Speaking of Communication – Learning Spanish
Communicating with employees is an essential task for everyone managing a successful business, regardless of the type of business or the background of the employees. I have seen many dairy farm owners and managers take communication for granted when they are managing “local” employees. However, when the same managers begin employing Hispanic workers, they quickly realize how important it is to have good communication between everyone on their dairy farm.
There are many different aspects of communication that are important in these situations. They include both verbal and non-verbal communication. When dealing with Hispanic workers, there are additional cultural issues that can impair the quality of communication on your dairy farm. Dairy farm managers who supervise Hispanic workers need to learn how to effectively communicate verbally while understanding non-verbal signals and minimize the impact of the cultural differences.
Your ability as a dairy farm owner or manager to speak to your Hispanic workers is critical to the success of those employees and ultimately the success of your farm. You must be able to effectively train new workers, hold staff meetings, conduct performance appraisals, provide constructive feedback, praise good performance, and listen to your workers concerns. It is nearly impossible to do any of these essential tasks when managers and employees speak different languages. Therefore, it is very important that you address the language barrier and you take steps to minimize its
negative impacts to your farm.
Many dairy farm managers feel that it is the responsibility of the Hispanic worker to learn English. I have heard a version of the following statement too many times. “They came here to work, this is The United States, and they need to learn to speak English.” Those of you with this mindset will typically have a more challenging time managing Hispanic workers. You certainly may have expectations that your Hispanic dairy employees learn English, which can have a very positive impact
on communication. However, that expectation should coincide with strong efforts on your part to learn Spanish.
Dairy farm managers who hire Hispanic workers quickly learn that employee turnover can be quite high. If he or she is solely dependent on the Hispanic employees to learn English, the language barrier will be very challenging to ever overcome. However, if you strive to learn Spanish, the language barrier will be nearly eliminated.
Many adults find it very challenging to learn a new language. It is important to remember that it can be just as challenging for the Hispanic workers to learn English as it is for us to learn Spanish. However, if each group is trying to learn together, everyone will find that it will be much easier. Working together will also provide additional motivation to communicate in both languages and learn together.
The Capital Region Dairy Team has coordinated two “Spanish for Dairymen” courses where you can learn how to speak Spanish and learn the dairy specific terms necessary to effectively communicate with your Hispanic workers. The courses will be held at the Adams County Agriculture Center in Gettysburg and the Lancaster County Farm & Home Center in Lancaster. Each course consists of 13 conversational-based classes that will be taught by native Mexican instructors from the Berlitz Language Training Center. You don’t have to have any past experience or knowledge of Spanish to participate and still achieve the objective of the courses – the ability to effectively communicate with your Hispanic dairy farm workers. For more information about the courses or to register, please call Vinton Smith at (888) 472-0261, Ext. 312.
