With a growing number of companies operating across ten, fifteen, or even more than twenty countries with different native tongues, the majority of the world's business conversations now take place in English between non-native English speakers.

On a scale of one to ten that rates employee Business English competency from beginner to advanced skills, the 2012 average BEI score of 108,000 test takers worldwide is 4.15, a drop from 4.46 last year. This low score confirms that current Business English skills are not adequate to meet the performance demands of today's global economy.

Both struggling economic powers (like Japan, Italy, and Mexico) and fast-growth emerging markets (such as Brazil, Columbia, and Chile) scored below 4.0 in Business English proficiency, placing them at a disadvantage when competing in a global marketplace.

In a March 2012 report, analyst firm Bersin & Associates found that organizations with a high level of -œEnterprise Fluency-, those which tackle Business English on a strategic, enterprise-wide level, are much more likely to succeed across a broad spectrum of business outcomes than companies with a fragmented and reactive business communications approach.

Only the Philippines attained a score above 7.0, a BEI level within range of a high proficiency that indicates an ability to take an active role in business discussions and perform relatively complex tasks. This is particularly interesting because the Philippines, a country with one-tenth of the population of India, recently overtook India as a hub for call centers.

Joining the Philippines in the top five were Norway (6.54), Estonia (6.45), Serbia (6.38) and Slovenia (6.19).

Surprisingly, the BEI score for global workers in the U.S. declined from 6.9 to 5.09 since the original 2011 BEI benchmark, which is attributed to a majority of test takers being foreign-born engineers and scientists. According to a 2012 U.S. Department of Commerce Report, one in five global workers employed in the U.S. across the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields is foreign born.