Less Chatter, More Matter: The Communications Podcast

#137 Multi-lingual audience? Here’s how to communicate

• Season 1 • Episode 137

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Moving to a new country takes courage, especially when there may very well be different language barriers. However, it's worth wondering... what happens when your new workplace has communication you can't keep up with? 

Even if it's not just a different language, there is a risk of misunderstandings, safety risks, and missed opportunities simply from cultural differences alone!

Which is what this episode of the Less Chatter, More Matter podcast explores. We focus on how internal communicators can break down language barriers so every employee feels safe and included. 

We touch on plain English (no jargon!), visual tools and one-on-one conversations, and we give you six practical tactics that help messages land. We're here to make sure no one’s knowledge or experience gets lost in translation.

Listen in to break your language barriers down!

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Imagine this, you are moving countries for an adventure and to work for a while. It all sounds like fun and games, and it actually is, but when you start working, you realise the language gap is very real. Suddenly, meetings become very frustrating and having conversations with managers is slow and challenging. Then maybe you start using a piece of equipment you didn't quite understand the instructions about, but you're embarrassed to ask again, so you go ahead and try and figure it out, even if it's really unsafe. This is the reality facing a lot of workers around the world, especially in places like Australia where there's a lot of seasonal agricultural work, but also as professionals from other countries come to join industries like health and engineering. This is something we need to consider. We want to tap into the brain power of our new employees, but it's tough when there's a language barrier. So as internal communicators, what can we do to help the message land and keep everyone safe as well? That's what today's episode is all about. Hi, friend, and welcome back to another new episode of Less Chatter, More Matter, the communications podcast. I'm your host, Mel Loy, and I'm recording this on the lands of the Yuggera and the Turrbal people here in Meanjin, also known as Brisbane. And today's episode is all about how we bridge the language divide That can happen in workplaces where we have people in the workforce from all over the world. Our team does a lot of work in sectors like agriculture, childcare, and aged care, which all tend to have a higher proportion of frontline or casual workers whose first language isn't English. Now we love having this diversity in our workforces and seeing different cultures in action, and of course, the food when they bring it along. And of course, helping our economies thrive. But often people from other countries have a basic level of English proficiency, which let's be honest, is better than many people here. Speak a second language, but it does create internal communication challenges and big risks when it comes to safety. Yeah. For example, in agriculture where there's big, heavy machinery being used and lots of potentially dangerous equipment, we want people to really, truly understand the safety instructions or when people are administering medications or treatments or trying to get information from patients or customers that would help them. Now. I think it is so brave to move to another country where you don't speak the native language. So this isn't about that. It's about how do we support people to learn the language while also acknowledging it takes time, especially learning English. It is a tough language. I do not envy anybody who has to learn English, and how do we at the same time ensure the safety of our people and tap into their knowledge and experience? So today I'm going to share a few tactics to experiment with, to communicate with team members whose first language is something other than English or whatever the first language is in the country that you are in right now. Tip number one. Use printed communication. So what do I mean by that? When someone is in a meeting and people are speaking really fast, it can be really challenging to follow along at the best of times, let alone if you're not fluent in the language. So along with meetings, let's just go back to good old fashioned printed communication. When you are preparing your agenda and the points that you cover for a meeting, take the time to write them in a little bit more detail and be really explicit about any instructions, and then provide those printed materials as a resource for people to use during the meeting so they can add notes to it and follow along. And after, as a reference. If your meetings are online, then obviously send the document ahead of time to help them along. It's also really useful that if you have posters around the workplace, for example, print them in different languages. Now, you should be able to know from HR data what languages are most commonly used by the team members in your workplace. So for example, you might have a higher proportion of people who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish. So those are the languages that you focus on. AI is really useful for doing quick translations, but obviously it doesn't always get it right, so I would use AI to translate first, so create the first draft, and then find someone who is a native speaker in that language to check it for you. You might also offer translations of key communication pieces, like if you're doing a CEO email about a significant change or a big announcement, just to ensure the message is clearly communicated to everyone. Even during the onboarding process, think about what policies you might need to have translated or printed to make it easier for people to absorb the information. So that's tip number one. And as an add-on to that. This is tip number two. Don't just rely on those team meetings. I know a lot of teams do a toolbox talk or handover meeting or standup at the beginning of each day. Now these are often ad hoc in their content and nature and quickly put together based on what's happened on the previous shift or overnight, et cetera. So it is more challenging to create a detailed brief for these kind of meetings in the short time you've got available. But the challenge is that the team leader will often stand up, do a quick rundown of what's happened, what needs to happen in the next shift, some safety reminders, and then everyone leaves. But because it's a quick meeting and no two are ever the same, so there's no pattern, it can make it really challenging for people to follow along. And you'll probably also find at the end of that meeting when the leader inevitably ask, does anyone have any questions? You'll get crickets. Nobody will speak up. Some of this is cultural, so some people from some cultures don't want to ask questions in front of others. It's, you know, fearing embarrassment. But it can also just be that people just feel embarrassed if they don't understand something. So what can you do in these situations? Well, apart from jotting down some notes for people have one-on-one time available directly after the meeting for people to come and ask questions or, you know, just small groups of two to three people. And before moving on to their work for the day, have a small group meeting to check their understanding. Reiterate any key points that you need to reiterate. Also, if you have staff who are multilingual and can assist in these conversations, use them. They have a skill that you can tap into, and most of the time they're going to be more than happy to help with any tricky translations. Okay, tip number three. Keep it simple. Using simple, plain English is recommended all of the time anyway. The worldwide Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommends that all content is delivered at a ninth grader level. At the Australian Government Style Guide, very similar. It recommends writing to a 14-year-old level. Now at that level, you will reach 83% of your audience. That's pretty big, but the second you start to communicate above that level, understanding drops off really significantly and really quickly. So it's good practice to keep it simple anyway, and it helps non-English speakers to understand the message more easily and more effectively. But the other part of keeping it simple is to avoid colloquial language or slang. So these are words and phrases that are unique to a culture and they typically don't make a lot of sense anywhere else. Australians, we are really bad for this. We use a lot of colloquial language and abbreviations. So for example, arvo, servo, brekkie, chockers, stoked, or phrases like chuck a sickie, spit the dummy, et cetera. It must sound completely bonkers to people who have never heard those terms before. I was interviewing some team members recently, uh, from a client. They, uh, this was part of an internal comms audit we were doing, and many of them have a first language other than English. So there was flooding in their area, and the only way to get to the office was to take a helicopter. Now, in Australia. Like in some other English speaking countries, we'll often just refer to a helicopter as a chopper. But this lady had no idea what a chopper was. So when she was asked if she was going to be okay with going on one to get to work, she had no idea how to respond. So a big part of keeping it simple is recognising our own unique slang and taking care to avoid it. It can be hard to get outta that habit. I know I'm really bad for it. So get someone else to pull you up every time you use it or even record yourself. Go back and listen to what you said. Focusing on your use of slang. You might be surprised how often you use those terms. You can also use AI to help here, at least with written comms. So if appropriate, obviously within the realms of your work's, uh, cybersecurity appetite. Pop the written words into an AI engine like copilot, and ask it to pick up any slang or colloquialisms that people might not understand. Okay, Tip number four, use animations, videos, basically visual communication. Visual communication is one of the most effective tools you can use to bridge the language gap because it relies less on words, more on pictures. If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of putting together an IKEA flat pack, you'll remember their instructions are completely visual. There is not a single word written in any language other than the cover page, and that's because they know that visuals are a universal language. Back in 1964 at the Olympics in Tokyo, this is the first Olympics they'd had outside of Europe in a very long time. They realised that they would have a language barrier to contend with, so the designers came up with a series of icons representing each sport, and that's why we continue to have those icons to this. Our brains make sense of visuals really, really quickly, much more quickly than written or verbal words. So tapping into that processing power makes a lot of sense. So when can you use visuals to communicate when you are talking to people who have a language other than English or whatever the language is that's the native language in your country? Well, pretty much any time - think about processes or safety instructions, for example. Having a series of images demonstrating the procedure or a simple video or animation can be a game changer for understanding. Having a voiceover enc, closed captions and a transcript available is also ideal simply from an accessibility point of view. But it also helps with clarity and helps people like to support people to learn the language as well, which is part of the reason we travel right. Now if you have key policies people need to adhere to, again, think about how you might be able to use a diagram, an infographic, cartoons, icons, animations, et cetera, to bring that to life, to communicate that this isn't about dumbing it down. I want to make that clear. It's about making it easier to understand, and these visuals aren't just easier for people speaking different languages. They make it easier for everyone. When we live in a time poor world, with so many comms coming at us from every direction, every minute of every day, it makes sense that we should try and make our messages as simple as possible and as quick to understand as possible. Okay? Tip number five, it's all about safety. One of the biggest reasons to invest your time in effectively communicating with employees with limited English is to keep them and the people they work with safe and well. Now, we've already covered a few options for how to do that here, like printing posters in different languages, having one-on-one time after a toolbox talk and using visual communication. So keep doing those things. But another tip I want to specifically highlight here is having this information readily available at the place where it is most important to know it. So, having a procedure hidden in a folder somewhere, or a verbal instruction issued at a toolbox talk, you know, a few hours previously isn't helpful. You need the communication to be where the action is. So what does that look like? Well, firstly, using tools like visual comms and translations that we've already spoken about, have those posters or checklists or instructions attached to all the equipment that people are using, especially the equipment that could cause serious injury if it's not used correctly. And again, simple visual checklists and translations are going to be key here as long as they're physically attached to the equipment. For things like administering medication and other health treatments, first aid, you know, even in childcare centres where kids have a fall, this is vital too. Having all these communication tools where the treatment actually takes place is critical. Our brains can only retain so much new information at once. At most, it's about. Seven pieces of information, but on average it's about three to four. It's cognitive load theory. It doesn't matter what language you speak. That's how our memories work and our memory is made that much harder when you're trying to remember something that was said and written in another language, let alone hours or days previously. So it's not just about the language, it's about timely reminders. So that's tip number five. Have the comms where the action is. Tip number six. The final tip and the most important tip of all the tips is ask people what would be most helpful. It's all well and good for me to share these tips from my own experiences working with different industries. But at the end of the day, I'm an English speaking person with rudimentary Spanish at best, and a smattering of Japanese. I'm not the best placed to advise. What would be most useful for the people in your organisation doing the particular work that they do? So go out there and ask. Ask questions like, what do you find most challenging about communication here? What would help you better understand our communication? What have you found really useful in the past? These questions are going to help you make more effective strategies, but also if you co-design them with your team members, they will be so much more supportive and probably really grateful that you cared enough to ask them. Okay, it is time for your episode recap. So on today's episode I shared six tips for internal communication. When you have a multilingual workforce, and this is important because we want to keep people safe, but we also want people to feel welcome and included and have the opportunity to effectively share their knowledge and skills. So tip number one was use printed communication. It provides more time for people to understand and absorb a message. Use it in addition to your regular meetings. Tip number two is don't just rely on verbal communication, especially for the short ad hoc meetings like toolbox talks and standups. Make sure you provide time for one-on-one conversations to help people understand and to feel safe to ask questions. S tip number three, keep it simple. Use clear plain English and avoid using slang words and colloquialisms. That could be really confusing. Tip number four, use visual communication like photos, images, animations, and videos. Our brains process images really quickly and they are a universal language. Tip number five, put the communication where the action is. Don't make people rely on their memory. It's tough enough at the best of times, let alone when what you've read or heard was in another language. And tip number six, ask people what would be useful. Alright folks, so that's all we've got time for today. If you are a person who has moved to another country and had to speak another language and work in another language. I'd love to know. Do any of these tips resonate? What did you find useful? Please jump in my dm. Send me an email. Let me know. In the meantime, please keep safe, keep doing amazing things, and bye for now.