Does Learning Essential Spanish Make Sense for Manufacturing?

By Guest Blogger Sharlene Vichness
Wish you had paid more attention in Spanish class in high school or college? Because now you manage workers who speak mostly in Spanish. Your job is to keep them safe and productive and you’re not sure they understand important instructions and safety procedures. And even if you were an A+ Spanish student, vocabulary for safety, human resource issues, and other direct communications with Spanish speaking workers are not included in standard Spanish courses… even for those who major in Spanish in college!

Common Situations in Manufacturing

Consider these situations. Have you been there?

1.  You’ve just given instructions in simple English. You ask if everyone understands and everyone nods. But do they really understand?
2. You need to set work and production schedules and run into the language barrier.
3. You need to establish specific rules and guidelines and you sense you are not being well understood. When violations or accidents happen caused by poor understanding, it is costly in lost time, increases in workers compensation, litigation, remediation, and factors that affect the bottom line.
4. You know you need to ask things during a medical emergency situation. It takes too long to find a worker to interpret AND can cause violations to HIPAA regulations to use a third party.
5. You want to debrief a worker about something that happened on the floor. Involving a co-worker to “translate” will not produce the true facts you need

Importance of Learning

It’s not too late to learn the essential Spanish you need for your workplace. In a small learning group of managers/supervisors, you will learn to:

• Communicate directly, easily, and effectively with your Spanish speaking employees
• Better understand cultural differences to maximize productivity and build better working relationships.
• Highlight issues that are common to all supervisory situations by participating with managers from other companies or departments.
• Reference customized content and vocabulary, which includes the specific words or phrases essential to your needs. Simple, enjoyable, and SHORT- as few as 4 sessions.

Essential Spanish for Managers Workshop Series

NJMEP is hosting a four-part course designed to provide a short-term solution to communication challenges faced by supervisors and plant managers who work with employees whose first language is Spanish. It is meant to teach a non-Spanish speaker quickly and logically to communicate essential information to a worker with limited English proficiency. The content and format are geared to fulfill the prime objective of Being Understood

The focus is on basic and simple Spanish for direct communication of required information in a simple manner. This is NOT your high school or college language class. Every minute is spent learning the Spanish that is relevant to your workplace.

Each 4 Hour Session is an Interactive Experience and Learning Presentation.

Note: Participants can sign up to attend the following workshops individually or they can sign up for the entire series and receive a discount.

May 4th, 2016 (Part 1): A Trabajar! (Let’s Get to Work) – Getting Along: Building Rapport with Employees Who Speak Spanish.

May 18th, 2016 (Part 2): Recursos Humanos (HR) Basics /¿Preguntas? – Increasing Your Ability to Directly Interact and Gather Information.

June 1st, 2016 (Part 3): Peligro! Safety – Staying Safe.

June 15th, 2016 (Part 4):  Lo Bueno, Lo Malo, y Lo Feo (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) – Positive Behavior for Positive Outcomes!

All sessions are held from 1:00PM – 5:00 PM at NJMEP, 2 Ridgedale Avenue, Suite 305, Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927.

Cost: The series is $500. Individual sessions are available at $150 per session.

For more information or to register call Kathleen Baldwin, 973-998-9801, kbaldwin@njmep.org. In your initial correspondence, please indicate whether you are signing up for the entire series or individual workshops

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