A Timely
Issue: Communicating with Immigrant Workers
by
Leonard Toenjes
Q: I have
started hiring field personnel whose primary language is Spanish, Serbian or Polish
because they are hard workers. However, sometimes confusion arises because English
is not their primary language. What can I do to improve communication with these
workers?
A: In light of the recent and ongoing discussion related to
immigrant workers, this is certainly a critical issue for more and more construction
companies.
Employers are faced with important ethical and philosophical
decisions when first starting to deal with this issue.
Do you want to require
your non-English speaking employees to learn English? Do you want to allow them
to continue to utilize their native language and subsequently require your jobsite
foreman and supervisory personnel to be bi-lingual?
This is a critical
first step that your leadership team must all agree to before moving forward in
any training direction. Employers must include these new workers in a non-discriminatory
way, but also address employment and safety issues.
It also cannot be assumed
that the non-English speaking worker can read in their native language. Distributing
printed materials in their native tongue may not be effective.
A Plethora of Tools This issue can be addressed from either of these two directions.
If you are requiring all employees to communicate totally in English, there are
several training options available for English as a Second Language (ESL).
In
most cities and states, a variety of governmental assistance programs are available
to help non-English speaking workers acclimate into your workforce.
A call
to your local workforce investment board (WIB), funded through the federal government,
should give you information related to availability of local ESL training providers.
Use
the Website www.nawb.org/asp/wibdir.asp
to access a listing of all workforce investment boards in the United States.
Another
source is www.eslusa.org, which is specifically
designed to provide information related to ESL classes.
Online ESL training
can be found at www.rong-chang.com.
Another
online resource for general ESL information is http://esl.about.com.
If
you choose to allow your workers to continue to use their native languages, the
approach taken by most companies is to identity one or two English speaking foremen
or superintendents to make them skilled in the workers language.
Bi-lingual
foremen on the jobsite can help get crews started each day and be available to
answer questions that arise on the project with a minimal amount of lag time.
Finding
and/or training bi-lingual jobsite supervision is the key to making this strategy
work. Some construction associations provide basic language training for foremen
to get them started in this direction.
Basic construction commands and
materials are described in other languages and often pocket manuals are provided
to help jobsite personnel have a handy reference for learning the language of
the field crews.
Either way you go, be sure to monitor the situation on
a regular basis for safety and productivity reasons. Ask you key field staff about
communications regularly to insure the issue is being dealt with effectively and
not being ignored. ¿Que pasa?
Do you want to require your non-English
speaking employees to learn English?
Do
you have questions on construction human resources or safety? E-mail them to Leonard
Toenjes at ltoenjes@agcstl.org or craig_barner@mcgraw-hill.com.
If Len picks your question, he will answer it in a future issue of Midwest
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