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HISPANIC NETWORK MAGAZINE www.hnmagazine.com
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
GABRIELA BENITEZ
Gabriela Benitez, Senior Benefits Advisor at Diversified Insurance, has been recognized as the Business-person of the year by the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and by Latino magazine as the healthcare guru. She shares insights as a native Spanish speaker on how business leaders can bet- ter include and connect with their Latino workforce.
How to best use their healthcare plans; preventive services, urgent care vs emergency visits. Make sure they understand the situations that they can get into. If anything, drastic was to happen to them or their loved ones, they would learn different scenarios. How much everything costs, like emergency room visits.
Educating Your Hispanic Workforce
If you can educate employees and include them, rather than isolating them, it will make a big difference. Bring a translator. It helps to make them feel valued and like the company wants them to be in the know about what is going on. Educating employees in their own native language is key to making the informa- tion pertinent to them. As far as employee benefits, it's a great strategy to have separate meetings. One meeting with English speakers and another separate meeting for native Spanish speak- ers. They are more likely to engage and ask questions with a translator present than they would in a combined group setting. If you are having a companywide meeting discussing something other than healthcare, it's fine to combine, but helpful to have a translator there to facilitate communication.
Diversity & Inclusion
There are a lot of companies that focus on diversity and inclusion and many ways you can approach it. For example, one company set up a Spanish class so they could learn to better communicate with employees. In addi- tion, instead of celebrating Cinco de Mayo, research the Hispanic independence days of where your employees are from and put together some type of celebration. Similarly, birthday acknowledgments are highly impor- tant in Latin culture and correct name pronun- ciation can be very meaningful. In short, make a conscious effort to rec- ognize them on a personal level and let them know you appreciate them. For instance, trying to speak Spanish is very appreciated because it shows effort. In the same vein, lis- tening to Spanish music while working is very popular culturally because it makes people feel connected to their roots.
Resources for Hispanic Inclusion in the Workforce
Most importantly, there are many resources available to improve your relationship with your Hispanic workforce. The power of Hispanic inclusion in the workplace cannot be overstated. If you want to engage with your employees at any level, make sure they feel included in important conversations and that you are educating them, preferably with a native Spanish speaker. When employees understand their ben- efits, they can utilize them fully and correctly, which often leads to smaller increases and lower costs. Certainly, that is something we all want to work towards.
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