The Importance of Translating Safety Information For Your Employees
Ensuring a safe work environment for employees is crucial for any business. Both safety signs and manuals play an important role in helping to maintain safety standards across the board for your company. While having these safety signs and manuals available in English is imperative for your employees who speak English as their first language, translating them into languages other employees may also speak natively will help your business avoid machine malfunctions, injuries, and potential lawsuits. Here are just a few reasons why translating signage and manuals could save your company money and give you peace of mind.
1. It ensures the safety of your employees and visitors.
The primary function for both safety signs and manuals is to ensure both employees and visitors alike are aware of any possible dangers and hazards associated with a particular machine or area within your company, thus preventing injury or machine failure. If any of your employees or plant visitors speak a language other than English as their primary language, having manuals and signage properly and professionally translated is of vital importance in order to ensure they are provided with the same level of safety standards as your English-speaking employees and visitors. An injury in the workplace can easily result in a lawsuit for your company if the person who was injured could not understand a manual for a machine or signage related to safety in the workplace.
2. It prevents pricy avoidable machine repair costs.
If an employee is unable to fully understand the operating manual for a particular machine he or she is working on, it could result in an otherwise avoidable machine malfunction if the employee does not use the machine as intended. The machine could also either become damaged or damage the surrounding workspace. Even an employee with a good grasp of English in a typical situation may struggle with some of the more technical vocabulary in machinery operating manuals. Having the manuals available in his or her native language will help eliminate repair costs, thus saving you money in the long term, since the employee is much more likely to fully understand the steps necessary to properly use the machine.
3. It will attract a wider pool of skilled workers and improve the morale of those who already work for you.
If your company is not known for having training and/or safety information available in an applicant’s native language, a highly skilled individual may decide not to apply for fear of not being able to perform the work competently. This means your company could lose out on a number of skilled workers who would otherwise be a very valuable asset in the workplace. Likewise, employees who feel valued are more likely to remain at a company. If workers feel frustrated by not being able to understand some of the safety requirements for their job, then the turnover rate for these workers will likely also be higher.
Having signage and materials available in more than one language could prove highly beneficial for your company. However, it is equally important to ensure that these are translated professionally and correctly. Even a slight error could result in employee/visitor injury or damage to your machines. If you are interested in learning more about translating your safety signage and materials, please let us know – we are happy to help!
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