By Cathy Martin, owner of Multilingual Workforce
Comparing Two Supervisors: Language Barriers and Workplace Culture
Picture this: At ABC Manufacturing Company, a portion of their workforce speaks Spanish as their first language, and has limited ability to speak or understand English. In a tour of their facility, you come across two different supervisors who are handling the language barrier in two different ways. Which of these two supervisors do you think positively impacted their company’s workplace culture, and which do you think had a negative impact?
Supervisor A: Half of the employees this supervisor oversees only speak English, while the other half speak only Spanish. To keep things running efficiently, this supervisor split the group and has one production line for each language group. With this setup, the two groups of employees rarely interact with each other and can just talk to themselves in their own language. Supervisor A has limited Spanish-speaking abilities, so when he needs to communicate instructions to the Spanish-speaking employees, he asks a bilingual colleague to come and share the instructions with the employees. The employees who don’t speak English are hesitant to approach their supervisor, and rely on the bilingual employee to interpret what needs to be said.
Supervisor B: Supervisor B also oversees employees who speak English and others who speak Spanish. Instead of separating them into production lines that speak the same language, this supervisor decided to keep all employees mixed together. He took the time to teach everyone some hand signals to communicate some of the most important information on the line. Even though the employees speak different languages they interact with each other through their hand signals, and are learning basic words in each other’s language. The Spanish-speaking employees are improving their English and even the English-speaking employees are learning some Spanish words. There is a sense of camaraderie and fun, and employees seem at ease when working with others from a different culture.
Based on these descriptions, which team might have higher employee engagement and retention? Which supervisor is positively impacting ABC’s company culture? Which team is poised for employee growth and improvement?
How Over-Reliance on Translation Can Undermine Company Culture
When translation is the main tool in dealing with language barriers, supervisors, employees, and company culture can become dependent on it. Learning to communicate across a language barrier is a learned skill, and requires the ability to gather meaning from what someone is saying based on their body language, hand motions, and other nonverbal signals. As employees practice this, both native English speakers and non-native English speakers improve their communication skills, and become better at interacting and communicating with those from other language backgrounds. However, if translation through an app or a person is what is heavily relied upon for communication, native English speakers and non-native English speakers don’t have the opportunity to improve these communication skills.
Relying on and overusing translation limits the growth of a company. People who don’t speak English are not able to advance in the company because of the language barrier. Even if they bring valuable skills from their education, training, or past job experience in their home country, they can’t move into other roles or leadership positions because of the inability to communicate with higher-ups, who likely only speak English. If a company does not give its employees the chance to build their English skills, they will never be able to utilize the employee’s valuable skills.
Strategies to Foster Communication Across Language Barriers
There are many ways a company can help bridge the language barrier by providing opportunities for employees to build their language skills:
1. Train Supervisors: Teach supervisors the skills needed to communicate with someone who doesn’t speak the same language they do, without interpretation or translation. This is a skill set that can be learned and is incredibly valuable in the workforce. A bilingual supervisor can communicate with employees who speak a certain language, but if you can train your supervisor how to communicate more effectively in English, they’ll be confident in communicating with employees from many different language backgrounds.
2. Encourage English Language Growth: Offer English classes, help employees learn English, and train supervisors how to encourage English language growth from employees.
3. Teach English During New Hire Training: Incorporate English instruction into your new hire training. Teach new hires key words for the materials and tools they’ll be using on the job. This will set them up to continue building their language as they start working.
4. View English as the First Step in Career Pathways: Each employee should know what they’re working towards within a company, and what opportunities lie ahead of them. To accommodate employees who don’t speak English well, ensuring that learning English is the first step in their career pathway allows your company to support them in their growth and advancement.
If you’re looking to move beyond translation and bridge language barriers in ways that will improve your company culture, start with these actionable items. You can also join us at an upcoming presentation at the Lancaster Chamber on February 5th at 8:00 AM. We’ll be talking about some other ways to overcome the language barrier in the workplace, beyond translation and interpretation.
At Multilingual Workforce (previously Workplace Talent Solutions), we’re passionate about providing the training that allows supervisors, leaders, and employees to communicate across a language gap. Reach out to us at cathy@multiworkforce.com and we can help you explore what makes the most sense for your employees and your company.

Join the Lancaster Chamber at our Upcoming HR Roundtable: Breaking Barriers – Hiring & Supporting Non-English Speaking Employees, where Cathy will share the ins and outs of having a multilingual staff!
Register here now!
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