subject: Bilingual Safety Training For the Workplace More Positively Tuned Into Safety [print this page] Bilingual Safety Training For the Workplace More Positively Tuned Into Safety
The workforces in most of America have changed significantly in the past twenty years, but the safety training that should accompany that change has not.
Bilingual safety training is a requisite for any workforce that has members whose primary language is not English, regardless of whether those workers are in the country legally or not. The responsibility for providing safe conditions and safety training does not change. If the employee has only tentative grasp of English, then valuable lessons and instructions may be lost on him. The situation is often compounded by the employee's reluctance to admit that he has a problem understanding English, because the employee does not want to call attention to himself.
When the company offers bilingual safety training, it accomplishes several things. In addition to achieving the most important objectives, teaching proper safety protocol and pointing out potential hazards, the company also indicates that it cares about the welfare of its employees. When safety training is done in English only, there are negative implications that affect morale, and poor morale provides a fertile field for carelessness and injuries. On the other hand, when the company provides bilingual safety training by employing safety trainers that are fluent in both English and Spanish, it reinforces the importance of safety in the mind of every employee, while also expanding the interactive potential of the training. Workers can feel free to ask questions and engage in the learning process, knowing that their inability to communicate effectively in English will not hold them back. The bilingual trainer opens the training up to all the employees by making sure that there is complete understanding of each teaching point, before moving on. The perception of safety training changes when bilingual safety training is provided; the employees realize that the training is being conducted in order to keep them safer, as opposed to simply satisfying an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirement.
Bilingual safety training from safety trainers who are experienced and fluent in both languages makes a workforce safer, and a work environment more positively tuned in to safety.
