Put the ‘S’ in ESG with multi-language course authoring

When the wider business works on its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics, it may not always be clear how L&D can contribute. But, instructional designers can help organizations pay attention to social responsibilities and run more ethically. With a well-planned strategy and the right content authoring tool, you can boost workplace safety and inclusivity and become a positive influence in your community.

If you want to see how you can ace the ‘S’ in ESG, we’ve got you covered. Read on to see how multi-language content authoring can get you there.

Crystal clear training increases workplace safety

In a survey by Forbes Insights, and Rosetta Stone, 65% of executives surveyed said they encountered language barriers when managing diverse workforces. This can cause miscommunications and lead to unsafe behavior or accidents.

Fair and safe labor practices are a key part of ESG. Letting employees complete their compliance or safety training in a native language can help them feel more prepared. It can also boost their psychological safety so that they’re more likely to speak up when they see dangerous or non-compliant behavior.

Gomo is a collaborative eLearning authoring tool that can give you peace of mind that you’ll stay compliant and keep your workforce safe, regardless of the languages they speak. You can easily offer multiple languages within a single Gomo course—no need to manually juggle translations for each course.

And the delivery is always fully responsive, even for right-to-left languages, so courses look great and function perfectly, regardless of the device learners use. Your workforce can take their training with them wherever they go and refer to it as needed—making it easy for them to do their job safely.

Multi-language eLearning demonstrates your inclusivity

An EY survey revealed that 63% of respondents would choose a company that prioritizes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) over one that doesn’t. These kinds of views can have a knock-on effect: the less diverse your organization is, the less likely you are to attract candidates of all kinds of backgrounds 

Many organizations struggle to meet their DEI targets because they can't offer practical solutions to remove the barriers staff face at work. But when you have a multilingual workforce, you can make a tangible difference with one key change: Offering training in different languages.

Having the option to study in a native language can help staff feel valued and respected. It can also boost their confidence and create a sense of belonging to a team that values their differences. Not only will this improve the well-being of your existing workforce, it’ll boost your reputation as an inclusive employer too.

If you think you have to drastically increase your budget to translate courses, think again. You can integrate your OpenAI account with Gomo in a few clicks and let AI automatically translate individual assets or full courses for you. Machine learning may not be perfect yet, but in many cases, it’s nearly spot-on and can save hours and hours of labor and an equivalent in budget.

Elearning in local languages brings international employees together

It can be hard for international businesses to ensure they act responsibly across borders—but it couldn't be more important. The S in ESG is all about uplifting communities, wherever they happen to be located.

Making sure local people can thrive in international offices should be a crucial part of your strategy. Offering training in different languages can be the first step. Depending on the region your business is located in, native language compliance or safety training may even be required by law.

Translation is easy with Gomo, but it goes beyond that. Because it's a cloud-based authoring tool, it’s great for fostering collaboration across borders. You can access Gomo via any browser and can create, view, or share course content with anyone in your organization regardless of their geographic location. This means you can work with a translator or a learning designer in your international locations, in real time, without a messy back and forth across different versions.

Clear communication is a matter of disability rights

More than one in four adults in the U.S. has a disability, and the number of disabled people in the workforce keeps going up. You naturally want to make eLearning as accessible as possible for all your employees, regardless of language, so you can create fair, equitable labor practices.

However, a shocking amount of digital content still doesn’t meet basic accessibility standards. In a 2024 evaluation of 1,000,000 websites, WebAIM found 56,791,260 distinct accessibility errors—an average of 56.8 mistakes per page.

Accessible content design requires a specialist skillset, and it’s easy to misstep if you’re not familiar with the do's and don'ts or working in a language that isn't your first. This is why we recommend trusting a vetted eLearning authoring tool.

Gomo adheres to WCAG criteria. Consistency, color contrast, text spacing, and alternative text are all easy to control. Even better: When accessibility guidelines or regulations change, you can too—and fast. By updating a theme (styling template) that applies to multiple courses, you can quickly update branding colors and fonts. Then, update text and translations with just a few clicks, avoiding the need to manually go through each course version to make changes.