Before the pandemic, there were well over 24 million Hispanic workers in the United States. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, these workers come from extremely diverse backgrounds. They also choose to immigrate for a variety of reasons. This reality is far from the generalized conception of a homogenous Hispanic population and workforce that is held by many in our society today.
In fact, approximately half of Hispanic workers in the United States are immigrants, two-thirds are U.S. citizens, and roughly 17% live in families that are considered Limited English Proficient (LEP). Not to mention, this workforce of Latin American immigrants will continue to grow rapidly in the future. It is also important to note that they can work in any number of industries. Therefore, employers need to understand the importance of translating their employee guides into Spanish.
The Benefits of Translating Your Employee Guides into Spanish
There are many good reasons to want to professionally translate your employee guides into Spanish. These can include anything from new employee manuals, health insurance information, company policy announcements, internal forms (e.g., “time-off” forms) and much more. Translating your new employee handbook, for example, will ensure that all of your employees start off on the same page and have the same important information from the get-go. Just a few of the other ways translating your employee guides into Spanish will benefit your company and your employees include:
- Clearly explain your company’s policies, procedures, and regulations;
- Lay out your company’s expectations for the employees;
- Describe the benefits (e.g., health insurance, retirement plans, vacation days, etc.) to which all employees are entitled;
- Protect your company from legal liability;
- Create a more dedicated and loyal workforce by showing that you respect and value all of your employees, not just those who speak English.
Moreover, it is important to think of providing professional Spanish translations of your human resources materials just as you would provide reasonable accommodations for other employees. As far as the right time to translate your content, a good rule of thumb is that when at least 10 percent of your employees speak another language, you should make your employee guides and other vital documentation available in that language.
One last thing to consider is that your Spanish-speaking employees may very well speak some English. As a result, you may assume that they are able to read your employee guides in English with no problem. However, being able to speak functional English is often not enough to understand complex information, such as health insurance requirements, complicated policies and job requirements, etc. So, to ensure that everyone understands everything clearly, it is always better to go ahead and translate it for them.
What Do You Need to Know for Translating Your Employee Guides?
As with many widely-spoken languages, there are many varieties of spoken Spanish. Therefore, once decide to translate your employee guides into Spanish, you need to determine which type of Spanish is most appropriate for your workforce. If your Spanish-speaking workforce comes from Latin America, you will need to translate into “Latin American Spanish.” If your workforce comes from Spain, you should translate your materials into “Castilian Spanish.”
It is true that there are many different “dialects” of Spanish within the above two groups. For example, the Spanish spoken in Colombia varies from Spanish spoken in Argentina or Mexico. Generally speaking, however, these dialect differences are present primarily in the spoken language. The written, formal language is much more standardized.
With that said, you should also instruct your translation partner to translate at approximately a 4th to 5th grade reading level, to ensure that everyone is able to understand, regardless of whether they have received a more advanced education or not. Also, if your employee guides include a lot of acronyms, technical or industry-specific jargon, it is helpful to point out those instances and provide a brief explanation to your translation partner to help ensure that everything is translated accurately.
Finally, you should make sure to contract with a translation partner that uses Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT)/Translation Memory (TM) technology and can apply it to your translations. By doing so, this will not only help to make the translations more consistent and efficient but will also save your company significantly on costs when you need to make updates to your employee guides.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while the COVID-19 pandemic and harsher immigration policies of the previous administration have had a serious impact on the job market for immigrants, we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. As COVID cases continue to drop and more people are becoming vaccinated, the economic stagnation will quickly reverse itself. In fact, the U.S. economy is expected to grow nearly 7% (in terms of GDP) in 2021, and unemployment is expected to drop to 4%.
Moreover, there is no question that the United States is still, by far, the preferred destination for immigrants from Latin America seeking better opportunities and futures for their families. With the expected post-pandemic increase in immigration and a booming job market, it will be more important than ever to ensure that your employees, new and old, have all the information they need to be successful in their jobs, feel like a valued member of the team, and help your company to grow. This is especially true now that you understand the importance of translating your employee guides into Spanish. The benefits far outweigh the costs!
If you would like to learn more about how Translation Source’s Spanish translation services, please email us at info@translation-source.com or call us toll-free at (800) 413-7838 to speak with one of our expert localization project managers.
