Workforce Language Services

Katie Hunter offers commentary on Barack Obama’s suggestion that we start teaching our children Spanish in Juan Guillermo Tornoe’s Hispanic Trending blog.  No matter how loudly people protest the phenomenon of “press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish,” the fact is that Spanish-speakers are here to stay and their buying power is increasing. 

What does having 15 million Spanish speakers who don’t speak English “well” mean for us?

So here’s the translation: Those needs increase the demand for doctors, teachers, lawyers, writers, radio hosts, construction foremen, salesmen and many other types of blue and white collar U.S. workers who can speak Spanish. This need has already begun impacting hiring practices. Bilingual job fairs and Web sites are increasingly popular, and nearly half of corporate managers are starting to target Spanish-speaking job candidates. More schools have begun targeting Spanish-speakers too, even shelling out bigger bucks for bilingual teachers.

In the nonprofit sector, the ability to speak Spanish is often required and at least highly desired for many direct service positions.  I’ve also often seen a salary differential paid for those who are bilingual and trilingual. 

As we become more and more of a multilingual country, those who are willing to learn a new language are not only using their brains in new and beneficial ways, but are also increasing their ability to command a higher salary.

Research tells us that a company which keeps cultural competence at the forefront has lower turnover, a higher level of buy-in, and a reflection of diversity throughout all levels of management.  Steven L. Robbins offers seven signs that the contrary is operating in an organization.  His signs of workplace bias address both the informal (off-color comments that are tolerated) to the structural (reliance on one way of doing things rather than diversifying tactics).

Why does this matter?  Well, not only is cultivating cultural competence and respect for diversity good practice as a human being, it’s also good for the bottom line:

A recent survey by the Level Playing Field Institute reveals that, when compared with white men, other workers, including people of color and gays and lesbians, are up to three times more likely to leave a company because of unfairness alone. What’s more, unfair or biased treatment costs U.S. employers some $64 billion a year in lost productivity and profits.

To read the entire article, click here.

Combine a highly trained population of recent immigrants with a shortage of health professionals in Rhode Island.  Seems like a perfect match for filling the need for health care professionals while allowing immigrants to work in their field, doesn’t it?  However, there are two barriers which prohibit this from happening: the difficulty of transfering foreign-earned credentials and licenses and the fact that many of these professionals only speak limited English. 

The Rhode Island Welcome Back Center run out of Dorcas Place in Providence provides programming to facilitate this transition.  Not only does the center work with the clients on their language skills and provide support for licensing exams, they also connect immigrant professionals with U.S. doctors to teach them about the culture of medical care in the States:

Escudero, a native of Rio de Janeiro who immigrated to give a better chance to himself and to his two children, already took two of the three extensive exams to obtain a license to practice medicine.
      ”I have been observing an American doctor in Middletown for four months and he is helping me to improve the communication with the patient,” he said. “Here they have a lot of details and it’s not easy. The culture is different from the South American culture. I know the Brazilian reality very well. In Brazil, they don’t have the equipment to make the right diagnostics. It was very frustrating. Here… we can’t waste time.”

To read more details on the program, click here.

An interesting statistic from the National Health Law Program’s survey of 260 members of the National Association of Community Health Centers:

“Eighty-one percent of general internists treat LEP patients frequently — 54% at least once a day or a few times a week,” Hitov said.

The article in which this statistic was quoted also provides insight into the multiple issues that arise when attempting to provide quality medical services to a population that speaks a wide range of languages.  The following excerpt highlights the issues, how some health care facilities are responding to these issues, and a plan for moving forward:

Referrals to specialists who do not offer interpreters was cited as a major problem by Stevens. Another is family members who wish to serve as interpreters but also interfere with the clinical process and insert their own views.

The Fairfax center found similar solutions to those used in in the district. All health care professionals are bilingual, and there are language service lines in all exam and interview rooms, Stevens said.

To guide the way toward a world in which there are more health centers like the two featured in the briefing, the AMA and other organizations developed in 2001 a set of principles for providing health care access to people with limited English proficiency.

They include offering language assistance at no cost at all points of contact and in a timely manner; providing both verbal and written notice of the right to receive language services in a patient’s preferred language; and assurances that the language assistance is competent.

In addition to Spanish-language radio and television spots, Chase is also rolling out new services to make banking easier and more accessible to Hispanics.  These include a Spanish-language website, documents in Spanish at local branches, and more bilingual tellers. 

As Rebecca Vargas, head of multicultural segments at Chase, says:

“It’s not just a matter of talking to Hispanics in a culturally relevant way, which these ads achieve. But it’s a matter of having the bilingual employees in the branches, the products they need and being in the places in where they live.”

The article also briefly mentions that the needs of Spanish-speaking customers differs from those of the general population, and Chase hopes to provide more fiscal guidance and assistance in attaining financial goals to Latinos.  This is part of Chase’s long term strategy to serve more Hispanic customers in their own language.

Though details on 2008 ad spending weren’t disclosed, Vargas noted that Chase has committed to better serving the Hispanic market and expects to come back in 2009 with additional marketing programs.

“We’ve always spent a significant amount of money for Hispanic marketing, but this year we are changing the media mix a bit, maybe spending a little more on radio without forgetting TV,” Vargas said. “We’re also doing more grassroots activities, festivals and looking at things that we can do to serve Hispanics in their language of choice.”

This terribly sad story needs no preface:

Before Teresa Sanchez and her brother Omar Aquino were shot and killed in their Mountain View home, Sanchez is believed to have made a desperate call for help.

Investigators believe she called 911 from her cell phone, whispering to the CHP dispatcher someone was breaking into her home, but before the dispatcher could confirm the address, the call ended.

“From what they could tell, she said she lived on a street that sounds like Clemon Street. We don’t have a Clemon Street or anything that remotely sounds like that here in Mountain View. So at that point we spent time repeatedly, the dispatchers and officers trying to call back the number in hopes of getting her back on the line,” said Liz Wylie with the Mountain View Police Department.

Dispatchers tried to pinpoint exactly where the call was made from, but unfortunately they received word that shots were being fired before they could ascertain where she called from.  Even more unfortunately, the victim disconnected before the number appeared on the dispatcher’s GPS unit. 

While this tragedy strengthens the reasons for having multilingual services for 911 calls, I still wonder if, in this case, there would have been time to access a Spanish-speaking person to get the correct address.

Cultural competency.  Diverse workforce.  Practicing inclusiveness.  All buzzwords sounding throughout various industries.  But how to make sure that your organization, company, or industry is really putting these words into practice?

An article in Nurse.com opens with a definition of culturally competent health care from the Office of Minority Health:

culturally competent health care [is defined as] services that are respectful of and responsive to the health beliefs and practices and cultural and linguistic needs of diverse patient populations.

The article also includes a comprehensive set of questions from University of Delaware scholar Larry Purnell which will help health care practicitioners and managers assess whether their institution’s practices reflect the definition of culturally competent health care.

While industry specific, the questions can also assist other industries in orienting themselves toward putting cultural competence into practice.

To read the entire set of questions, click here.

Some companies strive for a diverse workforce because they think it’s the right thing to do.  Other companies grudgingly do so because of Equal Employment Opprotunity mandates.  Still others find that having a diverse workforce all through the ranks is a smart business decision. 

A recent piece in Business Week makes the case for the third reason for crafting a diverse workforce.  Companies want to sell their products or services, right?  Authors G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Luis Viton urge companies to create a workforce that mirrors their target audience to sell more and continue to create innovative products and services.

They offer a three part argument for sustaining a competitive advantage:

1. Understanding. If your workforce mirrors the diverse demographics and cultural aspects of your customers, you are bound to have a better understanding of your audience. (Providing you encourage all those unique voices to contribute. If all you are doing is counting heads—”let’s see we employ 53% women, 11% blacks, 16% Hispanics…yep, we’re covered; now let’s have the same old people at the top make all the decisions as they always have in the same old ways”—you have not gained a thing.)

2. Credibility. If your workforce looks like the people you are trying to reach, you increase the odds of closing the sale. Let’s use a simple example to make the point. From whom would 22-year-old guys want to buy their $85 athletic shoes? A 63-year-old grandmother or a 22-year-old guy?

3. Connectedness. And if your workforce is the same as the people you are trying to reach, you are bound to be closer to them at all times, which give you a leg up on the competition.

Of course, simply mining diverse talent for ideas isn’t enough, and that’s where cultural competency training comes in.  A company won’t be able to sustain this competetive advantage if it doesn’t take into account the need to integrate diverse employees into the overall business structure.  A company won’t be successful if it doesn’t stress inclusiveness and understanding into its policies and management practices.

Cultural competency training will enable your business to not only sustain sales to diverse populations, but will also allow you to keep the employees you seek to include, thus bolstering sales and increasing employee buy-in.

The higher rate of workplace deaths for Latinos than for all other racial and ethnic categories has been well-documented.  But South Carolina has the highest rate of workplace deaths in the nation, 23 workers out of 100,000.  Compare this to Oklahoma’s death rate, which is second highest with 10 Latinos out of 100,000 losing their lives on the job.

The disparity is attributed to the newness and explosive growth of the Spanish-speaking immigrant population:

Hispanic workers’ growing presence in the workplace has likely led to a communications and training disconnect, making workplace conditions more treacherous than in other states, Lacy said.

“There’s a lot we have to learn when we move somewhere new,” she said. “Imagine moving to a different country and having to learn (different workplace rules), with everything in a different language.”

States with a longer history of immigration likely have a better, safer workplace system in place, Lacy said. In California, for example, Hispanic workers who work alongside more experienced Spanish-speaking workers might find it easier to learn how to operate a piece of machinery or the safest way to climb a ladder, Lacy said.

Also, Hispanic workers who are migrating to South Carolina are coming mainly from southeastern Mexico, a part of the country where, traditionally, fewer residents have crossed the U.S. border for work, Lacy said. Since the concept of immigration is newer there, that might also lead to a disconnect.

“If you’re coming from an area of Mexico that doesn’t have a long history of immigration, you’re not going to have a lot of information about working or living in the U.S.,” Lacy said.

To read more about this unfortunate phenomenon and steps taken to remedy the situation, click here.

More hospitals are offering Spanish classes alongside traditional classes teaching clinical skills in major New York hospitals for their resident physicians.  The move toward providing doctors with training in Spanish is both practical (it can be difficult to find interpreters during certain shifts and patients prefer to speak directly with a doctor that speaks their native language) and cultural. 

One of the Spanish instructors at Yeshiva University’s medical school stressed the importance of cultural sensitivity in patient care as well as the need to beware of using slang terms with patients:

Still, according to Ms. Marzan, of Einstein, stressing cultural sensitivity is also key. For example, some immigrants take herbal supplements to treat their ailments. Patients might also describe symptoms in a way that doctors are not accustomed to. For example, describing pain as being felt everywhere might mean the patient feels a lot of pain, and pain that is described as moving from the stomach to the chest to the face may be a reference to nausea.

Slang should also be taken into account. During the language lesson at NewYork-Presbyterian, students were taking turns naming parts of the human form when one doctor mistakenly used a casual word for buttocks. Laughing, Mr. Shane corrected him. “‘Culo’ is basically ‘ass,’” he said. “You would never say that to a patient.”

To read the full article, click here.