Workforce Language Services

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.