Whether you have a linguistically diverse workforce or you’re doing business overseas, human resources translations are essential to the success and growth of your company.

Human resources documents are the foundation of a proficient and educated workforce. They affect many facets of your business, from employee retention and morale, to safety, the effectiveness of customer service, productivity and even your exposure to lawsuits.

Alternatively, failure to provide proper and thorough translations of your human resources documents can lead to misunderstandings about policies and violations of important procedures, resulting in accidents, high employee turnover, legal complications and ultimately a negative impact on your company’s bottom line.

With a rapidly growing global economy and vast opportunities to do business with a diverse array of cultures, it’s vital to have human resources that can affect your company’s ability to foster effective professional and interpersonal relationships.

A Growing Spanish Speaking Workforce

While Spanish is not the only language that human resources departments must contend with, it certainly accounts for the largest subset of non-English speaking employees in the United States. The US department of Labor states that around 59% of Latinos 16 and older are in the workforce.

As a consequence, to keep employees trained and informed, a vast number of companies in the US need Spanish Translations for their Human Resources documents and training material to support the large population of Latinos active within the workforce.

US Multilingual-Multinational Work Force

Population growth in the United States is fueled largely by immigration, with immigrants from different countries including: Mexico, China, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Central America and other regions.  This melting pot of cultures brings about a mix of nationalities, culture, and languages to account for in the workforce.

What does having a Multinational work force mean for businesses? Simply put, it emphasizes the importance of being prepared to support a multilingual workforce, with proper training and informative materials. That means making sure your human resources department is equipped with properly translated documents to achieve success.

Multinational Offices

Companies like Microsoft and Google have branches and offices in numerous countries worldwide.  Just like in all properly run companies, multinational companies have the responsibility to keep all their employees informed of company objectives, goals and progress. 

This is why it’s especially important for multinational companies to have reliable and timely translations of all company news contained in internal publications such as corporate newsletters, invitations and announcements.  Being able to convey to a global workforce important company news, helps strengthen corporate culture- which in turn enhances the performance of the company.

Why Translate HR documents?

If the threat of lawsuits or the promise of a more effective and productive workforce is not incentive enough, let’s explore some specific reasons to ensure that your human resources documents are fully translated.

Firstly, it creates a culturally inclusive work environment. If you’re doing business abroad or hiring a culturally diverse workforce, providing documents in your employees’ native languages sends a clear message of respect. This can play a tremendous role in loyalty and employee retention, which will ultimately impact your bottom line.

Secondly, it ensures that you have the proper staffing to service customers in multiple languages. If you intend to do business in culturally diverse markets you will need culturally diverse employees who understand the local markets you wish to target. Properly translated policies, procedures and handbooks are essential to ensuring the success of your global reach.

Finally, it will keep you in alignment with local laws in various countries regarding language and labor laws, which comes back full circle to employee morale, performance and far less likelihood of litigation.

You Will Never Lose With Quality HR Translations

While translating human resources documents can seem like a complex task, it is also a vital one, and with a professional on your side you can rest easily knowing that your needs are being met. Though it may be tempting to cut corners by using automated (and less expensive) services without proper revision or skipping translations entirely, the costs in lost productivity, lost customers and lost opportunities far outweigh any cost associated with proper translation.

If you find yourself hiring multilingual employees or are considering expanding your market or workforce, let us know how we can help. From translating employee handbooks and manuals to policies, benefits, training materials and more, our language professionals can provide your materials in Spanish, Chinese, French, Russian, Italian and more.

Stay tuned for our next blog, in which we look into the various types of Human Resources documents that require translation.