Non-english speaking - can I NOT hire them?

jules2001

I currently have a large group of Vietnamese employees. We have Vietnamese supervisors on each shift that can translate. Some of these employees can and some can not speak English. The ones that cannot have been here for quite awhile. I'm sorry this may be a silly question, but I am new to this. My concern is that maybe someone of a different nationality who does not speak English, that I do not have a translator for, would want to work here and there would be no way to communicate. Can I just state that any new employee must be able to speak English? We do not have a policy either way. Maybe there is a reason for that...

Don D

I think your best bet as a company would be to aggressively seek a supervisory level person with Spanish speaking and writing skills (if that's the market you think you'll have as applicants). It would be a wise move to utilize the available workforce and not form a policy that will in effect exclude a significant sector of your workforce. Don't shoot yourself in the corporate foot by trying to exclude folks because they can't speak one language or another. That'll bite you in both feet. To be the best company you can be, your plan should be to utilize all the best available pieces of your local area labor force puzzle, and, if that means hiring a diverse supervisory group, I think that's the direction to move in. Not only will your morale soar, you'll also avoid giving the EEOC a red-flag reason to come visiting.

bsa

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 06-11-02 AT 01:16PM (CST)[/font][p]A previous employer with a similar situation used Catholic Charities (United Way participant) to help screen applicants and provide translators. The biggest problem we encountered with them was North / South Vietnamese conflicts.

Don is right about not hiring because of a language barrier being a problem, read ... discrimination.