Workforce Language Services

As workplaces become more lingustically diverse, companies are trying to negotiate the balance between making sure all employees can communicate enough to do their jobs and respecting the fact that many employees represent linguistic minorities.  A recent Boston Globe article explores this balancing act, and uses the Tufts Medical Center’s English language learning program as an example.

Nora Moynihan Blake, who directs the housekeeping staff at the Medical Center, found that her staff often couldn’t communicate amongst themselves (within the staff, there are thirty separate languages spoken) nor with patients and visitors.  This has led to misunderstandings, and the staff’s lack of English language competency has stalled their upward mobility.  Blake was the catalyst for onsite English and GED classes.

The Tufts program is unusual. While 80 percent of companies employ workers whose deficiencies in English limit their ability to perform their jobs, only about a third provide remedial language training, and then mostly if a worker asks for help, according to a 2007 Conference Board survey of 70 senior corporate directors of training. “For a lot of companies, it’s a reactive rather than a proactive approach,” says researcher Chris Woock.

The article also raises the question of whether it’s insensitive for those with native languages other than English to communicate in them in front of English speakers at work.  To read more commentary on this question, click here.