Workforce Language Services

John Voket of RISMedia synthesized the five main points that surfaced during a panel discussion of emerging ethnic markets at RISMedia’s 18th Annual Leadership Conference.  As the buying power of Asians and Hispanics increases, the panel participants provided stats and reasons showing clearly that savvy real estate companies will cultiate new relationships with these emerging markets.  The five points not only illuminated the demographics shifts that are already in motion, but also provided starting points for thinking about clients in a new way, such as in point number 3:

3. Clients for Life

As Ling alluded, both Asian and Hispanic real estate customers seldom resign from established business relationships, especially when it involves real estate. So establishing clients from these demographics often means establishing a key referral source for life.

“They need to know you speak their language,” she said.

Through his research, Thompson learned early on that ethnic clients wanted simple things like in-language documentation.

“At the closing they do not want a translator there because they want to be able to go back to the documentation a year or two down the road without a translator, he said. Armed with ideas on how to attract and retain Hispanic clients, Thompson participated in a Peachtree Latino Festival in Atlanta, and in just a few hours, got 1,199 leads including many for mortgages.

An article from Health Plan Week, a trade journal for those in the health insurance field, catalogues the various health insurance providers that have translated their enrollment materials on the Internet into Spanish.  Several insurers have also begun outreach campaigns in Spanish to target Latinos and Kaiser Permanente provides all applications in Spanish and has interpreters able to translate via phone.  My initial reaction was: is this really ground-breaking news?  I had taken for granted that health information was available in several languages, at least in New England. 

In my opinion, what really deserves deeper attention is what comes after  Spanish speakers have health coverage and need to use it.  Is there culturally competent, bilingual staff at the clinics and hospitals?  Do hospitals have trained medical interpreters or do they allow children to interpret for their parents?  Do clinics have on-call interpreters who are sensitive to language nuances and cultural differences or do nurses grab a harried receptionist who resents doing double-duty as a de facto interpreter? 

In an older blog post, Sarah Colombo gives a wonderful first-person account of being a nurse and needing to respond in a culturally appropriate way to her non-English speaking patients:

For several years now, nursing has been working to make “Cultural Competency” an integral part of nursing education. We recognize, no matter what our personal beliefs may be, that we need to work and live in the world as it is, not as we would wish it; but that we can both learn what we need to while working to make the world a place that seems better, or more fair, to us as individuals. We don’t agree on the big solutions or reasons for this time when diversity is, as it has in other times, increasing.

English-only proponents firmly believe that providing assistance and services in immigrants’ native language slows their assimilation to life in the U.S. and sends the message that people can live here without learning English.  But anyone who has attempted to learn another language knows that it is a process that takes time and tremendous effort.  An article in an Arizona newspaper shows that various industries are encouraging employees to learn basic Spanish so that they can better communicate with Spanish-speaking clients.  This is laudable for two reasons: first, it gives English speakers a sense of just how difficult it is to learn a new language; secondly, it fills a gap as newcomers move toward fluency in English while facilitating communication.

“Let’s face it: there are obvious demographic changes happening,” said Bonnie Wheeler-Nelson, a retired real estate broker in Surprise who owns rental properties and sits on the board of a homeowners association. “It’s wise to know what’s going on.”

Wheeler-Nelson and a dozen other Arizonans participated in a recent one-day “survival Spanish” session geared to apartment managers and others in real estate.

The students who attended the beginning-Spanish class said an improved grasp of the language would help them do their jobs better.