Your migrant workforce
When employing a migrant workforce you should be aware of the language and cultural barriers that may prevent your business from operating smoothly.
Factors to consider
How will you and your staff welcome your migrant workers? It may be beneficial to train existing staff on the background of your migrant workers so that they understand something of their culture.
How will you help your migrant workers integrate into the local community? It is not just in the workplace that language and cultural differences will cause difficulties for your migrant workers. They will also have issues with accommodation, UK law, healthcare and the financial system. Any advice you can offer employees on these issues will probably be gratefully received
What is their level of English? Will they need language training and at what level?
Is there anyone else within the company who speaks the same language and could act as a mentor? Perhaps you could consider training staff at supervisor level so that they have basic language skills in the mother tongue of your migrant workers? The RLN can help you source quality-assured language trainers.
Can they read and understand health and safety notices? Employers are responsible for making sure that H&S information is properly understood. There is little margin for error in industries such as construction or food preparation and very basic language skills may not be adequate to ensure safety in an emergency situation. The RLN can signpost you to providers who can translate existing H&S leaflets, posters, etc.
Do they understand the UK work ethic and are they are aware of cultural differences? Please visit our migrant workers resources page for useful materials and links to help your prepare your employees for working in the UK.
Will you need to employ translators or interpreters? The RLN can help you source quality assured providers.
Will you need to employ language trainers or cultural consultants? Again, the RLN can help you source quality assured providers.
In order to ensure effective communication with your migrant workforce, you will need to use simple language, ensure workers know their job, translate important notices and consider employing the services of a language trainer or cultural consultant.
Free publications
To improve your communication with migrant workers, the following materials are available to download, free of charge, from our publications section:
Intercultural Skills (download now - pdf 235 KB)
Recruiting People with Languages (download now - pdf 582 KB)
Foreign Language Training (download now - pdf 171 KB)
There are also some useful migrant workers podcasts, produced by the RLN East Midlands, which you can access by visiting www.migrantworker.co.uk
Please visit our migrant workers resources section for further useful materials and links 
Further help
Please contact us to find out more about sourcing quality-assured suppliers of language training and cultural consultancy to benefit your migrant workforce.
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