What is the future of the Welsh language in the workplace?

The Commissioner took part in the Wales HR Network Conference on 7 February 2023. A session was held which focused on the importance of considering the Welsh language when recruiting and presented good practices based on its advice document on recruitment to help organisations ensure that their arrangements recruitment enables them to have a workforce with the necessary Welsh skills.   

Looking towards the future, we need a lot more people with Welsh language skills in the workplace. In its latest Assurance Report, The Welsh language as a way of working, the Commissioner stated that it wants to see a revolution to create a Welsh language workforce. The standards of the Welsh language and the duties that arise from them create an increasing demand for Welsh language services and in order to enable organisations to fully succeed in doing so, it is essential that they increase their capacity to operate in the Welsh language. Only by doing that can we see a Wales where people can use the Welsh language in their everyday lives and reach the Welsh Government's goal of seeing one million Welsh speakers by 2050.  

The big question is how can that be achieved? There is more than one way to increase the capacity of organisations in terms of the Welsh language skills of their workforce but the fastest and most reliable way to do that is by recruiting new staff who have the necessary Welsh skills. We want to see organisations taking advantage of every opportunity to ensure that the organisation has staff who can speak and use the Welsh language in their day-to-day work. The changes that have come as a result of the pandemic offer a number of new opportunities that did not exist in the world before, for example, more flexibility in terms of the location of the job giving access to a wider range of Welsh skills than before. But with that of course, comes its own challenges as the job pool for those with the skills expands. 

Therefore, the Commissioner's vision for the future is to see more people with Welsh language skills in the workplace. Seeing progress is important for the prosperity of the Welsh language more generally. Ultimately, the policies of organisations today and the way we operate now will create the workplace of tomorrow and therefore, if we want to see the Welsh language flourish in that workplace, it is vital that organisations look at their processes and put arrangements in place today to implement that.