Want a proven morale booster at your company? Have your supervisors learn to thank their workers for a job well done in the workers’ native language. Not just a simple “thank you,” but a few phrases addressing the specific task and how it was done.
How about giving your managers the communication tools to explain procedures and safety rules and to know they are being understood? What better way to improve safety and to retain happy, productive workers? Everyone benefits. But, who has time to implement these changes?
Let’s face it, most employers are burdened with a time crunch, to say the least. Too busy to send their supervisors or employees out to lengthy and expensive language courses off-site. On the other hand, most managers and supervisors are aware of a communication gap they can’t afford to ignore.
According to the National Immigration Law Center, “new immigrants… accounted for 50.3 percent of the growth in the civilian labor force between 1990 and 2001. Assuming that today’s levels of immigration remain constant, immigrants will account for half of the working-age population growth between 2006 and 2015 and for all of the growth between 2016 and 2035”!
This influx is no longer limited to the coasts. In Minnesota, where I live and work, teaching workplace specific language skills to managers and employees, the majority of my contracts involve Spanish-speaking employees. But immigrants by the thousands are settling in Minnesota from India, Pakistan, Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Asia, Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, Eurasia, Africa, Guyana, Latin America, the Caribbean, South America and Mexico. I’ve learned that the growth of immigrant workers is now affecting all fifty of our United States and will have a great impact on future economic conditions for everyone.
Each population arrives not just speaking different languages, but with an amazing diversity of cultural history and practices, all of which influence how these workers will approach their new jobs. Of course this often results in confusion and miscommunication. Fortunately, however, there are solutions addressing the communication gaps involving the growing number of workers with limited-English proficiency (LEP) skills.
In fact, I believe you can take what might be perceived as a huge problem and transform it into a valuable resource. That resource is group of workers who will stay at their jobs and can potentially work their way up in the organization as their skills and language proficiency increase.
When I first started teaching Spanish to English-speaking corporate supervisors, I used the methods provided to me, traditional language instruction emphasizing grammar and writing skills. It became clear to me that these programs weren’t cost-effective or efficient. They didn’t do much to help either the workers or managers to solve the problems that arose in their workplaces without a long-term commitment that most people didn’t have resources or time to invest.
To deal with workplace language problems, I realized that the answers were not traditional English as Second Language (ESL) courses or grammar-based language courses. What was needed were programs that addressed the needs of the specific workplace, whether teaching managers the language and cultures of their workers or in teaching LEP workers English language skills and American expectations in the workplace.
I found that teaching managers basic phrases in “Survival Spanish” (or other languages) that were specific to their needs not only helped to get the jobs done, but resulted in workers who felt more respected and motivated. For the LEP workers, learning job-specific English only not allowed them to improve their productivity, but gave them the hope for future advancement. In all cases, relationships improved and there was less stress in the workplace.
I also found the need to develop a series of industry-specific bilingual training tools. With input from industry experts our company began to create pocket-sized survival language booklets containing the phrase or request in the language along with the phonetics for easy pronunciation.
My advice, then, as a professional language trainer is this:
First, take stock of your needs.
o What language barriers exist at your company? What cultural groups are you dealing with?
o What are your job-specific communication goals? What are your specific problem areas?
If you are looking to improve communications with your LEP workers, seek instruction that addresses the needs of your workplace. There are a growing number of organizations and companies that specialize in tailoring language and cultural instruction to the specific needs of the work environment. Look for resources that can construct an industry-specific program and, more importantly, the needs of your company.
With the appropriate choice of training program, managers can learn enough language and cultural diversity tips in a one-day seminar to get them started in bridging the communication gaps at their club. Depending on your needs, programs can involve a day, a few days or a few weeks. Remember this: you don’t have to spend months and years of time and expense to communicate better with your Spanish (or other LEP) workers.
In the meantime, I can offer a brief summary of effective communication tips for improving relations with your LEP workers, which you can bring immediately to the workplace:
o Take the time to understand your workers’ cultural and social backgrounds and the lives they lead
o Showing that you have an interest in their lives and want to know more about their cultures can go a long way in fostering motivation and loyalty
o It’s amazing what showing appreciation for a job well done in a worker’s own language can do
o Take the time to learn a few phrases that tell your employees that you’ve noticed and value their good work
o Avoid the following assumptions:
o Interpreting a lack of English proficiency as a lack of intelligence
o Believing an inability to express thoughts clearly means LEP workers can’t understand you
o Ask yourself:
o Am I doing all I can to be understood? Find ways to SHOW workers what you want done
o Keep phrases and sentences as simple as possible. Don’t use broken English
o Think of at least one other way to rephrase what you want. Check to make sure you were understood
o Avoid asking yes/no questions or asking “Do you understand?” Instead, ask open-ended or “wh-” questions to check comprehension
o For example, instead of asking “Did you talk to your supervisor,” ask “Who did you talk to?”
o In place of “Do you work tomorrow,” ask “When are you off this week?”
o The point is to ask a question that calls for a specific response instead of a yes/no answer
o When your LEP workers are speaking to you:
o Invite them to speak slowly
o Give them time to communicate
Successful communication has always been the key to good management. Now, with an ever increasing need to connect with workers from other cultures, the need is even greater for both managers and employees to educate themselves in each others’ ways of acting and speaking. Still, the rewards are potentially great if the methods that both parties use to educate themselves are appropriate. Success doesn’t necessarily take a great deal of time, it takes the right training.
Source by Ed Rosheim