How do I adapt to manage employees that's first language isn't English?

[pepperrabit]

Hi guys,

I'm starting a new job soon, in which I will be higher management, upto now I've worked smaller jobs in 99% white English speaking area,

I'm now going to be working in a city and aware that a lot of the employees don't speak English as a first language and have been told the store has a language barrier problem.

Obviously, I want to lead with respect to everyone's cultural background.

Some things I've considered is finding out if there is a common denominator language and I can learn some of that as I believe if it was put to a vote English would not come out as the main language and so it would be a bit silly to expect people to learn English and not me learn the common language.

But obviously a new language isn't something to be learned over night, so need some things in place until that point.

I'd also considered finding some people who are bilingual and potentially training them up to be team leaders as I don't believe they should be on minimum wage and translating but I don't think I can give a discretionary pay rise but once I'm in the job I might be able to push that issue more.

And although a lot of our employees are multicultural our main customer base is English speaking, I'd like to also set up some customer based English. So that it protects the employee from rude customers and also ensures the customer experience that we are supposed to promote.

But if anyone has any advice on how to handle this properly or anyone whose first language isn't English, I don't want to appear patronising or rude trying to communicate with people. And protecting peoples dignity in the work place is a huge priority to me!

And apologies if anything I've said is closed minded, I'm trying to be well intentioned and hopefully improve the over moral of the store.

Thanks!

Ignore the people sniping at your written English OP, nobody’s writing is perfect when they are jotting down thoughts on an internet forum!

You sound very diligent and thoughtful.
Have you asked any of the senior people who recruited you if they have any observations on the language difficulties and whether any strategies have been tried before? You don’t want to come in and repeat mistakes made by your predecessors.

I’m interested in how the employees who don’t speak much English are able to do their jobs- does the “store” have staff who are never customer-facing?

Best of luck in your new job.

English should generally be the common language in the UK (unless perhaps Welsh or Gaelic in some locations) - encourage them to at least understand and be able to communicate in English. If you were in France I'd say French, Germany German, Italy Italian etc.

I've worked internationally many times, my current team is remote, with staff mainly from one place where there are multiple local languages, and we service a customer base that speaks 3+ more languages in turn (so have staff that speak those languages as well)

English is the language of the company, despite the head office being in a non-english-speaking country (although many do speak English at some level).

If they are having meetings without me, or talking amongst themselves or the odd bit and bob on Slack, obviously they'll speak their own language, but if we're having meetings with people who don't speak their language then we all speak English.

Also if I'm visiting the office and there's a group conversation - eg. if we go out to lunch, they will tend to speak English so that I can join in, because they are polite and kind.

In your case, in the UK, servicing English speaking customers, English should be the common language. In group meetings, English should be used.

Sorry! Yes, when I say 'in the UK' I do mean England (and Scotland really/NI really - unless you're in some very particular places) - if you're in Wales, and it's Welsh that's the language, then some Welsh would be useful for you - but if you're servicing English speaking customers, then the staff do need to have a decent level of English to cope with that.

One thing you can do is watch out for exclusion. If you have say one Spanish speaker among Polish and English speakers, they'll get left out and won't learn English fast because no one talks to them. Encourage both groups to switch to slow English and include them in the break room. You will have to say English please with a smile a million times a day but it's the only way

And here in lies the problem with England

@pepperrabit if you had moved to a foreign country to work, then yes, this concern would be valid. It would be expected for you to be able to communicate in that language.

However, you are in England, where English is the first language.

It blows my mind that anyone feels the onus is on them to adapt to people because they don't or won't speak the native language. How ridiculous.

It should be a requirement of employment that you speak good English. Not that the other employees learn theirs instead.

I say this because in my experience, those who don't know how to speak the language of the country they are in are usually repressed by relatives, predominantly women. If they can't speak English, they can't ask for help.

It's also a safety issue, if you have a workforce who don't speak English, and there is an incident or an accident, then what? How can they be guided to safety if it was necessary, or explain how an accident occured so the injured party can be helped or to ensure it doesn't happen again? What if machinery or some such is broken or dangerous?

If they can't be bothered to learn they shouldn't be employed. It's so rude when they deliberately chat amongst themes in their own language, I worked somewhere where the boss banned it entirely because they'd been slagging off another workmate who left because she had enough.

I don't think your selection criteria for team leaders is very fair

Having it as an element in team leader selection is fine - but not the only reason.

In my business, the people who speak the customers's languages (probably plus English and the local language) get paid a language premium for it, as it's a part of the job.

Mind you, we wouldn't employ non-English speakers in most roles (if a role is entirely local with no communication required with 3rd parties, then that level can be low), as they need to be able to communicate with the rest of the company, as well as our customers and suppliers.

The recent case where the young girl died because the server in Costa gave her dairy and didn't follow procedures is an important case as to why employees should speak and understand English.

During the court case the employee had to have a Bengali interpreter. She and Costa were responsible, a young girl died.

I have previously changed consultant because his English was so poor I couldn't understand. It's not acceptable. You want ti come and live and work here - then understand and speak the language (oh and accept our laws).

And how did they get the jobs??

Surely they completed an application and had (even an informal) interview?

Do the hiring staff just think 'fuck it - that'll do'?

Most people want to learn the language of the country they are living and working in as it will improve their job prospects and give them an additional skill. English is so widely spoken around the world that it is an incredibly useful language to learn. Google translate is useful if you get really stuck.

Of course, anyone working in any country should speak the country's language. It's on the employee to be fluent enough to do the job.
By all means, signpost to language courses, but that's all that should be required. The costs of interpretation should also be born by the person not speaking the local language.

DS worked in hospitality. He learnt a language fluently. He moved employers, and the others were from the country he had learnt the language of. The ladies were discussing him in their own language...as a potential conquest..he had fun replying in their language..😂

God knows what they think.

It's not good for anyone involved.

I think the employers now just want a workforce who is compliant. If that means language barriers then I doubt they care. And those who can't speak up due to language are silent.

Thanks for the further feedback, those thoughts were written after a few glasses of the good stuff so in the light of morning can see I haven't expressed myself exactly how I meant to, as based on the feedback I'd say quite a few people have gotten me wrong.

I looked up "othering" as I hadn't came across that before, I can see what I was saying could look like that but from a quick search it seemed like in a negative way but I did have good intentions on writing the post. Maybe that doesn't matter but feedback received!

Although, fair play calling out my own English, I'll take that on the chin, that's funny to me.

I don't start for another few months as I have training myself to do but not started yet. So focusing on that.

This feedback about the language barrier in the first place came from an anonymous survey the store does for employee feedback. From both team leaders and team members. Majority, teenagers and young people. As the team leaders are mainly English speakers, so they don't feel they can do their job and equally the team members don't feel they have been trained properly. So that stood out to me as one of the first issues to address.

I don't know what went on before I got there, the hiring process, etc,

I'll be honest the company has its questionable side outwith this but with the pay rise for me that came with it, in the current economy I wasn't in a position to knock it back. I'll go in and do what I always do and lead with integrity and learn.

I often use the internet whether it's here or Reddit for a sounding board so im hopefully not a bad manager, as I have suffered under bad management especially as someone that is ND and takes instruction literally.

So the trying too hard is not about this specific issue it's something I do as a whole so people don't hate their jobs.

I don't intend to go in there and act any differently than I normally do in a new role.

I'm not a perfect person (clearly) but I definitely have taken all feedback on.

Are you in the UK?

I’d start by downloading a communication board with images (lots of them online) with key language you might need. Also get a translation app.

You don't need to adapt.
Anyone working in the uk, especially in a customer facing roll should be able to speak English to a good enough standard that customers and colleagues can talk to them and be understood.
I thought this was one of the conditions of getting a work visa these days? If it isn't, it should be.
Same goes for any British people working in non English speaking countries. They should be able to speak and understand the language of the country that they live and work in

It think you're at risk of overanalysing your own behaviour if I'm honest. I'd go in there and see the situation with your own eyes and this might help ideas come to you. You might get there and find actually there's a major issue with eg. Shoplifting and that becomes a priority

Given the issues,you must ensure that all signs, training materials etc are available and conducted in their language - health and safety for example. And I'm afraid this is Britain, they do need to learn - for their own benefit, safety and of course the customers. What good is it me asking someone who barely speaks English for help or assistance.

You need promote employees learning English ... they live in England and need the language not just for work but all areas of their lives and it will enable them to communicate effectively at work too

If the organisation's working language is English and your customers are English, how did these people who don't speak English get hired? Didn't they have some sort of application process (presumably in English?) Why do your native English speaker team leaders feel they can't do their jobs?

I would see how bad these language issues actually are when you start the job. A staff survey indicating a "language barrier" might not really be a language issue at all (in that the people themselves might speak sufficient English to understand and be understood by their colleagues) but instead might indicate workplace cultural issues that need to be addressed. The people who are non-native English speakers might feel they are being treated differently as a result, for example. Or maybe people are using "a language barrier" to excuse performance issues that should be being more actively managed. Neither of these would be helped very much by you personally learning a whole new language - they have different solutions.

If (some of the) staff really do have an insufficient level of English to do the job appropriately, I'd see whether the organisation can provide language lessons for the relevant people - your staff need to have the right skills and training to do the job properly, and I think either they have these when they're hired or the organisation should be prepared to provide it, if they know they hire people who don't have the right skill level on starting.

Good luck - you sound caring and conscientious, so I'm sure you're going to do a great job with your new colleagues!

I think as a manager organising English classes or allowing people time to attend a class would be more useful.

Not everyone who has English as a second language isn't fluent. Would you even know Michel Roux Jr isn't a native English speaker?

Also is there a 'common language'? It might be that the only common language is English.

One thing you can do to make people feel at home is to acknowledge cultural holidays / events.

I used to work as a retail manager where the majority of the staff did not speak English as a first language. The difference was that I was there from the store opening and hired the team myself so was sure they had a good enough level of English to do the job and the motivation to learn and improve.

It's absolutely about making sure they have the vocabulary and the confidence to communicate in English. We did lots of role play and vocabulary training on the key words for the area to make sure they knew what to say in different scenarios.
I also asked HR for help with confidence building and team building exercises as a lot of the employees struggled with having the confidence to talk to customers and each other in English even though they had the language skills. They felt embarrassed or were scared of getting themselves in to situations where they wouldn't know what to say.

If the staff don't have the necessary English skills to do the job you need to be looking at getting them on a language course so they can improve. Learning their language and communicating with them in their langue is not doing them any professional favours. They need to be speaking and practicing as much English as possible to improve and get to the required level as soon as possible.

I never had to do it but if anyone had not had the necessary language skills to do the job to the required standard they would have been put on a performance improvement plan. It think the survey you mention has shown that English language skills are absolutely necessary for the job so in your position I would be making it clear from the start that people need to improve their English and anyone who doesn't make the required progress will come under scrutiny.

Is your first language English? Because your original lost is a little strange (sorry if I am barking up the wrong tree). If the employees have one particular language in common then translating key documents may be advisable, but I agree that communication should be in English, possibly paying attention to avoiding slang/idiom.

Get to know your fellow team mates first before assuming anything.

Then if appropriate ask them what they need.