Blog

"Do you understand?" "Yes!" does it wrong

Today, the economy is running as it did pre-Covid. There is even growth this 3rd quarter. Foreign workers are more often filling vacancies that would otherwise go unfilled. Greater flexibilisation leads to more and quicker changes of employees. Situations with staff from different language backgrounds and with different language skills are now more the rule than the exception, in just about all sectors.

However, language problems in the workplace go far beyond the obvious language barriers between employees with different mother tongues. On closer examination, up to 10% of all accidents at work turn out to be caused by language issues.
What opportunities do entrepreneurs and prevention advisors have here?

Marcinelle, a language accident?

Language accidents are already happening every day and are causing victims. This means that there is an opportunity here for prevention advisers. An opportunity to focus on it in the companies they work for or support. In addition, it is certainly necessary to put on the language goggles in the root cause analysis of occupational accidents.

According to Dutch research, some occupational groups run a greater risk than others: foreign-language workers and the more than twice as large group of low-literacy Dutch speakers together form a risk group of about 25 percent of the population. Various professions have a higher than average risk, such as drivers and production and warehouse workers.

In Australia, the number of accidents at work among miners was compared between migrants who did not speak English vs. English-speaking migrants and Australian workers. In the first year after arrival, non-English speaking migrants had as many as 3.9 times more fatal workplace accidents than Australian workers. In the second to fourth year this was 1.7 times more often.

The difference between English-speaking migrants and native speakers was statistically insignificant while the non-native speakers were 2.4 times more likely to be involved in a fatal workplace accident.

Since newcomers are already 20% more likely to have a work-related accident, non-native speakers are extra vulnerable.

In the Belgian Marcinelle mine disaster of 1956, the role of language is an important consideration. The miners spoke a mixture of Italian, French and Flemish. An Italian miner, against instructions, loaded a cart into a mine lift. It got stuck and caused a fire that led to the disaster with 262 victims. 136 of them were Italians.

Hidden language issues

Language problems in the workplace do not only manifest themselves as the occasional Babylonian confusion of tongues. The other two problems sometimes go unnoticed.

Those who do pay attention to multilingualism will also want to work on these other challenges. Certainly if you know that many more employees are affected.

1. Multilingualism prompts action

We heard from a customer: "I don't hire anyone who doesn't speak Dutch anymore." But of course it is not that simple for everyone.

Companies put a lot of energy into welcoming newcomers who speak a different language. They are legally obliged to do so.

Check for yourself what you are already doing:

- translate welcome brochures into the mother tongue of every employee

- appoint a buddy who can translate on the shop floor

- focus on visual language in work and safety instructions (pictograms, videos)

- choosing supporting visual material in toolbox talks

- use a working language that is known by all employees

- compile your own dictionary

- invest in language training for your staff

- ...

If you are already at a loss for words, then ask here

for the most useful applications for your company

Of course, these solutions only really pay off if you are also aware of their limitations...

Measures such as speaking English to each other, using pictograms to indicate safe and unsafe situations, sometimes prove to be ineffective or inadequate in practice.

Why?

Well, if your mother tongue is a dialect and the working language is a third or even fourth language, a lot gets lost in translation. Especially in written communication.

Have agreements been made about this? Do they only apply to conversations or also to written information? Do they apply to all functions in the company? And what if several languages are used in parallel? Is there an order? And who has to master which language up to a certain level? Something you can and should also make clear agreements about with temporary employment agencies. Especially in the case of safety-critical tasks.

Pictograms or visual language do not appear to have the same meaning for every employee. As a result, the message may not be as unambiguous as you thought.

Different cultural backgrounds mean that what one person perceives as a prohibition, comes across as a mild warning to another. We have talked about this before.

We would therefore not recommend relying on figurative language to solve language confusion. Gestures and symbols are not always universal and cannot replace language in its entirety. The best results are achieved with a well-considered mix of verbal, written and image-rich information.

unnamed (1).jpg

2. Challenge under the radar: low literacy

Do you know the state of general literacy in your company? Do you know how many percent have difficulty reading and writing to the extent that it becomes a nuisance or dangerous in the performance of their duties? Do you know for which employee adequate functioning in society is a challenge?

It is certainly not only about those with no qualifications and it affects young and old alike.

While illiteracy has all but disappeared, low-literacy certainly does not seem to. And the shame about it certainly is not.

As a prevention advisor, you may have been confronted with it without even noticing it. How recognisable are these situations to you?

Someone who says, for example, 'I'll fill that in at home'. Or who asks someone else to quickly read it out or write it down. Other signs can be:

- using excuses such as 'forgot my glasses' or 'hurt my hand' when asked to read or write something

- only looking at a text without moving your eyes over it;

- not using full stops or commas

- not having an e-mail address;

- have difficulty with mobile banking;

- have poor handwriting;

- have been unemployed frequently or for a long period;

- not growing in work;

- being an hour early or late for an appointment;

- talk negatively about school experiences;

- have difficulty navigating.

From a prevention point of view, if low literacy is suspected, we recommend the following

- an individual approach. Illiteracy can be monitored even before someone enters employment. Not as an exclusive factor, but as one for extra care.

- Learning by doing' in work instructions, provided this can be done safely. Offering an instruction on paper can be unsafe. Be sure to check each time whether the employee can repeat or carry out the instruction himself. When you ask: "Did you understand everything well?", "Yes!" is often just the socially desirable answer. This is how you check whether someone has fully understood the instruction. A signature on a work instruction or checklist is not enough.

Special attention should also be given to dyslexics. They can read, but this is usually not fast and it takes them a lot of time and effort to read texts. Suppose an incident occurs and a protocol has to be followed. Should you then expect someone with dyslexia to have memorised it? Can things go wrong because someone doesn't get through the protocol quickly enough? In this case, as a prevention adviser, take a critical look at your protocols!

3. Language level too high: 50% of documents illegible

At TU Delft, researcher Paul Lindhout obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the role of language problems in the occurrence of work accidents. He found that about 50 percent of the safety documents in Dutch high-risk companies were insufficiently readable.

According to Lindhout, the lack of attention for language problems can partly be explained historically. "Initially, companies rightly paid a lot of attention to technical safety measures. Then management, regulations and procedures came into the picture and only now are we in a phase in which we focus more on the factors of behaviour and culture, of which language is a part."

He adds (rightly), "In principle, companies are quite capable of producing comprehensible texts. Because if you look at their staff magazines, for example, you read easy, accessible pieces. So it's a question of awareness on the part of companies."

Something that we, as consultants in prevention and occupational safety, also want to ensure: the documents that we include in our client's dynamic risk management system (DRBS) must be usable. This also means: legible!

A photo or illustration is certainly helpful, but the correct language level of the text itself is decisive in understanding instructions. Perhaps it shows more "professional knowledge" for a prevention advisor to dare to deviate from jargon and, where necessary, to follow the employees' choice of words instead of juggling with words that are not used on the shop floor. At least offer them side by side.

In concrete terms, it is best to take this into account:

- write comprehensible texts at language level A2;
- measure the current language level of your texts;
- give the 'writers' in your company training in simple language use;
- use practical examples instead of more general theoretical descriptions;
- making texts more readable just by having a good graphic layout is not enough;
- drafting multilingual documents is not enough if you do not take into account the real language skills of your foreign-language audience;
- convert complex official manuals into simple instructions for use at language level A2.

language levels.PNG

More and more favourite subjects

Touché! Seekurico has its favourite subjects. Language is one of them. We hope to contribute to the daily efficiency of many fellow prevention advisors.

Language control and language-related safety risks are currently not often included in RIEs, but in some prevention scans, under the heading Special groups, the question is asked whether there are employees who do not or not sufficiently master the (Dutch) language.

In our opinion, our job goes beyond extending the language aspect in our risk and accident analyses.

In addition to the more formal part of our job, we cannot miss out on growth opportunities to make adjustments more quickly. Sometimes, adjustments do not require great efforts, but it is a matter of daring to approach something differently.

Always with the same goal: that everyone under our care goes home safely after work.

Seekurico Ltd

Rode Kruisstraat 49
3540 Herk-de-Stad (B)

info@seekurico.be
Phone +32 (0)474 37 94 63

VAT BE 0683.484.566