This partnership is creating a guide to onboarding immigrant employees

In order to effectively hire and onboard immigrant and refugee employees, employers may just need some guidance around best steps and practices.

Out of the 47 million immigrants currently in the U.S, 17% are currently employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For many, a lack of English language proficiency is a major barrier, yet one that can be easily overcome if employers are willing and able to put aside some common misconceptions.

Nonprofits Jobs for the Future and the Tent Partnership for Refugees partnered to create a language guide for employers, which offers proven solutions to overcoming language barriers at work, while highlighting the value immigrants and refugees bring to businesses across the U.S, even while they’re in the process of learning English.

“What we really wanted to do with this guide is address that challenge head on and share best practices to companies on how they can implement solutions to overcome language barriers,” says Yaron Schwartz, the U.S. lead for the Tent Partnership for Refugees. “[Employers can learn] how to help refugees with limited English language proficiency get into jobs faster as they work toward local proficiency in the language.”

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The guide offers suggestions for employers like conducting interviews in more than one language, and ensuring employment documents and resources are available in multiple languages. Employers can also partner with community organizations and set up a workplace “buddy system” with English-speaking employees to provide language learners with support.

American food company Chobani has already begun implementing these solutions, as 20 to 30% of their workforce is made up of immigrants and refugees, according to Schwartz.

“In the beginning, they were translating materials into commonly spoken languages by the refugees and immigrants who are part of their workforce,” he says. “And when they realized that some of the refugees were illiterate, they switched a lot of their training materials to visuals.”

These efforts can bring in valuable talent during a time when employers are facing record labor shortages, says Laura Roberts, director at Jobs for the Future. But both sides must be willing and eager to learn.

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“What we felt like the field was lacking was concreteness,” Roberts says. “What are the actual things a business line manager or a frontline manager or a talent leader need in order to not just accommodate low language proficiency and a minority workforce, but actually invest in that talent.”

And making those kinds of long-term investments isn’t just beneficial to the employees seeking work, but for the companies offering it, too. Seventy-three percent of employers reported that refugees have lower turnover rates than the average employee, according to Tent. Additionally, investing in this population fosters a sense of loyalty that can significantly impact retention, while advancing DEI initiatives in a concrete way.

“Refugees are coming from very diverse backgrounds, ethnicities, sexual orientations and gender identites,” Schwartz says. “Supporting refugees is a wonderful way of engaging both your consumers and their own employees who are looking for businesses to take a stand on corporate social responsibility, diversity and inclusion goals.”