Month: July 2024

8 Tips for Utilities to Choose the Right Language Services Provider

Posted on by Piedmont Global Marketing

Utilities must balance safety, cost-effectiveness, and energy efficiency in their daily operations. Partnering with a Strategic Globalization Organization (SGO) who shares these values is crucial. This collaboration can develop a multilingual communications program that drives organizational growth, enhances service delivery, and allows utilities to embrace the latest energy trends with exceptional transparency.

Choosing the right partner and adopting a strategic approach to language access are key to meeting regulations and achieving business goals. Here are some tips for selecting the right provider:

 

1. Evaluate the Partner’s Background and Experience in the Utilities Sector

When selecting a language services provider, consider their industry expertise, knowledge of state and federal energy regulations, and commitment to environmentally-friendly initiatives. A provider well-versed in these areas ensures compliance, offers innovative solutions, and contributes to sustainability.

Piedmont Global has extensive experience providing language solutions to utility companies such as Washington Gas, Dominion Energy, and Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), as well as government agencies and other commercial clients. We also recognize and value sustainability in the sector.

 

2. Consider the Partner’s Ability to Accommodate the Languages Spoken in Your Territory

Inquire about the SGO’s cultural competence in working inclusively and sensitively with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) communities. This includes their experience in effective communication, understanding cultural nuances, and providing accessible language services.

Piedmont Global frequently hires linguists who are local to the communities we serve. As a full-service SGO, we offer diverse, customizable solutions in over 200 languages and dialects. Our experts are trained in the nuances of the utilities sector and are embedded in various service territories.

 

3. Review the SGO’s Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) Processes

These processes may involve everything from vetting and training staff to proofreading multilingual content and ensuring accuracy and timeliness. Effective management ensures that the provider delivers high-quality, culturally appropriate services that meet the diverse needs of LEP communities.

Piedmont Global operates with a robust ISO 9001:2015 Certified Quality Management System (QMS) that exceeds both ISO and ASTM International standards for the provision of language services. Our pool of 5,000+ language professionals are trained in this and continually honor these standards.

 

4. Assess the SGO’s Commitment to Data Security Since Not all Technologies are Created Equal

From translation requests to document management services, compliance, security, and efficiency are essential. This ensures that operations are streamlined, sensitive information is safeguarded, and services are delivered promptly and accurately.

Piedmont Global takes customer privacy and data security seriously. We proudly offer NIST 800-171-compliant network infrastructure, distribute non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to all personnel, and facilitate annual security refresher trainings.

 

5. Evaluate the Partner’s Ability to Ensure Timely Communication During Critical Situations

Multilingual communications must be immediate (especially in emergency or extreme weather situations). For example, during a hurricane, providing real-time updates in multiple languages ensures that all residents, including those with limited English proficiency, receive crucial information to stay safe and take necessary precautions.

Piedmont Global can accommodate fast turnarounds and offer language services in real-time. We work as efficiently as possible – and leverage technology as needed – to serve clients.

 

6. Consider if the SGO Can Provide Cost-Effective Language Solutions

Multilingual communications must be cost-effective and deliver measurable ROI, even for smaller utilities with tighter operating budgets. Investing in efficient language services ensures broad reach in multilingual markets and justifies the investment through clear, quantifiable benefits such as improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Piedmont Global offers a high return on investment, with translation and interpretation work that can save lives – and reduce the need for emergency services – in the energy sector.

 

7. Assess if the SGO Understands the Specific Needs of the Energy Utilities Industry

Multilingual communications must be tailored to the energy utilities industry. This ensures that technical terms and industry-specific information are accurately conveyed, enabling all customers to understand their energy usage, billing, and available services regardless of their language proficiency.

Piedmont Global has a deep understanding of the sector’s evolution and core variances, from regional differences to the operational nuances of different utility providers.

 

8. Determine if the SGO Project Management Capabilities Ensure Customized and Accurate Communication

Multilingual communications must be clear, accurate, and personalized. This improves customer satisfaction, builds trust, and improves engagement, all while meeting regulatory requirements and fostering inclusivity.

Piedmont Global offers client-centric project management and delivery, with a dedicated project manager assigned to each energy utility client. This promotes a customized approach.

 

Ensure Language Access With Piedmont Global

Piedmont Global is a leading provider of translation, interpretation, and language training solutions in over 200 languages and regional varieties. In emergencies or extreme weather situations, multilingual communications must be immediate. Piedmont Global can accommodate fast turnarounds and provide real-time solutions. We work efficiently and leverage technology to serve clients effectively. Contact our team to explore how our language services, tools, resources, and expertise can help energy utilities achieve their language access goals.

5 Steps to Building a Language Access Plan in the Energy Sector

Posted on by Piedmont Global Marketing

The energy sector is constantly evolving—structurally, environmentally, and demographically. In the United States, approximately 3,000 electric utility companies deliver power to over 140 million customers each year. Over 68 million U.S. residents speak a language other than English at home and 29.6 million of these people have limited English proficiency (LEP).

Though utility providers value consumer experience, far too many overlook their non-English-speaking clientele. When resources and information are unavailable in a person’s spoken language, the customer struggles to read the provider’s website or communicate with a call center agent. As a result, problems around loyalty, engagement, and safety ensue.

Language access plans are integral to serving LEP communities—allowing utility companies to support their members, prioritize consumer welfare, and adequately communicate with all of their customers.

 

How to Develop Your Language Access Plan

Designing a language access plan requires careful coordination. Utilities should take the following steps to build their own:

 

1. Plan Carefully

Start by evaluating your current language access capabilities. An expert language access consultant can help evaluate your needs. If you don’t currently have a program or plan in place, identify the need based on the language requirements of the people within your service territory.

Think about the size of your energy utility, the market you serve, and the events you experience in your region. For example, providers in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and Georgia will need to integrate hurricane season into their language access plans. Providers always have the option to survey their community to assess demand.

Piedmont Global has extensive experience providing language solutions to utility companies like Washington Gas, Dominion Energy, and Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC), as well as government agencies and other commercial clients. We deeply understand the sector’s evolution and core differences, including regional variations and the operational nuances of various utility providers.

 

2. Develop Localized Translation and Interpretation Services

Utility companies are more likely to reach new customers by offering translation, interpretation, and similar language access services. Consider the language needs of your primary market. The City of Minneapolis, for example, identified Spanish, Somali, Hmong, Vietnamese, Amharic, Lao, and Oromo as core languages in its 2015 Language Access Plan.

Interpretation: This is crucial for utility call centers when non-English-speaking consumers call about billing, energy plans, or emergencies. Call centers with language interpretation services see 35.67% higher FCR rates. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) offers free interpreter services for public hearings, presentations, and meetings.

Translation: Utilities must provide key documents and materials—including invoices, service notices, and safety insights with contact numbers for drilling or digging—in the languages spoken by LEP communities within their service territory. These translated materials must be free and readily available.

Localization: Energy utilities should localize all digital content, including websites, software, and user documentation. Why does this matter? A 2020 CSA Research survey found that 76% of shoppers prefer to buy from websites available in their native language. Shopping for an energy utility company is no different.

 

3. Train Staff to Support Consumers With LEP

Energy utilities can incentivize bilingual staff to work for their organization. Consider partnering with a designated language service provider (LSP) to improve training and support consumers with low English proficiency.

An LSP offers specialized training programs for your staff, equipping them with the skills needed to better serve diverse populations. This collaboration enhances customer satisfaction, ensures compliance with regulatory requirements, and bolsters the utility’s reputation for inclusivity and accessibility.

 

4. Roll Out Your Multilingual Communication Strategy

Carefully consider the timeframes, milestones, and stakeholders involved in this process.  Prioritize targeted outreach to connect with LEP customers who will benefit most from multilingual language access. Localized SMS notifications, and partnerships with government agencies, are equally effective marketing techniques.

It is crucial to roll out a thorough and effective program rather than rushing the process. Consumer safety, transparency, and access to the energy grid are paramount. This ensures that all customers, regardless of language proficiency, have the information they need to stay safe, understand their utility services, and fully participate in the benefits provided by the energy grid.

 

5. Focus on Continuous Improvement

Utilities should plan to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their language access programs. To do this, utilities may choose to collect feedback (from consumers and stakeholders), examine customer multilingual usage data, and conduct annual surveys to pinpoint areas for improvement.

Staying up-to-date on demographic changes in the service territory is essential. By monitoring shifts in the population, language services can be adjusted to meet the needs of the LEP populations being served. This proactive approach ensures that services remain relevant and effective, accommodating any new language needs that may arise as demographics evolve.

 

Ensure Language Access With Piedmont Global

A well-designed language access plan enables consumers with low English proficiency to communicate with customer support, ask questions confidently, and safely navigate outages and emergencies.

Piedmont Global is a leading provider of translation, interpretation, and language training solutions in over 200 languages and regional varieties. In emergencies or extreme weather situations, multilingual communications must be immediate. Piedmont Global can accommodate fast turnarounds and provide real-time solutions. We work efficiently and leverage technology to serve clients effectively. Contact our team to explore how our tools, resources, and expertise can help energy utilities achieve their language access goals.

eLearning Localization: Engaging Multilingual Learners in 7 Industries

Posted on by Piedmont Global Marketing

The world is increasingly connected in commerce and trade, thanks to the internet. The global pandemic of 2019 highlighted the need for a connected global workforce. The tools developed during this time also facilitated remote meetings, work, and training. Trainers no longer needed to fly to remote offices, and employees didn’t need to spend a week in a conference room for training. COVID-19 banned travel, and like a social experiment, we learned that remote work is possible. Almost.

To adapt to technological and economic changes, distributed organizations need a robust learning strategy to develop talent and enhance performance in the new remote eLearning environment. Like Zoom meetings, eLearning existed before COVID. It lived in global organizations with remote satellite offices, often in different countries and cultures. Managing eLearning in one language is challenging, let alone in five or a dozen languages.

When it comes to multilingual learners, many organizations initiate eLearning projects without a clear global vision and strategy, often relying on outdated content that is delivered in a ‘broadcast’ manner. This approach fails to transfer knowledge to multilingual learners from diverse cultural backgrounds. Other teams sometimes lack the tools, resources, and skilled professionals to design, deliver, and manage eLearning programs—and then struggle to do this at scale.

A poorly or partially produced video will backfire without considering local attitudes. Without localization, eLearning content may be misinterpreted, misunderstood, or lost entirely in the target culture. So, which industries can benefit from localizing their eLearning content? Here are seven inter-related examples. Not every solution will fit all teams, but exploring different approaches is worthwhile.

 

1. Global Corporations With a Multilingual Workforce

A Gallup report found that organizations that make strategic investments in employee development experience 11% greater profitability and are 2x as likely to retain their employees. However, creating a high-development culture requires more than just adding a few learning programs to the roster.

As a company grows internationally and workforces diversify, Learning and Development (L&D) professionals encounter communication differences when sharing core messaging and critical training modules. It becomes vital for eLearning courses to be made local to accommodate diverse employee demographics.

Localization ensures that training can be delivered in multiple languages at scale and guarantees that all teams, domestic or abroad, can improve through localized content in their native language. This ensures that training materials are culturally relevant, linguistically accurate, and aligned with local regulations and practices. A global talent development team must consider multilingual learners in different locations, not just one, and tailor the message to connect while still achieving the objectives and desired outcomes.

 

2. Educational Institutions with Multilingual Learners

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), public colleges enrolled approximately 7.5 million online students in 2022. Another 2.6 million remote learners attended private schools, including 1.8 million at nonprofit institutions and nearly 800,000 at for-profit schools. Not all of these students are local.

“If we really want to provide equal opportunities for all students, and we want underrepresented minority students to do well, we really need to pay attention to their experiences and their perspectives and give them the tools to do better.”

Lilach Alon, Researcher and Lecturer at Tel-Hai Academic College

Universities, colleges, and schools offering online courses in learning management systems need to localize their content to accommodate international students or learners from various linguistic backgrounds. This enhances accessibility and improves learning outcomes for multilingual learners. It is also an obligation. While it may not be Title 9 or a specific mandate, there’s a need for feasibility and enabling students to learn effectively.

Making courses available to students anywhere—and translating them when there’s interest—is important. “Locale” refers to how particular words need to be in relation to the goal. For example, in one part of town, people might call it a “sandwich,” while in another part, they might call it a “hoagie” (a US English, mid-Atlantic linguistic divide). Does it matter? Sometimes it’s not relevant, but other times it can cause minor or major distractions. Most major errors are caught by a local review, there are ways to bring that upstream. Fixing and re-deploying a course after it’s already launched is a partially wasted effort.

 

3. Public-Sector Agencies Addressing Multilingual Constituents

Government departments or agencies involved in training initiatives, public awareness campaigns, or citizen education programs may require localization services to reach constituents in various regions or linguistic communities. Over 359 languages are spoken in the US, making it #9 globally out of 242 countries. This is far fewer than Papua New Guinea’s 840 languages but highlights our globalized nature. While we focus on the US in this example, each region has its unique challenges and opportunities.

For example, a public health campaign regarding vaccination must account for cultural beliefs about healthcare, local idioms, varying literacy levels, and language preferences for those with limited English proficiency (LEP) to achieve success. This is especially true for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) populations, who often harbor greater distrust and hesitancy toward vaccines. There are other policy implications that go beyond our topic—but the best solution is to embrace the diversity of the cultural divide and allow that differences will appear. If you pay attention, there is something to learn about the diverse populations that make up the patchwork of communities and can drive better engagement and response.

Localization ensures that important information is not only understood but also embraced by the community. This can lead to greater mission success with the desired outcomes of a program, whether it’s increased public knowledge, changed behaviors, or improved access to services.

 

4. Healthcare Providers Serving Multilingual Populations

Healthcare organizations frequently develop eLearning modules for staff training, patient education, or medical certification programs. Localizing these materials is crucial to ensure that terminology, procedures, and healthcare guidelines are accurately conveyed across different languages and cultural contexts.

For instance, consider patient education. The term “hospice,” commonly translated into Spanish as “hospicio,” often carries the negative connotation of institutionalizing a loved one. This concept is unfamiliar in Latin America, where most families care for their loved ones at home.

“Latinos often think they’re giving up on their [loved one’s] medical care, and that’s not the case. It’s bringing a holistic, compassionate form of health care focused on dignity and the patient’s wishes.”

Jon Radulovic, VP of Communications at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization in Alexandria, Virginia

Suzanne Sanchez, Community Liaison at Hospice of the Valley, says that while they have bilingual staff serving Spanish-speaking patients, they “don’t focus on the word, but on the feeling.” Similarly, localization goes beyond word-for-word translation to account for such cultural nuances. In all patient interactions with cultural or language barriers, there are opportunities to improve access and quality of care by providing more culturally-aware context. Better outcomes result from adapting to the patient, rather than expecting the patient to adapt to something unfamiliar.

 

5. Technology Companies Engaging Multilingual Learners

Approximately 16% of the world’s population speaking English, but surprisingly 52% of websites are written in English. Software companies, IT firms, and tech startups that develop eLearning software tutorials to reach global users or product training materials to engage multilingual learners often require localization services.

According to a recent study by DeepL, 75% of respondents agree that localized content significantly increases customer engagement. It also improves user experience and promotes wider adoption. People are more inclined to engage with content that resonates with their linguistic and cultural background, leading to increased user satisfaction and product success. Product teams regularly consider user personas, use cases, and the best outcomes from using a product. The language aspect shouldn’t be an afterthought if you want to capture the remaining 80% of the global market.

 

6. Manufacturing and Industry with Multilingual Workers

Companies in manufacturing, engineering, or industrial sectors often create eLearning courses for employee training on safety, standard operating procedures, or compliance. Did you know that, Hispanic and Latino workers are expected to comprise 78% of new workers by 2030, yet they face a 32% higher risk of fatal work injuries?

Localization ensures that safety and training resources are effectively communicated to workers across diverse linguistic backgrounds. Without multilingual and localized content, it is impossible to hold every employee to the same safety, productivity, and quality standards. Additionally, other worker populations, such as overseas subsidiaries or partners, regularly need to understand concepts that enable higher performance. While some organizations manage with bootstrapped solutions, a comprehensive strategy can significantly improve efficiency and operational excellence for multilingual learners.

 

7. Nonprofit Organizations Engaging Multilingual Communities

NGOs, charities, and humanitarian organizations involved in capacity-building initiatives, community development projects, or advocacy may require localized eLearning content to engage with stakeholders in different regions or language groups. Localization helps reflect local customs, values, and norms, making the content relatable and respectful to the target audience. Incorporating locally relevant images, symbols, and voices in multimedia content also boosts engagement and retention among the audience.

For example, UNICEF localizes educational materials for children in different countries, ensuring they are culturally and linguistically appropriate. The Amref Health Africa in the US uses localized eLearning content to train health workers across Africa. Their materials are tailored to the specific health needs and cultural contexts of the regions they serve. A smart strategy for localization can also stretch the effectiveness of budgets so that more impact can be achieved with less wasted effort.

 

Localize Your eLearning Content with Piedmont Global

Starting an eLearning localization project involves careful consideration of various factors, from advanced project management to international regulations. Piedmont Global is the preferred language partner for organizations of all sizes. Our renowned localization services, coupled with our team’s expertise, a global network of specialists, and tailored end-to-end solutions, ensure comprehensive support at every stage of the localization process. We can help craft a strategy, introduce new tools and processes, and optimize your global-to-local communication pipeline. eLearning can be complicated but getting solutions to reach multilingual learners doesn’t have to be.