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An article in Diversity Executive finds that the majority of corporate directors are against increasing minroity representation on corporate boards.  This is is sharp contrast to the general push to train historically underrepresented demographics and capitalize on their strengths and differing perspectives. 

It is up to companies to take a proactive stance in creating a diverse workforce, he explained.

“If you haven’t hired enough diversity at the more junior levels 20 or 30 years ago, you won’t have the people who have matured and had the business experience to be on par with the rest of the board members today,” Dysart said.

“You do diverse populations a disservice if you make huge compromises and put people in the room when they’re not ready because then the other directors have a negative opinion about a diversity candidate.”

It’s certainly true that companies should be responsible for cultivating the expertise of a diverse population, but whether a candidate is ready to serve on a board is quite subjective.  It’s also interesting that these directors see this issue in such a black and white way, especially as law firms stress the importance of peer mentoring to support minority lawyers.  Why are corporations not willing to mentor board candidates with potential even though they’ve not had decades of experience in upper managment?  By doing this as well as encouraging ongoing professional development, companies would truly be taking a proactive stance in creating a diverse workforce at all levels.

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.

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 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.

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.

An article from the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University gives a comprehensive overview of how to create a culture of inclusion and respect for diversity in the workplace.  The article makes the point that implementation of diversity policies must permeate the entire organization from the top to the bottom and from recruitment to retirement.  There are also several examples of successful measures in various companies, such as tolerance statements:

A younger generation will continue infusing the workplace with a more accepting attitude toward diversity, but in the meantime not all employees will leave their prejudices at the door. Knowing that, companies such as TXU and Merrill Lynch have created tolerance statements. Such statements prohibit favoritism or hostility based on age, gender, race, sexual orientation, or disability. More importantly, they outline specific consequences for violating that tolerance policy.

The article also uses the Cox Business School as a case study in successfully preparing youth to compete in the ever-widening global marketplace.

To read the complete article, click here.

A recent Providence Journal article highlighted the lessons learned from a survey conducted by Adecco (a temporary staffing agency) about the practical applications of diversity policies.  The survey asked workers how they felt about atempts to recruit and retain a diverse workforce, and those surveyed overwhelmingly stated that the success of various policies fell short of the intended goals.

The article quotes Adecco’s VP of employee relations and diversity as to why this happens:

…Many corporate chief executives believe in the benefits of a diverse work force, but efforts to implement their ideas get bogged down in middle management.

Cooper said it’s important for chief executives to make sure that everyone in the company is on board with their diversity plans. “I have to say I was not surprised [at the survey],” she said. “There are some organizations that are still having problems.”

She said lingering prejudice, worries about cost and inertia can all contribute to keeping companies from achieving diversity goals.

The article concludes with Adecco’s suggestions for better integrating diversity policies into companies.

Some New York schools are expanding their course offerings to give students a competitive edge in an increasingly multinational and technologically advanced world.  These include: Arabic, Mandarin, and nanotechnology. 

In line with the thinking that the earlier the better, the Albany City School District is starting a dual-language immersion class for four-year olds this fall:

There will be nine children whose native language is Spanish and nine whose native language is English in the new dual language pre-K at the Delaware Community School. It had been offered for K through grade 5 students since 1996.

“The parents have been asking for this for years,” said Spanish teacher Melanie Pores, who helped develop the program. The new pre-K teacher will be Ana Banda-Wemple, who had been a bilingual teacher in Peru.

“We’re piloting this approach for pre-K,” said Pores. The students will alternate languages for half of each day. The little tykes will attend a full day of instruction, from 8:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“Our schools are becoming more multi-cultural and bilingual at a fast pace,” Pores said. “Our English speakers and Spanish speakers learn from each other, working in the same classroom.”

To read the entire article, click here.

The movie industry is one industry that truly knows no borders, as Hollywood films are broadcast to audiences all over the world.  But there are both cultural and linguistic considerations when translating movie titles, and they don’t always get them right. 

Some of the translations may seem funny when translated back to English and others may be overly specific, even possibly giving away the ending.  But as movies cross international borders, marketers are placing more importance on how those titles are translated.

Sometimes, titles must be changed to avoid offending the public. Capote became Truman Capote in France because capote is slang for a condom, said Bettina Vogt, president of Cine-Lingua, a Montreal-based company that does translation for the movie business.

But more often, Vogt said, studios are trying to make sure that titles roll off the tongue, no matter what the tongue.

Hence, The Dark Knight is known as Il Cavaliere Oscuro in Italy - an exact translation. But in Mexico, it’s Caballero de la Noche, or Knight of the Night.

“Caballero Oscuro sounds too evil in Spanish,” said moviegoer Viviana Hernández as she waited for her film to start at Mexico City’s Altavista Mall. “People would think it was a horror movie.”

To read the entire article, which includes numerous examples of movie title translations, click here.