Enrolling Spanish Speakers in Benefits Plans Takes Straight Talk and Understanding

Good benefit plans and on-the-job training hold significant value for American employees. Many employees will even accept a position with a slightly lower salary because the benefit package is so attractive or because opportunities for company-sponsored education are so promising.

Why is it then that Spanish speakers, an enormous---and growing---segment of our work force, are not participating in most benefit plans and are not buying into the importance of on-the-job safety training? Safety training saves lives. Retirement plans and health insurance improve one’s quality of life dramatically. Why are these facts---so self-evident to us---not sinking in to our Spanish-speaking employees?

The language barrier is only part of the problem. Human resource managers can be energetic and conscientious about translating the plans or the training---and still get disappointing results. Few realize that their employees can have very strongly-held negative and erroneous beliefs about certain issues. In order to change employees’ thinking and persuade them that benefits and training are, in fact, in their best interest, these beliefs must be addressed and clarified. Some misconceptions include:

·About retirement plans: Money taken out of an employee’s paycheck goes directly into the pocket of the salesperson or plan representative.

·About safety: OSHA is really not interest in the safety of immigrant workers. Rather, laws and regulations exist to protect American citizens only.

·About health insurance: We can buy any medicine at the pharmacy, so why bother to pay for expensive insurance?

Needless to say, none of this could be further from the truth, but very few human resource managers directly address these points and communicate effectively about the many erroneous beliefs their Spanish speaking employees have about various workplace issues. This is unfortunate for many reasons. Plan providers are missing out on valuable business by failing to reach these potential participants. Business owners are not getting the maximum tax deduction or lowest possible group rates ---and they are being exposed to the risk of considerable losses resulting from serious on-the-job injuries or accidents. And finally, the employees themselves are losing opportunities for safer and more secure lives for themselves and their families

Fortunately, these problems can be solved. Forward-thinking human resource professionals are researching ways to increase buy-in to these topics among Spanish-speaking employees. Some strategies for conducting successful enrollment meetings and trainings are as follows:

·Hire a professional translator for written material. Trying to cut costs by using a computer program or a bilingual employee who does not have translating credentials sends entirely the wrong message. Any reader will assume that if the company did not make the effort to have the translation done well, the topic cannot be terribly important.

·Allow sufficient time for the meeting. Some employers expect employees to sign up for a rather costly health insurance plan after being rushed through a Power Point presentation on their lunch break. This again creates the impression that this topic can’t be important, and it makes the employees feel pressured.

·Use paper enrollment forms for benefit plans, rather than online or over-the-phone. People simply tend to forget about these issues after the presentation is over, and the wait time gives them the opportunity to talk to other family members who are still laboring under their original misconceptions. Furthermore, paper enrollment forms create positive peer-pressure. Employees see co-workers they respect participating, and the ones who caught on to the material quickly help the others make their asset allocation decisions, etc.

·Be very careful about the credentials of your presenter. Too often companies have a bilingual foreman, who may well be less than thrilled about public speaking, make presentations in Spanish. Even if this employee’s language abilities are good, he may not be familiar with specific technical terminology. Furthermore, other employees may have issues with him that influence how receptive they will be to the presentation. And, most importantly, the presenter himself may not buy into the material being presented and may, deliberately or not, convey his own doubts!

For an effective meeting, your presenter MUST have the following credentials:

ØUnderstanding of the mindset of typical Spanish speaking employees and the reasons they are reluctant to change their behavior
ØUnderstanding of the reasons they came to this country and compassion for their circumstances
ØThorough knowledge of the topic at hand
ØFluent command of both Spanish and English, including specific technical terminology (for example, “deductible,” “vesting,” “power and hand tools”)
ØExperience conducting presentations in Spanish
ØThe ability to elicit questions and feedback from a reluctant audience
ØCommitment not only to providing an accurate translation but also to changing employees’ behavior

Many well-informed Spanish speaking immigrants are optimistic that their community will begin to see the wisdom in participating in benefit plans and complying with safety training---just as they began to buy homes a couple of decades ago. However, this will happen much faster and more fruitfully if human resource professionals present this material in as inviting and informative a manner as possible. At first, this will require a bit more of an investment on their part, but, like some benefit plans themselves, this investment will almost certainly provide ample returns.

Melissa Burkhart was a teacher and school administrator for ten years, specializing in cross-cultural education and communication. Ferney Colorado, a native of Colombia, has worked side by side with Spanish-speaking immigrants from all over Latin America in a variety of industries including construction, telecommunications, food service and hospitality, and transportation. In 2001, they established Futuro Sólido USA , which provides a wide range of customized Spanish language services and training materials to ensure a solid future for Spanish speaking workers and their employers. (303) 837-8224 www.futurosolidousa.com