Interview Overviews
Forty-six (46) face-to-face and telephone interviews were conducted in four Texas metropolitan areas. Qualitative overviews were compiled from the field research.
Austin
Fourteen (14) interviews were conducted of various Dallas companies, organizations, and agencies including two (2) large businesses, six (6) small/medium businesses, two (2) non-profit organizations, and four (4) government agencies. Interviews were conducted from May 14-June 1 by Sharon Choi.
Language Use
The responses of interviewees to the question regarding “foreign language need” differed depending on the target market and size, such as domestic or international and large, small, or medium. For example, large companies do not to place significant importance on foreign language need because English is considered the international language of business, and the majority of people that companies interact with can speak English. Small companies which deal with foreign clients and governments, however, perceive a greater need for a foreign language speaking workforce.
Interviewees on the domestic side reported a great need for foreign language due to the increase in immigrants from various countries. Additionally, most of the government or domestic sector interviewees commented that there is a lack of resources in terms of employees with foreign language skills and stated “Actually, we don’t make any extra effort to go out and recruit the business of non-native speakers of English. Time and resources are limited.” Spanish is most in demand on the domestic side, whereas Chinese is number one on the international side due to the growing number of customers and clients whose native language is Chinese.
The salary level varies among foreign language speaking employees, not in terms of their language skills but in terms of their roles and responsibilities.
Many interviewees responded that cultural awareness is critical when serving the public and working with foreign clients, and most of them require a certain level of cultural awareness from their employee. However, only two government agencies initiated cultural training courses and events. One hosts an event called “Asian American Heritage Month” in which an Asian American employee group sponsors a celebration. The other provides its employees with training for cultural understanding to better serve its customers.
In addition to the interviewees’ need for cultural understanding for their business and public services, there is a demand for cultural training for clients and customers in the American way of doing business. For example, a local government agency mentioned that they should make additional efforts to educate customers about the US paradigm as it relates to entrepreneurship, documents and tax reporting, since customers from other countries are often unaware of or unfamiliar with such practices.
Recruiting
As the demand for foreign language speaking employees grows and the supply of such candidates diminishes, employers have to be much more creative and widen their pool of recruiters. An issue which came up in many interviews is that employers have difficulty finding qualified candidates who are proficient in two languages and who also possess outstanding work knowledge and experiences. For example, a heritage Spanish-speaker’s skills may be limited to oral proficiency. Also, a candidate may be good at a second language for general conversation, but not proficient enough in terms of a related specialty work area.
In regard to the hiring of employees with a second language skill, no business or government agency has a formal written policy. Instead the needs of clients who speak a certain language drive the hiring of skilled employees. For example, a few of them prefer to hire a person with a second language skill for future usage, as their businesses are growing overseas or are working with more foreign clients.
Among fourteen organizations interviewed, two responded that they are running a pilot program to support additional wage benefits for bilingual employees. In addition, there were a few interviewees who were considering paying extra for a bilingual workforce. One interviewee stated: “We have always depended on employees who speak other languages with our customers, but we never paid them.” A comment on the additional benefits of having a second language skill is that as time goes by, employees have more jobs to do due to their L2 skills; for example, they can answer more customer calls, translate product manuals, and interact with colleagues from other countries. Therefore, when management considers pay raises and promotions, people with L2 skills are considered first.
As for the language training question, most companies have a general tuition reimbursement program which may include language training courses. In addition to an external training opportunity, more than half of the interviewees responded that they have internal Spanish learning programs in which employees can participate voluntarily once or twice a week; however, there are no programs for other languages. A few interviewees answered that they do not have adequate time to wait for their employees to learn a new language; they need to hire people whenever they see an urgent need in certain languages.
Future Needs
When asked about future needs, many interviewees on the domestic side predicted that their need for Spanish speaking employees will increase the most in the next 5 to 10 years, and their need for Asian speakers is growing also. The demand tends to rise with the increase in demographics. Recently the global diversity issue has been a major change in the greater Austin area. The population change was driven by not only domestic migration but also international migration which makes this area more globally diverse.
Interview results indicated that there are three major reasons that affect a recognition of the need for employees with second language skills. These three factors are 1) a growing number of customers and clients needing interpretation and translation services especially in medical or emergency and public services, 2) the increased costs of interpretation and translation services, and 3) continuing safety and patient access issues. For the international side, more and more people are learning and speaking English.
Only two interviewees had done assessment studies regarding the need for skill in languages. They used the following information sources for these assessment studies: internal use of interpretation services, census data, population growth, literacy rates, lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity, and market review.
