Connecting People,
Connecting Cultures

Is Your Organization Multiculturally Friendly?

How to establish if your organization is ready for a change!

1. Do you know the communication contact points* in your organization?

*Communication contact points: Are the events that the Spanish speaker encounters with the organization all along, from the beginning to the end of their relationship as employee or client.

No
Yes

2. Do you know if your Latino employees/clients feel that they can communicate effectively with you?


No

Yes

3. Do you have a plan to address all the communication needs with your Latino employees/clients?


No

Yes

4. Do you feel that your message "is NOT getting lost in the translation"?


No

Yes

5. Do you feel that you have control over the communication with Latinos?


No

Yes

6. Are you sure that the organization is not promoting illegal issues due to the lack of effective communication?


No

Yes

7. Are you sure that your Latino employees/clients understand clearly the expectations and the rules of the organization?


No

Yes

8. Do you feel that you understand the behaviors that some of your Latino employees/clients display?


No

Yes

9. Are the employees in your organization fully trained, and do they feel confident in handling multicultural issues?


No

Yes

10. Can you say with confidence that the communication contact points with your Latino employees/clients responds to their needs and the needs of the organization


No

Yes



Scoring: How many questions did you answer No?

0 to 1: Your organization is respectful of and responsive to the cultural and linguistic needs of its employees/clients. Congratulations!


2 to 3: Your organization functions fairly well, but you could do better if you paid more attention to the details.


4 to 6: Your organization needs to evaluate its cultural and linguistic competences to be able to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.


7 to 10: You need to do something to turn it around! Your organization needs a set of congruent policies, behaviors and attitudes coming together into a system to function effectively within the context of the cultural beliefs, behaviors and needs presented by employees, clients and their communities.

Molano Multicultural Communications
4 Touchstone Dr. Suite 81 Lake Oswego, OR 97035
Phone: 503.888.0657 Fax: 503.675.6421
http://www.molanomc.com

How to address rapid changes in the demographics of the work place

Do you have employees and clients that can’t communicate in English effectively?

As everybody knows, in recent years many changes (are happening) have occurred in the demographics of the Pacific Northwest, and there will be more dramatic challenges in the near future.

Industries like manufacturing, hospitality, farming, fast food, landscaping, construction, and health care providers will need to hire more foreigners to work for them.

Some of the reasons for this phenomenon are that the baby boomers are retiring and there is a shortage of “American” workers to fill the jobs. Also there is a need to have a more diverse work force. The only solution that is available for organizations is to hire foreigners, especially Latinos. Some of the challenges that Human Resources Managers are facing are how to attract, train and retain Latino workers. Also organizations face the challenge of communicating effectively across both language and cultural barriers.

What to do? There are three aspects that need to be addressed:

1. Gather information. Do your own census. Learn where your employees come from, know their level of education. Can they read and write? Is Spanish their native language? Can they really understand English? How many years have they been in the U.S.A.? This information is basic in planning different techniques and tools to communicate effectively with them.

2. Educate yourself and your organization. Do not assume that all Latinos are the same. With the information obtained after doing your census, do some research about their countries, particular culture and their main characteristics. You have to be aware of topics like gender, education, country of origin, ethnic background and social class.

3. Assess the communication contact points within your organization. Do you know if the communication contact points in your organization are effective? A communication contact point is a specific situation in which a person interacts with the organization. Those include the entry into the workplace, the training and communication of company policies, procedures, counseling, the signing of important documents, and the exit interview.

Organizations need to be prepared to embrace change if they want to achieve greater clarity, harmony, and unity, and if they want to increase employee performance, engagement, satisfaction and retention.