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Language barrier. Alejandro Maldonado Jeffery McMahon. Overview . Organization introduction. Issue: Communication in different languages. Purposed Solution: Bilingual employee always on sight, language classes.
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Language barrier Alejandro Maldonado Jeffery McMahon
Overview • Organization introduction. • Issue: Communication in different languages. • Purposed Solution: Bilingual employee always on sight, language classes. • Recommendation: Follow our purposed strategy to hire employees, invest in your employees, retain clients, and increase profits.
Digital Wireless • Local-family business in El Paso, TX. • Established in 2004 • Offer a variety of services including : • New lines of service • Payments • Repairs
How may I help you? / En quépuedoayudarle? • Living in a border city, we have a huge concentration of Hispanic clients. • Not everyone is bilingual, and this tends to be an issue for businesses in El Paso. • Many times a person who only speaks one language will encounter another person at a business who only speaks a different language. If there is no way for them to communicate, then potential business and profits can be lost.
Concerns • If an employee and client are unable to communicate, how is business suppose to occur? • If business does not occur, no transaction/sale is made. • If sales aren’t made then revenues will not rise. • Lack of sales will cause businesses to shut down.
Language Statistics • According to the Census (2007-2011), 81.4% of people in El Paso are of Hispanic/Latino origin. • And, 74.1% of people speak a language other than English at home. • Majority of the 74.1% are speaking Spanish to communicate.
Purposed solution – Step 1 • To fix this issue that threatens potential revenues we conducted a solution. (Goal 1) • We need to begin in the hiring process. – We know that it is difficult to hire pure bilingual employees. It is hard to find people who are fluent in both languages. • Goal 1, is to hire enough bilingual people to have one available at every shift. • If we have someone who can communicate in both languages fluently, at all times, then potential sales can be made.
Purposed solution – Step 2 • As a business in El Paso, having your full employment force bilingual is ideal. • After reaching our first goal of having a bilingual person at every shift, our ultimate goal is to have our full employment force fluent in both languages. • We can do this two ways: • 1. Continue to hire only bilingual employees until we reach our ultimate goal. • 2. Provide language classes to the employees who only speak one language.
Cost • The cost to hire and train an associate varies. Time, patience, and money all go in to creating an employee for Digital Wireless. • The cost of language classes can be costly as well. • Rosetta Stone. – One time purchase that can be passed on from employee to employee. Or, weekly classes can be held by the company and they use the program to teach the language. • English version - $500/ program • Spanish version - $500/ program • Language classes at a community college. • EPCC - $200 - $400/ person
Language Classes • We recommend that the company purchases Rosessta Stone in both languages (English & Spanish). It would be more effective if employees used them to their advantage to learn the language that they lack. • Management could set up a workshop and have multiple employees benefit from the program. • This can be a lengthy process. Learning a language is not effortless. • Investing in your employee education to learn a new language can benefit the company significantly.
Language Barrier • Invest in your employees, and see your revenues prosper…
Work cited • Maldonado, Alejandro. Interview by Jeffery McMahon.Digital Wireless 28 Jun 2013. Jun . Print. • U.S. Census, . N.p.. Web. 2 Jul 2013. <http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48/48141.html>.