6 minute read
Including nonnative speakers
Kathy Catton spoke with Emma McAllister and Lua Leite from Education Perfect, the teaching and learning platform for primary and secondary schools, on how the organisation is making a difference for non-native-speaking team members.
Education Perfect is in the business of helping others understand. Its core business is about empowering educators with the time, insight and resources they need to help learners reach their full potential. It covers subjects for all school children using worldclass technology. So, by making a difference in education, the 260-employee-strong company is now turning its attention to helping its staff feel engaged and become passionate learners.
English as an additional language
With 22 per cent of EPeeps (Education Perfect team members) identified as non-native English speakers, the organisation’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee decided to introduce an initiative to support this cohort. These workers were finding it challenging to keep up when English was spoken quickly, or lacked confidence when speaking in larger groups.
As Emma McAllister, Chief Operating Officer, explains, the DEI committee had set the foundational goals for the organisation, and then allowed the individuals to propose initiatives that would have the most significant impact.
“This wasn’t a leadership directive,” Emma says. “We wanted to support this initiative and the people leading it, as it was a significant issue for them.”
Lua Leite worked with colleague Mônica Munakata to incorporate more inclusive practices and build a support network for affected team members.
“I have English as a second language, and I would talk with my colleagues about how difficult it was to understand the business jargon used or just when people spoke quickly,” says Lua. “When we started to talk with more colleagues, we realised that everyone was having similar challenges, so we decided to do something about it.”
Address the challenge
The first step was to communicate that this was an area of focus for the business and put out a call asking non-native English speakers to identify challenges and critical areas for improvement.
Areas highlighted included public speaking and keeping up in meetings, difficulty understanding the nuances of English grammar and spelling, lack of English fluency, extra time spent unpacking business jargon from presentations or written updates, and lack of confidence contributing to meetings.
“After compiling all the ideas, we decided on a range of initiatives to implement,” says Lua.
One of the initiatives was producing a mini-series featuring people with English as an additional language. “We videoed people speaking in their own language, letting people know how they could help them to understand more.”
These video clips were then given subtitles and distributed via the company’s Slack channel.
“By speaking in their native language, they could really express how they felt,” says Lua. “They didn’t have any language barriers, so they could express themselves easily and freely.”
The videos were a huge success and opened the door to further conversations among employees and managers alike.
Lua, whose native language is Portuguese, likes how the videos have started to bring a cultural richness to the team. “One of my colleagues is from China, and he was explaining that the way he interprets numbers is completely different to mine, so now I can work better with him as I understand our differences.”
Parts of the whole
To help non-native English speakers interpret what’s said in online meetings, live transcription has been enabled. Monthly All Staff meetings are also recorded and then hosted internally alongside a written transcript. Live transcription is enabled for other core meetings, and information on how to implement the feature has been distributed to Zoom account owners for use with their teams.
Education Perfect has made Grammarly Premium subscriptions available to all non-native English speakers. This enables these team members to double-check any grammar and spelling quickly.
The team is continuously developing an acronym and jargon bank to act as a guide for EPeeps when they’re confronted with language they don’t fully understand.
In addition, a public speaking workshop specifically designed for the non-native English speakers at Education Perfect has been designed, focusing on language structure, strategies to overcome lack of confidence and techniques to engage the audience.
Results
When surveyed in the annual engagement survey and asked whether people felt their diversity was respected, the percentage rose from 74 per cent in 2021 to 84 per cent a year after these initiatives had been introduced. Of English as an Additional Language team members, 83 per cent felt more comfortable communicating, 57 per cent felt more included, and 91 per cent felt that their managers cared about and supported their needs.
The DEI committee continues to promote cultural diversity within the organisation by improving the initiatives already in place. “We’re currently setting up monthly cultural lunches where everyone can bring food from their country and we share recipes,” says Lua. “People connect through food, so we hope this will be successful.”
Emma explains that the recruitment and selection process is also evolving to include this cultural diversity. The mini-series videos are now being shown during onboarding, and a cultural buddy system has been set up. “We’re translating the miniseries so that people understand that we are an inclusive culture and respectful of other people, including those who don’t have English as their first language.”
Advice for others
Emma and Lua both agree that an initiative like this would be great for any organisation, given the wave of migration we are experiencing.
“I think it’s essential for every company to look at what they’re doing to include people,” says Lua.
“It’s important for people to talk and listen to what people have to say.”
Lua advises people to be openminded and to ask others for ideas, rather than feeling like they need to come up with all the initiatives themselves. Emma also emphasises the need to be quite specific. “We initially started working on lots of different initiatives with a wide area of focus. By starting with the parameters of the DEI committee, you can then set the goals but look to where people want to take it,” says Emma. So, more buy-in can be achieved, leading to greater team productivity and performance.
Education Perfect was the recipient of this year’s HRNZ Diversity Award. Congratulations to Education Perfect on its success in bringing people together and enhancing both employee engagement and team performance.
