View from the other side

Understanding other cultures, other languages can boost customer service and profits

Story by Gina Mangan

 IMAGINE LYING IN A HOSPITAL intensive care unit, hooked up to tubes with machines beeping and an unfamiliar language spoken all around you.

Brenda Martin couldn’t. 

The Appleton Medical Center ICU nurse’s desire to better communicate with her growing number of non-English speaking hospital patients compelled her three years ago to enroll in Fox Valley Technical College’s Spanish for Health Care classes.

“It seemed especially important in my work setting, where patients and family members are often scared or nervous and completely dependent upon trying to understand what we’re saying,” said Martin, who recently completed FVTC’s multi-level certificate program.

 Through FVTC, she learned how to ask patients about their comfort and pain, and how to explain medical procedures and medications. She said she also gained a better understanding of cultural differences that too often can lead to mistrust and misunderstandings.

“Learning the language is very important, but many times it’s what’s not said – rather than what’s said - that can cause riffs in communication,” said FVTC Spanish instructor Leah Caceres Lutzow. “That’s why learning culture, traditions and beliefs is just as important as learning the language.”

An increasing number of northeast Wisconsin company managers, employees and service providers are brushing up on their knowledge of other cultures and languages. Not only has an influx of non-English speaking populations created a need for better communication in local communities, but area businesses are increasingly interacting with international customers and suppliers via the global marketplace. 

Martin said it was something one of her fellow Spanish for Health Care students said that really hit home for her. The native Spanish speaking-student’s eyes lit up when she learned that Martin was learning Spanish to better communicate with her patients.

“Just the look in her eyes said it all,” Martin said. “She said, ‘You have no idea what it means to us when we find out that you’ve taken the time to learn a little of our language so you can talk to us when we’re in a hospital situation, where everyone is scared, everyone is stressed.’ That simple thing is a big comfort.”

Within borders

CARA SCHEER, an emergency room nurse and Sexual Assault Nurse Educator at Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca, understands this well. She, too, has taken Spanish for Health Care classes so she can better communicate with a growing Hispanic patient population. The Waupaca hospital pulls in many of the migrant farm workers and their families living west of the Fox Cities.

“Simple things make a big difference, like being able to register a patient or being able to ask a woman who’s having a baby about her pain or how long it is between contractions,” Scheer said.

After taking the classes, Scheer made a “cheat sheet” for others in the hospital so they too knew some basics for communicating. In addition to the Spanish classes, both Martin and Scheer participated in a trip to Mexico where they were immersed in the language and culture for two weeks. Participants visit a rural village that is representative of those that might have been home to Wisconsin’s migrant workers.

After launching the first Spanish for Health Care class in 2006 with 20 students, FVTC saw so much growth that it added additional levels. Since then, FVTC has enrolled 263 people. It is one of the most rapidly growing programs in the college’s Global Education and Services Department, said Nancy Stephani, business training manager for the department.

But it’s far from the only offering. FVTC has developed an array of language and culture programs designed to help area companies and service providers bridge the language and cultural gaps with customers, as well as employees within the organization. 

“We believe that by learning new international skills, businesses and employees remain competitive and can communicate more effectively,” Stephani said. “This will also build strong relationships, along with increased productivity and business growth.”

In addition to Spanish for Health Care, FVTC offers Spanish for Culinary Arts and Spanish for horticulture to help employees better communicate with Spanish-speaking employees in those industries, Spanish for Child Care, Spanish for Fire Protection and Spanish for Law Enforcement. A new course, Spanish for Business professionals, will be offered this fall, Stephani said.

The college also offers courses in 12 languages and cultures, ranging from Mandarin Chinese to Arabic and Portuguese. Customized language training is also available. For example, Stephani said, area companies recently requested instructors to teach some employees Korean and Czechoslovakian.

On the flip side, FVTC offers traditional English Language Learning (ELL) classes for non-native English speakers, as well as professional English for non-native English speakers to help them better communicate in professional settings such as health care, education and business. Workplace English is offered for those working in manufacturing settings.

 In Fond du Lac, Moraine Park Technical College also offers similar programs to aid area businesses and employees. The ELL classes enroll students representing 13 different languages, all striving to improve their English skills so they can better communicate in the workplace, said Sandra Huenink, dean of basic education for MPTC. 

Like FVTC, Moraine Park can provide customized on-site training.

“Being able to communicate in the workplace is so important for efficiency, safety and team work. We have doctors who come in for English training, because until they can communicate, we’ll never know all they know,” Huenink said. “Improving communication between cultures makes your entire community stronger.”

Across borders

IT’S  NOT JUST VOCABULARY and grammar that employees learn.

“Culture coaching” – formally titled “Global Management, Working Across Cultures” – is another major component of FVTC’s global education and services department. This is generally customized training geared toward helping individual company employees learn cultural values held by their customers, suppliers and colleagues overseas, Stephani said. A total of 23 companies received customized training for a variety of purposes during the 2007-08 year.

“It’s understanding the way business is done in other countries,” Stephani said. “There are differences between cultures when it comes to management practices, office policies, etiquette and hierarchy. Misunderstandings can occur when you don’t bridge these gaps, and the bottom line is that profits can be affected.”

Global trade offers tremendous business opportunities, but it is not without challenge, Stephani said. Those challenges include dealing with complex international export documents, rules and regulations. FVTC is often called upon to deliver customized export and import training based on the needs of individual companies.

As Johnsonville Sausage’s export business increased, company leaders brought in an FVTC instructor two years ago to help employees develop a world class international compliance program, said Art Kline, director of customer service and international compliance. The Sheboygan Falls-based company exports to 28 countries, including Mexico, Canada, Asia and Europe.

Food products are subject to a vast array of international inspections, labeling rules and ingredient regulations.

“We have to follow the rules of the country we ship to, but it’s not always easy knowing what those rules are, and they can change at any given time,” Kline said. “For example, some countries have specific requirements for ingredients like pork or beef.”

In addition to getting a handle on foreign rules and regulations, the company has gone to great lengths to understand customs, culture and preferences so it can develop products for its international markets, Kline said.

“We’re not taking the standard Johnsonville brat and sending it to Korea,” he said. “We’re making unique products tailored to the tastes of consumers in that country, and we do this for each country.”

Products sent to Mexico have added spices. Those sent to Japan have less salt. Market research about customers’ preferences is collected with the help of international sales people who work to get product samples into the international market, where they can be tasted and tested through restaurants and food chains, Kline said.

The company’s efforts have paid off. Former President George Bush last year awarded Johnsonville Sausage the President’s “E” Award for Export Excellence for its contribution to the nation’s 12.6 percent export growth from 2006 to 2007.

Another northeast Wisconsin company, Appleton Inc., was also recognized last year for its export business. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle awarded the Appleton-based business the Governor’s Export Achievement Award after it increased its international revenue by more than 70 percent between 2005 and 2007. Appleton, which produces carbonless, thermal, security and performance packaging products, exports to 70 nations.

Such broad-based efforts often require additional training. FVTC helped deliver a nine-week Spanish course to 22 Appleton Inc. employees who perform a wide variety of roles within the company. 

“Given the scope of products we send all over the world, it’s beneficial to have employees who have conversational and reading knowledge of Spanish,” company spokesman Bill Van Den Brandt said. “In addition to our international sales force, we have people located right here who might be doing some traveling or working in customer service and distribution.”

Other employees who embark to China on business have participated in FVTC seminars to better understand cultural norms when conducting business in China. 

Like many companies, Appleton Inc. is committed to welcoming and recognizing diverse backgrounds within the organization, Van Den Brandt said. Those individuals can serve as important resources for a company with customers representing more than 70 countries and cultures.

“We want to be welcoming of diverse skills, people and talents that represent our customers, who are spread all over the world.”

Within company walls

MANY COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS competing in the global marketplace operate with the same philosophy. Two year ago The New North began recognizing organizations in the region that have gone above and beyond welcoming diverse backgrounds into their organization and the greater community. 

Goodwill Industries of North Central Wisconsin won The New North’s People, Possibility and Progress Diversity Award in 2007 for its efforts to embrace and celebrate diversity. The efforts at Goodwill touch every aspect of business, from establishing policies that discourage harassment to hiring people of diverse backgrounds to establishing programs within the community that support diverse groups, said Kristine Hackbarth-Horn, chief operating officer at Goodwill and has since become chair of The New North’s diversity sub-committee.

About 13 to 15 percent of Goodwill’s workforce recognizes itself as an ethnic minority, Hackbarth-Horn said, and that number if projected to increase. But the organization’s appreciation of diversity extends well beyond culture and language to diversity of thoughts, opinions and lifestyles.

Goodwill delivers many services to the greater community, including programming for gay and lesbian youth, support for American Indians through the American Indian Center of the Fox Valley, and programs for individuals with disabilities.

The annual People, Possibility and Progress Diversity Award is sponsored by Kimberly-Clark Corp., which has long been regarded at the forefront of diversity initiatives. The company conducts business in 150 countries throughout the world.

Former Kimberly-Clark executive Kathi Seifert, one of the founding co-chairs for The New North and owner of the business consulting firm Pinnacle Perspectives LLC, said among Kimberly-Clark’s many initiatives was the establishment of formal networks that bring together employees that represent diverse populations. For example, there are networks representing Hispanics, women, gays and lesbians, African Americans, and others.

These networks were established to attract and retain employees from all backgrounds and from all parts of the world. Within the networks, individuals assist in recruiting talent and sharing ideas, perspectives and values that can lead to product development and improved marketing. The Hispanic network, for example, not only helps recruit and support employees, but it also helps ensure appropriate communication with consumers as well, Seifert said.

“Kimberly-Clark is competing with companies from all over the world, so it’s important to have diverse ideas and the best possible thinking when it comes to developing products and bringing them to an international market,” Seifert said. “These are products that must meet the needs of people all over the world.”

Gina Mangan is a freelance writer based in Oshkosh and is raising three children. Readers can email her at gmanganschmitz@new.rr.com.