How Are Translation Services Playing a Role in the UK’s Economic Recovery?

published Nov 08, 2021
2 min read

Like many countries, the UK is seeing post-Covid growth. Add in the complexities of living in a post-Brexit environment, and it’s important that businesses make best use of the recovery period. Below, we’ll look at the UK post-Covid recovery and consider how translation services are helping with that growth as businesses seek to rebound.

The UK, Post-Covid Recovery and Post-Brexit

Make no mistake, the UK’s rebound post-Covid has been choppy and will likely continue to go through peaks and valleys as the situation develops. The UK economy grew by 4.8% between April and June 2021.

However, the country still isn’t out of the woods, with growth dipping in July (largely attributed to staff absences due to the Delta variant). It bounced back gain in August, though, with GDP growing by 0.4% in August.

The UK’s departure from the EU has added complications of its own. 2021 is the first year when the UK is no longer subject to many of the EU’s rules. As new ways of conducting trade and operating across borders begin to come into operation, it’s more important than ever that businesses keep growing and adapting in order to keep their future outlook strong.

Ofer Tirosh, CEO of translation services company Tomedes, is used to supporting businesses with languages to navigate changing economic environments. He observes:

“Businesses have an unprecedented opportunity before them, to build into a post-Covid, post-Brexit future that allows for innovation and ambition to flourish. How they tackle that now is likely to pay dividends over the coming years.”

Below we’ll review several ways translation services can help businesses navigate the current challenges and boost their economic prospects.

Finding New Customers

There’s an old saying in business that if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. Finding new customers during periods of economic recovery certainly makes sense because periods of growth usually mean consumers are more likely to spend.

Translation can help you tap into previously unutilized markets. For instance, you might expand your services or products into local markets that predominantly speak another language. Or, as new post-Brexit regulations hit, you may find that expanding overseas makes sense.

Translation helps you sell to customers who speak other languages by offering the following services:

  • Ad content translation: One of the most obvious uses of translation is changing the content of your ads so that they resonate with, and can be read by, people from other cultures, be the ads video or print. Make sure your ads are localized as well as translated. Localization handles formatting in more detail and the cultural sensitivity of your messages.
  • Social media translation: It’s a must for many brands to have a social media presence. A translation service can make sure messages are appropriate for the new culture, for the site you’re posting on and for your brand.
  • Business translation: If you find yourself expanding overseas, you might have employees in other locations who speak other languages. Business translation can handle everything from memos to financial reports to instructions.
  • Legal translation: If you’re setting up shop in other parts of the world, you may need contracts or other legal documents translated.
  • Technical translation: You might also need technical translation for items like safety data sheets, drug information sheets, technical instructions or user manuals in other languages.

Sourcing Materials Overseas

With supply chains being more global than ever, you might need to use translation as you try to find certain materials overseas. For instance, manufacturing companies might need raw materials from other parts of the world, or pharmaceutical companies might need certain chemicals from overseas. There are countless other such examples.

Translation can help with paperwork in other languages that forms part of the process of getting materials from other countries. Professional translator can translate everything from shipping documents to fulfilment paperwork to contracts.

Outsourcing

Might it make sense to outsource part of your business overseas? It’s common to outsource manufacturing overseas to locations where production costs and labour are less expensive. In these cases, you might use a translation service to handle communications between domestic offices and overseas manufacturing centres. You might also need emails, reports and other documents translated.

It’s particularly common for companies to outsource their customer service operations overseas. This is for many of the same reasons that companies outsource manufacturing, chief among them the lower labour and facilities costs. In these situations, workers must often be fluent in the language they are providing customer services in. However, certain documents might be in other languages. For example, you might need certified translation to handle leasing contracts, or you might need to translate employment contracts, instruction manuals or training materials.

Translation services can play a part in all levels of business operations. Make the most of the UK’s economic recovery by keeping communication smooth across all borders and cultures.