Hospitals providing English lessons to retain foreign staff
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Lauren Wilbert Staff Writer
When she began her job as a housekeeper at United Hospital, Souad Gubash was often frustrated by her difficulty in communicating with colleagues and staff, due to her limited proficiency in speaking English.
Gubash, who emigrated from Lebanon three years ago, frequently had to call down to her supervisor: "I don't understand this," and "I don't understand that."
She's not alone.
As the health care industry sees growing numbers of immigrants applying for entry-level and technical jobs, communication with those who use English as a second language can be time-consuming and frustrating. At the same time, hospitals need to retain these workers because there's a labor shortage in the health care industry.
That's why four hospitals in Ramsey County are participating in an English-language learning program for their housekeeping staff -- to prevent more experiences like Gubash's.
The teaching and mentoring program is supported by an 18-month, $150,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to Ramsey County as well as state funds.
Those St. Paul hospitals -- Allina's United Hospital, Gillette's Children's Hospital, HealthPartners' Regions Hospital and HealthEast's St. Joseph Hospital -- already are enjoying the benefits of the first round of classes.
"We're seeing a tremendous increase in confidence in these employees, and they're trying things and asking more questions," said Mary Silberschmidt, a retention specialist at United Hospital.
Workforce Solutions, a county department that helps businesses with labor-related issues, partnered with Language Solutions, a Lake Elmo-based software publishing company, to create the English on the Job program.
"What we're trying to do with any business sector is we're looking for an opportunity where people can not only enter into that sector, but move up," said James Zentner, planning specialist at Workforce Solutions. Better English-speaking skills can lead to conversations about employees' long-term goals and help supervisors train and place people into other positions.
The software uses English text with graphics and voice recognition tools to help students learn the meanings of words and measure the students' accents. Students also have homework and are required to interact with supervisors.
The program emphasizes a health perspective on such topics as safety, cleaning procedures, customer service and employee expectations.
The long-term benefit of the program is that it improves employee retention and opens the way for advancement to higher-level jobs.
Some employees already are showing interest in further education and job opportunities.
That's reassuring at a time when health care is facing a shortage of workers, particularly for nursing jobs, Silberschmidt said.
"If you have people interested in health care and can give them the skills [to communicate], they might apply for a nursing assistant position," she said. "If they're successful there, they might choose to go into nursing school."
While immigrants may not enroll in nursing school right away, it provides a path for employees to get there, said Barry Baer, president of Language Solutions.
County and hospital officials are measuring the program's return on investment, and each hospital said it is considering making room in its budget to pay for more classes once it's used up the grant.
laurenwilbert@bizjournals.com | (612) 288-2107
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