SIDEBARS
Simple Terms
Willie Avilla, a native of Guatemala and project manager at BOWA Builders in McLean, Va., says that when talking to foreign-born workers, native English speakers need to keep their audience in mind. “When you first start learning a language,” Avilla says, “you translate literally.” Idioms and figurative speech can be very confusing. Cross-cultural management experts offer these tips:
- Be patient and help the worker feel comfortable
- Use specific, concrete language; avoid idioms
- Speak slowly and enunciate clearly, pausing often
- Use visual aids
- Try to measure comprehension: Laughing, inappropriate nodding, and a lack of responsiveness are signs the worker doesn’t understand
A Word From Our Sponsors
Sponsoring an immigrant employee for permanent residency is a lengthy and often frustrating process. But then, so is finding and keeping any quality employee. Many remodelers have attempted the former in the hopes of accomplishing the latter. Richard Evons, president of the Evista Group, in Long Island, recently sponsored a Polish plaster specialist. “He’s taken on more responsibility and a higher paying position, and he’s become even more valuable to us,” Evons says. Tueta Norman, an immigration lawyer with the Portland, Ore., firm Norman Hecht stresses that the process can take as long as three years. “You have to make sure before even starting the process that you really want this person to work for you,” she says. Norman recommends starting a labor certification process after establishing a sound working relationship with the worker. The application is more likely to succeed, she says, if the employer can truly claim the worker has acquired several skills while at the company that an outside applicant is unlikely to offer. It’s also essential for the employer to remember that he must pay the position the prevailing wage and must demonstrate the ability to pay that wage with either a tax return or income statement. Most important, Norman says, the worker cannot work at the company during the labor certification process unless he has a work permit.
From Ukraine, With Love
If the United States is a nation of immigrants, a mosaic of diverse ethnic, regional, and lingual origins, then Elite Remodeling is truly an American company. Among president and company founder Alex Shektman’s seven-person staff are émigrés from El Salvador, Russia, and Shektman’s native Ukraine; only the company’s receptionist was born in the United States. “There are three different languages spoken at the company, but no one speaks more than two,” Shektman says. Conducting weekly staff meetings in English, he says, is an exercise in patience. Shektman doesn’t mind taking a little extra time to translate. Rather, he says, his own experience inspires him to make a concerted effort to support new immigrants. As a company owner, he has sponsored five employees for permanent residency. “I understand their problems. I know of many problems that Americans wouldn’t know about or feel are important.” Shektman says that, having worn the sales hat for years, achieving fluency in English provided him his own greatest challenge. He credits listening to talk radio mainstays Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura with helping him master the idioms and idiosyncrasies of the spoken language. “The language barrier was the biggest obstacle,” Shektman says. “But I overcame it. I had no choice.” Such determination, Shektman says, is vital to every immigrant struggling to gain a foothold here. “Some people will be stopped by nothing. They start at a low-wage job and work until they get where they want to be.” “It’s very human,” Shektman says. “Some people are fighters, some are not. Some people complain, “They don’t treat us well here,’ and some have gone back. But I can’t imagine doing that.”
Jobsite Safety: Lost in Translation
For Hispanic workers, a steadily growing presence in the construction industry has lead not only to greater opportunity but greater risk as well. By the end of the 1990s, Hispanics accounted for more than 15% of the construction work force, up from 9% at the start of the decade.
Over that same period, work related fatalities among Hispanic construction workers increased by 53%. In 2000, the fatality rate for Hispanics (the most recent available) was 39% higher than that of non-Hispanic workers.
A series of reports presented by the National Academies of Sciences called Safety is Seguridad makes several recommendations for effectively communicating safety information to Hispanic workers.
- Most essentially, any instructions or materials should be in Spanish. “Spanglish” words are also widely understood and may be best for some construction-specific terms.
- Use a multiformat approach, including both talks and printed materials.
- Graphics-heavy printed materials are more effective than those with lots of text.
- Use a Spanish speaking safety trainer. If you have to use a translator, avoid one who isn’t familiar with the material and could potentially misinterpret or omit key details.
- During safety training, maintain a comfortable atmosphere and generate discussion.