Management skills: Challenge of the Multilingual Workforce

There are many issues that face companies generally that also face managers and department heads on a smaller scale. This article from HR Magazine deals with one such issue: the multilingual workforce.

As you'll see when you click on the link below and read this article, there are many situations in a variety of workplaces where lack of understanding because of linguistic difficulties can cause misunderstandings, and even affect workplace safety. I recommend you read the article and then consider it from the standpoint of your own department.

Do you have even one person in your group whose native tongue is not English? That person may sound fluent, and you may have assumed he or she always understands everything that is going on. But what if you're wrong? What if mistakes are being made because the person is unwilling to speak up about a language difficulty?

As a manager, you need to be aware of these situations and take action. This is part of the vital "people skills" aspect of management. Check out the article, and feel free to post your comments below.

Multilingual workforce