read
