Local firms surmount Spanish-language barrier

by Michele Skalicky

SBJ Contributing Writer

sbj@sbj.net

Spanish-speaking workers are filling a need in the local job market. They work in a variety of businesses, occupying a number of different positions, and business owners are working to ensure the needs of their Spanish-speaking employees are met.

Rick Hill, safety and personnel director at Prestressed Casting Co., is busy making sure the company's 13 Spanish-speaking employees have access to vital information. He recently began using Word Magic translation software.

"It took my employee handbook, which is 47 pages long, and translated it in a minute and a half, and it doesn't have a mistake in it," Hill said.

His goal is to have every personnel file and the company's safety manual available in both Spanish and English by June 1.

The company is buying all its signage, warning signs for example, in both Spanish and English, though Hill said they can be difficult to find.

Prestressed Casting already has one of its bilingual employees work alongside the safety trainer in training classes to make sure those who speak Spanish understand what is being taught.

"The person we use for the training class has been here several years, so he knows the job," Hill said. "We do a Power Point presentation utilizing a lot of pictures as well as hands-on tools, so it can be done and conveyed."

Spanish-speaking workers make up about 10 percent of Prestressed Casting's work force, Hill said. The company's total number of workers varies, but averages about 100 employees.

Hill plans to learn Spanish soon, and he said the company will make sure at least one of its foremen speaks Spanish as well.

According to Hill, Prestressed Casting has placed at least one bilingual employee on each work crew that contains Spanish-speaking employees so that there is a person who can translate.

Learning the language

Prestressed Casting Co. is not alone in addressing the issues that come with hiring employees who speak little, if any, English.

Flo Williams, work-force development specialist with the Missouri Career Center, said quite a few Spanish-speaking people go to the center looking for work. Williams, who lived in Argentina as a teenager, is bilingual. Another Missouri Career Center employee, Luz Melendez, is from Puerto Rico and also assists those who have not yet learned English.

One of the first things Williams does when a person who speaks only Spanish goes to her for help is to get them into "English as a Second Language" classes at Ozarks Technical Community College, which emphasizes work-related vocabulary.

"I always tell them, if you live in this area, you need to learn English," she said.

Most people who come to her looking for work seem to understand "it's difficult to find work here if they don't speak English," Williams said.

Most have already started "English as a Second Language" classes before they come in.

There are resources in the community to help Spanish-speaking workers. Latin America Care provides care for children of Hispanic workers and Grupo LatinoAmericano offers Hispanic language and culture classes.

Yolanda Lorge, president of Grupo LatinoAmericano, says bilingual employees are becoming more and more common in Springfield even at smaller businesses like restaurants.

"Many times their owners, because their work force is so much Spanish-speaking, they learn Spanish," Lorge said.

Cultural differences

Employers also are taking advantage of her group's courses in Hispanic culture. Business owners learn "how to work better with those who come directly from Spanish-speaking countries, how to understand their attitudes, behaviors and so forth," Lorge said.

One cultural issue employers face is understanding how important family is in the lives of Spanish-speaking workers. "Employers may wonder why they go to Mexico so often," Lorge said. "Anything that's happening to somebody else is happening to them. If it's happening to my daughter, my brother, my cousin it's happening to me. That relationship is more of a unit," Lorge said.

On the other hand, she noted Americans tend not to ask to take time off of work unless they themselves are involved in a situation.

Employers also must understand how important religion is in the lives of Hispanic employees.

"Catholicism in Spanish-speaking regions, particularly in Mexico, is not only a religion, it's a culture," she said.

Hispanic workers make a big sacrifice to work on days like the Friday of Holy week or on Dec. 12, which is the day of the Festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Lorge said.

Growing trend

Patti Penny, president and CEO of Penmac Personnel Services, predicts a growing need for more and more workers from other countries to fill job slots as the number of young people in the United States willing to do hard labor dwindles.

"Here, I'm not sure people as a society get it because we've always had a plentiful labor supply, but it is dwindling," she said. That's due to people, particularly young people, who don't want to work. "It's not in their game plan; it's a nationwide problem," she said.

Penmac has bilingual employees who help Spanish-speaking workers. They not only hire them, but they go with them to the job site.

The need is greater in the summer, Penny said, due to the large number of Spanish-speaking people taking advantage of seasonal agricultural work.

Penny is currently meeting with two area churches to help meet the needs of Spanish-speaking people who go to Penmac looking for work. The company is going to take an area of its work-force center on Patton Street and make it a Hispanic recruitment office.

"We'll have a bilingual person interviewing and helping them and working with these churches, if they agree," Penny said.

The churches would help in the recruitment process by referring people to Penmac for jobs.

Currently, Penmac has an agreement with the Next-To-New Shop, a used clothing store, to offer clothing at half-price to those seeking work from the personnel service.

Penmac picks up the other half of the cost, and also offers rides to work to those who need it, Penny said. Those seeking work through Penmac may take "English As a Second Language" classes offered at First Baptist Church.

Penny said Penmac may start putting ads out in Spanish. Employers as a whole are quick to hire Hispanic workers, she said, because they love to work.

"They're very eager to work. They love overtime."