Even though the business day is evolving to accommodate technological advances, the backbone for a successful company is a well-trained and engaged workforce. We are also seeing more diversity in our workforce, many of which are located in entirely different countries. These diverse employees bring many tangible and intangible benefits to companies but present new compliance challenges.
Companies today struggle to keep up with constantly changing laws, emerging social concerns, and training. Many businesses find it challenging to hire the best people for the job because they are worried that they won’t be able to provide the proper training or comply with regulations.
Employees from different backgrounds can benefit from multilingual compliance training that helps them be equal in the onboarding and hiring process.
Multilingual training solutions are more effective for workplace safety, OSHA, HIPAA, and health. This allows you to hire more qualified employees from more diverse backgrounds. These are some tips I’ve learned to help companies diversify their workforces and training systems.
In general, you should aim to ensure that all training and compliance materials are available in all major languages your employees use. This basic rule may not be as easy as it seems. These steps will help you create a multilingual training strategy that is more effective.
1. Correctly identify the languages spoken.
First, determine the languages that your materials need to be translated into. While you want your materials to be translated into the official languages in each country, you should also ensure that you have the necessary lessons and training in the languages your employees are familiar with.
Do not make assumptions about ethnicity or region. Many times, employees speak a dialect other than the one you expect. Let’s say you have several Thai-speaking employees. There is a possibility that your staff will not tell the Thai language, Isan, and may have issue in understanding what you are trying to communicate.
You can make your employees more comfortable with the languages they are familiar with, so you can encourage interaction and learning. This will increase your employee’s ability to comprehend and retain information quickly.
2. Establish a system to conduct and follow up training.
Find out if any instructors can help with your training in different languages, or if an interpreting service is available. The training will determine what should be translated and how. It would help if you had a plan before you start creating materials. Companies often translate their materials into three different media before finalizing their approach.
3. With the audience in mind, translate materials
Sometimes, a word-for-word translation can fail to convey the intended meaning or nuances. Translators must often go through a process called “transcreation” to create the intended meaning of statements. Many metaphors and cultural phrases are used that do not make sense in another language or culture. Transcreation is translating the original purpose into a new language, considering cultural and linguistic factors. Translators may need to create new sentences to convey the intended meaning. This skill is complex and must be used when developing training materials.
It is vital to get to know your employees and their cultural backgrounds before you can have your translator create messages that speak directly to them. Clearness and simplicity are essential, but the material should be as close to your employees’ real-world experiences.
Make sure to eliminate any Western cultural phrases and idioms. This will speed up future translations and allow you to rely less upon the skills of different translators.
4. Edit, review, test, and track.
Although most companies are concerned with editing and reviewing their training materials, few think to test them before they are finalized. This is the second tip to having a plan. You should have a strategy you have tried and proven to work. You should pay attention to the software you use to support your training efforts. Also, consider how other cultures might adapt to it.
Although it is difficult, you need to have a system to keep up with relevant laws and ensure that materials such as employee guides and standard operating procedures are constantly updated in all required languages. By proving that the training was in the right wording.
Track your effectiveness. There are a million data points available to us these days. These initiatives can help you measure the quality of your training over time. This is especially important if you’re trying out different methods.
These tips will help you hire quickly, train, and work with people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
