In this day and age, the workforce is more diverse than ever. Companies of all sizes and specialties are quickly tapping into the diverse talented workforce online, resources, and multilingual advantages that the world economy presents. The companies find themselves increasingly motivated to bridge cultural and linguistic gaps in order to recruit, retain, engage, and develop their most valuable talent.

However for MNCs, one of the biggest challenge is to maintain brand and cultural identity across geographical borders. The same is true for domestic companies with a diverse workforce. Maintaining clear lines of communication is vitally important for performance, quality, safety, and the cultivation of an inclusive culture.

Also, for any company with a workforce comprising of a significant number of employees who primarily speak a language other than English, translation is vitally important for clear communication to seep its way across the organisation.

Here are 5 major areas of Human Resources wherein translation can be of crucial importance:

1. Recruitment: Multilingual and international staffing and recruitment necessitate the use of translated or bilingual ads, forms, applications, employment contracts and related website content. A foreign language speaker with the prerequisite skills and talent is what a potential employer needs. They will be more attracted to an open position, if all details are presented in their native language.
2. Training Materials: Translating training guides, codes of conduct, handbooks, manuals, and e-learning courses – as well as adding subtitles to training videos or localizing video content – will help avoid any ambiguity or “room for error” in employees onboarding and training.
3. Employment: Offering review forms and communication, benefit plans and guides, insurance documents, and related website content (such as employee portals) in the languages employees speak, will result in giving them control over findings. They can also research for the information they need rather than needing one-on-one support from HR employees.

See: 5 Key Areas Wherein HR Outsourcing Can Help Improve Bottom Lines

4. Policies & Procedures: Documents such as human resource policies and safety procedures are usually carefully crafted to comply with company policies and state and federal regulations. Where compliance is at play, translation is requisite for the elimination of legal risks.
5. Ongoing Communication: By offering translation of newsletters, blogs, FAQs for employees, corporate notices, memos and announcements will help maintain clear, direct communication and, above all, foster a culture that is inclusive and supportive.

Translation of all HR documents requires a perfect blend of precise legal and HR terminology, and the need for exact, unambiguous, and culturally accurate verbiage. There is simply no room for error. The good news is that HR documents are, overall, a fantastic opportunity for the use of Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) tools.

CAT tools aid in maintaining terminological consistency and accuracy and save companies a high percentage of translation dollars over time – updates to existing documents are quick and easy to implement, with charges only reflecting new or modified material.

Thanks to the increasing globalization of businesses, translating document for HR has developed into its own specialty – and the need for translation services is here to stay. For companies with either domestic and overseas employees or foreign language speakers in-house, utilizing professional, CAT assisted translation for HR documents offers many benefits.

Easily accessible quality communication, improved recruiting and retention strategies, decreased cost, and the elimination of legal risks are all reasons to begin bridging the gaps through HR translation.

Also read: HR Focus: Moving Towards a 360-degree Transformation

Image credit: thetranslationstudio.com