Workforce Language Services

The health care industry has recognized that practitioners are not giving their patients the most culturally competent care they could.  Industry leaders have created a fellowship to strategize about structuring a model of culturally competent care:

In 2005, the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET), the Institute for Diversity in Health Management, and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership launched the first-ever Cultural Competence Leadership Fellowship (CCLF), an innovative, yearlong program. Since then, 55 leaders have been armed with essential tools to better strategize cultural competence and activities to reduce disparities. Key elements in the fellowship include:

• an evaluation of the organization and community;
• frameworks for eliminating racial/ethnic disparities;
• experiential lessons in diversity practice and workforce development;
• essential tools to advance and sustain cultural competence; and
• transforming culture through effective communication and training.

In its first year, the fellowship focused on data collection and needs assessments, which were then translated into action plans for implementation. 

To read further about this fellowship, please click here.

An article in the Washington Business Journal details the growth of the translation and interpretation industry due to both to globalization and the increasing number of non-English speakers in the U.S. 

According to the American Translators Association, in the past 10 years, the $11 billion translating and interpreting industry has experienced tremendous growth, increasing at a rate of 10 percent to 15 percent annually.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts this growth will continue. Translation and interpretation is expected to increase at a rate of 24 percent over the period of 2006 to 2016, a rate of growth significantly higher than the average for other occupations.

The article also mentions that, while the industry is growing rapidly, the U.S. is behind Europe in programs to train and certify translators and interpreters. 

To read the article, click here.

The Financial Post reported on a study done by researchers at the University of Calgary about the process of acculturation into a new country.  The article quotes some very interesting data gleaned from the research and ends with two take home points: a diverse workforce supports immigrants’ integration into the new culture and the more interaction immigrants have with other cultures, the more successfully they will integrate into their new country.

The study attempts to answer some of the questions raised at the beginning of the article, such as:

It is well known what management practices are effective in different parts of the world. But how about managing immigrants? What is the optimal approach to an employee who, for example, grew up in China and immigrated to Canada 10 years ago? Should it be assumed that the person still has Chinese cultural values, or should it be expected that the person has been Canadianized? How long does it take for an immigrant employee to acculturate? What are the factors that can speed up or slow down the acculturation pace?

The study’s findings will enable Human Resources professionals to craft management policies that can begin to address the needs of employees, especially in companies which employ a high number of recent immigrants.

The Berkeley Initiative for Leadership on Diversity (BILD) has funded five separate projects designed to increase cultural competency among UC Berkeley staff and students. 

From the article:

For its second year, the BILD steering committee received 16 applications. Eight groups were invited to submit more detailed applications for final consideration. Three of the five 2008-09 BILD projects are new, and two others will build and expand efforts begun last year. Although each of the projects will try to foster diversity and inclusiveness in different ways, each leadership team shares the chancellor’s commitment to making Berkeley a more welcoming place for all.

While each project aims to foster diversity in a thoughtful and interactive manner, the Interactive Theater Project most directly addresses issues of inclusion in the workplace.  Another project, Learning to Lead, addresses communication and teamwork in a multicultural environment.  What is most attractive about each of these projects is that they not only engage participants in a meaningful way, but that they also fulfill requirements for state-mandated trainings.

To read the entire article, click here.

A fascinating article in AZ Central’s online newspaper describes the history of movie dubbing and voice overs and how Mexico City is no longer the nexus for this field.  Mexican Spanish has long been lauded as being the most “generic” with regard to accent and speaking conventions.  This, along with Mexico’s rich movie and TV history, had once made it the capital of the dubbing industry.

But now the world’s second-biggest metropolis is losing this distinction. More and more, studios are sending work to other countries, drawn by lower costs and a new generation of Venezuelan, Colombian and Argentine actors who have mastered the generic Spanish accent.

From 1999 to 2004, profits from Mexico’s dubbing industry fell 73 percent, from $11.2 million to $3 million, according to government figures. Although Mexico is still the location of choice for film translations, TV work is going elsewhere, said Magdalena Questa, managing director of Grabaciones y Doblajes, S.A.

The article also highlights some of the challenges to dubbing films, how Mexico has lost a good deal of dubbing and voice-over business, and the countries which have been picking up this work in recent decades.

To read the entire article, click here.

An article in Chicago’s ABC7 website provides some stats about the racial makeup of Fortune 500’s management.  The article also shares the experiences of two minority run companies, one an accounting firm and another an investment bank.  Founders of both companies expressed that they’ve had to continually prove themselves as competent because most of their employees are minorities.

The article quotes Maria Prado:

Staffed primarily by women, Prado and Renteria does audits and financial strategizing for Fortune 500 firms. Still, Prado often has to start her appeal to potential clients by allaying fears.

“The first time that you come in with a new client, I do feel we have to make the case that we know what we are doing. Once we are in the door, I feel the client sees it for themselves,” Prado said.

To read the full article, click here.

An Albany Business Review article offers some sound advice about why it’s dangerous to ignore diversity and inclusion even in this unstable economy:

Competing with diversity programs in corporate America, however, are bottom-line concerns. Steven L. Robbins, a Michigan-based consultant who has done diversity training for Toyota, McDonald’s and NASA, said he has seen companies scaling back on these types of programs. But that’s a mistake, he said, as diversity can pay.

People like Robbins point out that diverse companies better understand diverse clients, have improved productivity and are less likely to be sued. More important, Robbins said, is the link between diversity and creative thinking—something that’s key in a nation with a knowledge-based economy.

“In general,” he said, “the more perspective you have, the better you can solve complex problems.”

The article also cites a University of Illinois at Chicago professor’s study showing the connection between diversity and profits, something that flailing companies would do well to consider:

Herring studied 250 companies and looked at how well they performed. The more diverse companies, he found, were more profitable, had larger market share and had more customers.

To read the entire article, click here.

After the infamous Postville raids, the Iowa meatpacking company has attempted to keep production up by hiring the most marginalized populations: ex-offenders, Somali refugees, homeless people, and workers from Palau.  But since the raids, the company has been unable to reach previous staffing levels.

The company has filed for bankruptcy and reopened with a skeleton crew but haven’t come close to pre-raid production levels.  To continue production, Agriprocessors may have to (*gasp*) start paying its workers a living wage.

A Chicago Tribune article details the history of low wages in the meatpacking industry:

“There was a time when meatpacking plant jobs paid well, when there was no difficulty at all in obtaining native born workers ” said Stull, the Kansas professor. “Beginning in the 1960s, that changed. The wages were driven down and plants were moved to states where being a union member wasn’t required.”

When adjusted for inflation, meatpacking wages have plummeted since the 1960s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Slaughterhouse jobs paid an average of $2.60 an hour in 1960, which when adjusted for inflation would be about $19 in current dollars.

Slaughterhouses paid an average of $11.81 an hour in 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The decline in wages has been especially steep since around 1980, when the $8.49 average hourly wage would now be worth $22.31 when adjusted for inflation.

As the economy worsens and the anti-immigrant folks continue protesting any comprehensive plan for immigration reform, it seems hard choices are emerging.  Will companies that have been raided raise wages to provide jobs for native born workers?  And if so, how will the nativists react to higher food prices?

To read the entire article from the Chicago Tribune, click here.

Filtration Group, a Santa Rosa company, treated its non-English speaking employees to a two-fold language learning program.  The classroom instruction not only focused on workplace English, but also on education literacy to help employees in guiding their children through their schooling.

The three-part program was coordinated by the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, Santa Rosa City Schools and the California Parenting Institute.

Instructor Marjam Karapetien teaches the course through Lewis Adult School and Community-Based English Tutoring, a state program that provides free or subsidized English programs to those who will assist schoolchildren.

Other companies have hosted literacy events and given away books, but Filtration Group was the first local company to put all three elements together.

“We thought, ‘Why don’t we pitch in and help the parents help their children graduate,” said Estela Prado, the company’s human resources administrator.

But the company had an eye for the business benefits too, she said.

The Santa Rosa, CA Press Democrat has the full article.

When the economy started going south, many thought that diversity initiatives and cultural competency trainings would go out the window as companies started to focus on the bottom line.  Yet Nixon Peabody LLP has found that having a diverse company does affect the bottom line:

“It has increased our ability to get business—there’s no question in my mind about that,” said Elizabeth Moore, a partner in the office. “Our clients ask about our diversity, and the students we recruit ask about our diversity.”

Added John Higgins, counsel at the firm: “There’s definitely a positive business case to be made for diversity, not just that this is the right thing to do.”

Nixon Peabody has won local and national awards for its diverse workplace. The company has a committee that develops unique plans for recruiting and retaining members of specific “affinity groups,” ranging from Asian-Americans to members of the gay and bisexual communities.

The Albany Buisness Review article also points out that businesses that may be struggling through this economy and putting diversity discussions on hold for now would be doing themselves a disservice by not building diversity initiatives in their long range strategic plans.