Ever since COVID-19 emerged out of the city of Wuhan in China and became established as a global pandemic, we have entered into truly unprecedented territory. In December of 2019, this new virus emerged as a force to be reckoned with. On March 11, 2020, it was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Now, we are currently feeling its impact on every part of our society.
Schools have been shut down, leaving parents having to learn how to homeschool while working from home. Restaurants have been forced to close their lobbies and switch to fully take-out or delivery operations. Many other businesses, including museums, event venues, movie theaters, sports stadiums, and churches have simply had to shut their doors. While it is possible for some to continue as least partially offering their services on a purely virtual basis, nothing is the same. Those who normally operate in a bustling office environment, where tasks do not necessarily require being face-to-face to complete, may have been able to move to working from home, but this is still an adjustment.
If anything is clear about this pandemic, it’s that no business is spared from having to make changes in response. We will all be forever changed and now is the time to consider how your company will be affected in the long term, and what you can do now with services like translation to prepare.
What the Crisis Means for Your Company 
No one can deny the effect the current crisis is having on business activities. Pandemics are times of true uncertainty, but to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, action has been rapid, leaving us with a lot of certainty about what companies are currently dealing with.
Social distancing, in particular, has had a huge impact on the ways we get our work done. No longer able to go into the workplace, we’ve had to rethink the way we do things. It will be a difficult adjustment, but it’s one that your company can get through with the proper support and resources.
How Businesses Can Address the Crisis
Companies around the world have already been left without any choice but to take quick action in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. These have had to include drastic changes for the sake of employee and customer health and safety as well as for continued financial success. Many may struggle just to keep a profit while forced to shut their doors in the best interest of public health and safety in the time of this pandemic. These may be temporary measures, but they can still be major adjustments for any business.
As you learn to adjust to the right now, don’t forget to think about the afterwards. You’re going to have to make decisions and institute new processes. This means making a pandemic action plan and updating company policies as outlined in documents such as the HR manual. While there may be a million other things on your mind in a time like this, writing it all down and ensuring documentation can be essential for continual success. It is never too late to make the necessary updates, but everything needs to be efficiently translated for successful communication on a company-wide basis. For this, high quality translation services may be required.
The Role of Translation in this Pandemic
Especially in times such as these when a pandemic affects every single decision, communication is absolutely essential. Every urgent message that you need to get out to your employees requires all barriers to be removed from its path, including those of language. A pandemic is a crucial time for your business and a critical time for the communication that takes place within it. If any of your employees speak a language that differs from the one you primarily use, having language services provided couldn’t be more important for the various departments of your company, the HR department in particular.
There will be a lot required of the human resources department during a time like this. So many tasks involved in managing a pandemic fall on HR’s shoulders. Quick decisions for the immediate situation have to be made by HR professionals. This includes encouraging sick employees to put their health first, offering new PTO and work from home options necessary in this unprecedented situation, and implementing new strategies to keep work going on even during stressful and changing times.
Many of these HR decisions can be communicated in quick message formats such as email. However, HR policy updates may require a more formal process to update HR manuals, employee handbooks, and other important HR documents. Formalized language may be useful to implement new sick leave and PTO policies. Written documents, easily accessible by your employees, can be great places for important information about the pandemic, what your employees can do to protect themselves, and what steps your company is taking that they may be interested in hearing about. In addition, by taking the time and effort to actually update your human resources manual, you can add in language pertaining to the pandemic that can serve as an action plan for any future events of a similar nature. Planning ahead is always a smart move, and making lasting changes to the language of your HR documents is one way you can accomplish this.
Regardless of which method you use to get information distributed throughout the company, translation services may need to be relied on to get the message where it needs to be. If any percentage of your workforce speaks a foreign language, it doesn’t matter how the policy updates and other HR decisions are going out. If you don’t have high quality translation services, the communication will not be able to serve its purpose. Only with properly translated materials will each one of your multilingual employees be able to find out the information they need to help everyone get through the pandemic.
How GlobalSpeak Translations Can Assist with Your Pandemic Translations
At GlobalSpeak Translations, we are dedicated to doing our part as we all try to get through this pandemic together. The current situation really is changing things for everyone, and we want to be there for you as you work on the adjustment. We are available for any of your translation needs, whether for HR documents or any other purpose, during this critical time.
GlobalSpeak Translations remains open for these essential translation services. Our expert translators are hard at work in remote settings and ready to supply you with the translation work that your company requires. If you have anything that you need translated during this pandemic, just reach out to us at GlobalSpeak Translations.
Get High Quality Translation Services from GlobalSpeak Translations
Whether you need our assistance for the human resources department with translations of updated policy language related to the pandemic or require our translation services for some other purpose, GlobalSpeak Translations is here for you. Our team of experienced translation professionals have the technology and other necessary resources to continue working on translations without issue.
If you need anything from us at GlobalSpeak Translations, you can reach us on the phone, by email, through a private messenger, and on a web conference. Please don’t hesitate to contact us. We look forward to providing all your needed translation services – now and in the future.