Essay Sample on Language Barrier in the Workplace: A Safety Concern

Although many people believe that the language barrier contributes to a reduction in the productivity of employees, we can take it as just a safety concern. The language barrier least influences the productivity and quality of employees. However, the language barrier is responsible for most injuries in the workplace (Turner, 2019). A study of the US construction industry revealed that there are very many Latin-speaking people in the country. The number of non-English speaking people in the country is likely to keep increasing. Even though the Latin and English speaking, people do not share a common language, the construction industry is always working.

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If employees get enough training, they will be able to reason and take the necessary course of action. The language barrier influences the quality and productivity of employees in different ways. In some cases, employees will need to consult about the requirements of the job. In other cases, though employees will be unable to communicate and ask, they will be able to do the tasks as they already know what they should do. Communication is not always about language, and people can use other means of passing a message from one person to another. Contractors have been communicating with subcontractors and the employees using visual means of communication.

Though the language barrier can influence the way information flow from management to the employees and back, labor productivity is doubtful. Well trained employees can make assumptions on the workplace. If a subcontractor speaks Latin while the contractor is an English speaker, the subcontractor can make considerations and do what the job requires. We can solve work-based problems by assuming and making considerations if we are well trained. Cases of safety at work result because of different factors and not the language barrier.

Failure for the management to put safety measures in the first line makes the cases of injuries at the workplace to increase significantly (Sahinidis et al., 2008). The administration emphasizes increased production and pays less attention to the workers' safety while conducting their jobs. The management recognizes workers who show high quality and effort at work and less concentrate on those who take care of security. We can conclude that safety issues at work come due to the management's laxity in ensuring the safety of the work and not language barriers. If the administration wants to get employees' high productivity, there is a need to train and supervise the workers rather than assuming the problem is the language barrier.

Managers use the language barrier as a scapegoat to avoid taking responsibility and ensuring they take action to improve their employees' productivity. If the management can concentrate on training the workers, they could make them more productive and improve their quality. Training workers make the workers who lack skills to gain knowledge on how to conduct the workers (Surbaini, 2018). Training even eliminates chances of injuries and losses at the workplace since it minimizes chances of misunderstandings and confusion. Top management tends to assume that the role of ensuring the quality of employees lie on middle-level management, who also think that employees know what to do.

If a contractor takes a step of training the workers, the subcontractor and the other junior employees become more aware of their job. Job awareness increases the employees' quality and productivity, so the language barrier will not influence the employees' performance (Surbaini, 2018). Training is even a solution to injuries and, at the same time, boosts the quality and productivity of the employees. Communication least influences employee performance while the management's effectiveness is responsible for the quality and output of the employees.

Works Cited

Sahinidis, Alexandros G., and John Bouris. “Employee Perceived Training Effectiveness Relationship to Employee Attitudes.” Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 32, no. 1, 2008, pp. 63–76., doi:10.1108/03090590810846575.

Surbaini, Khairul Nizam. “Training Effectiveness And Employee Performance In A Malaysian Government-Linked Company.” 2018, doi:10.15405/epsbs.2018.07.02.30.

Turner, Joshua. “Language Barriers In The Workplace.” Work It Daily | Where Careers Go To Grow, Work It Daily | Where Careers Go To Grow, 9 Oct. 2019, www.workitdaily.com/language-barriers-workplace.