Like many manufacturing organizations, DS Smith encountered hiring troubles in the wake of the pandemic. At its Lebanon, Ind., facility—which opened in 2019 in a state given a severe rating by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for only having 72 available workers for every 100 openings—HR struggled to fully staff the plant’s three shifts.

Throughout the manufacturing park surrounding the business, there were signs enticing workers with everything from sign-on bonuses to free food.

“We had people who would start, and then they’d ghost us for 25 cents more; they’d walk out at lunch or at breaks,” says Monica Anderton, CHRO of the North America Packaging and Paper Division of DS Smith.

The organization was already checking all the boxes for recruiting: running billboards, attending career fairs and recruiting at public transit stations and churches. But Becky Gordon, a member of the HR team at the Lebanon facility, suggested getting more creative—with targeted recruiting to Hispanic communities.

“She saw an opportunity to hit an untapped market,” Anderton says.

Breaking down language barriers

Gordon’s team started working with an Hispanic temporary worker agency, which funneled the organization a significant amount of talent. But many candidates couldn’t speak English, prompting the team to pitch—and get approved for—hiring three Spanish interpreters.

In time, the organization moved away from the temp agency and took over recruiting and hiring, with the help of the interpreters, who assist with translation services throughout the hiring and onboarding processes.

“As we get candidates in now,” Anderton says, “we’re able to speak to them with full translation—talk about our processes, our safety orientation, what the job is.”

One interpreter is present for each of the plant’s three shifts to support workers on the job, and they also assist with ongoing training, company-wide communications—from policy and procedure updates to open enrollment—and offer translation services for leadership teams.

“We do company meetings bilingual now,” Anderton says. “Everything we’re doing, we’re doing English-Spanish, Spanish-English, to keep that cadence going because the population has gotten so large.”

Since the interpreter program rolled out two years ago, the plant has become fully staffed, with 262 employees, and its Hispanic talent population has skyrocketed from 6% to 42%.

Ultimately, the plant reduced time-to-fill by more than half and grew production by 200%—tripling output.

Building the business case for a language program

DS Smith isn’t alone in recognizing the value of language support services in the workplace.

Online language learning platform Open Education launched more than 15 years ago and now operates in more than 30 countries, including a recent expansion into the U.S. Open Education has amassed more than 2 million users, including more than 10,000 corporate clients, who look to the language skills and training programs to capture the value of bilingualism within their workforces.

The rapid pace of globalization has made it essential for employers to invest in language skills, says Andrés Moreno, founder, chairman and CEO of Open Education.

“If you turn the clock back 10 or 20 years ago, globalization wasn’t at the point it is at now,” he says. “Most companies have revenue from abroad, providers for their products from abroad. It’s tough to find a company that’s completely isolated in the U.S.”

Ensuring your workforce has the language skills to penetrate the markets that will drive business growth is going to give companies a competitive advantage in that landscape.

“There are markets you’re going to miss if you don’t have speakers of a foreign language,” Moreno says.

Investing in language training can also be an employee attraction and retention tool, similar to DS Smith’s experience. Open Education’s research has found that such offerings heighten employee engagement—alongside profit margins.

Of more than 400 HR managers in the U.S. that Open Education surveyed, more than 70% say English and Spanish training programs create more inclusive work environments, while nearly as many say such initiatives can improve collaboration and teamwork. More than half of those surveyed say language training can reduce employee stress related to language barriers among diverse teams.

“There are few things a workforce would value more than having a high-quality program to learn a second language, especially if they have to use it in their work,” Moreno says.

Open Education’s approach, utilizing live human instruction, differs from many language-skills apps on the market today. That human-to-human connection drives adherence to the program, which Moreno notes can also boost retention, as employees utilizing such a benefit want to see the 18-month program through to completion—and, in the process, recognize the company’s investment in their development.

However, Moreno notes, there is space for tech to play a role in employees’ language skills development. For instance, Open Education’s AI-powered virtual tutor Jenny complements the live instruction, offering participants personalized feedback and recommendations at the end of each session.

Tech can also give HR key insights about the efficacy of language programming.

“There’s so much data now about how we’re learning and we give that to HR and to managers, which is a big departure from the past,” Moreno says. “That wealth of information allows HR to measure the ROI—to see that people are really learning using these products you’re providing to them.”

A long-term transformation

For DS Smith, the ROI of its language support program has been clear, Anderton says.

“It’s been so successful in helping us recruit and creating this very sticky factor that has helped our engagement and turnover,” she says.

It’s an investment that has fueled a larger cultural transformation, creating a more “welcoming environment”—where workers in Lebanon have together celebrated holidays like the Fourth of July and Cinco de Mayo, sharing food and traditions.

At the same time, Spanish-speaking employees are bringing in significant numbers of referrals and recognizing the potential for their own growth in the company. Anderton says a number of non-English-speaking employees have been promoted multiple times at the Lebanon plant because of the support of the language program—and many have gone on to enhance their English skills.

“We have some employees who have become bilingual because we’ve created this natural bridge,” she says.

DS Smith has leveraged some of the interpreters’ work—such as their translation of training and development videos—across its North American system, and Anderton says, the company would consider investing in interpreters at other sites with large Spanish-speaking populations in the future.

The success of the program, she adds, illustrates the potential of empowering HR talent to pursue opportunities for innovation.

“It really took off with an idea by a local HR manager who was open to kind of pushing the envelope,” Anderton says. “We have a really strong values system at DS Smith that allows employees to be creative and innovative—and that has helped us create this program that has been a total business win.”

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