South Africa is the melting pot for different nationalities and cultures. With eleven official spoken languages, often we find there can be a large communication barrier on the warehouse floor. This makes productivity a challenge, and organisations must find ways to address these issues.

The cost of not addressing the language issue

Language challenges stem from more than just difficulties communicating. If an employee is struggling with the language he is working in, his productivity is probably affected, as well as his accuracy. This hampers overall productivity and increases the challenges for a warehouse manager. It also limits the opportunities for good employees to advance which impacts the future of an organisation.

Not addressing language problems has a direct impact on the bottom line.

Using technology to break the language barrier

In his own language, that employee could easily be equally as productive and accurate as his skills allow. Being allowed the opportunity to work in his first language could improve his confidence and productivity tenfold. But how does an organisation create an environment in which every person can work in their own language?

By using technology.

Investing in interfacing software has solved the language challenge for warehouses and factories all across the world. A user can simply log on to the system with his own username and have the interface display in his chosen language. Suddenly, English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Sesotho speakers are all able to work together as a unit.
This improved cohesion not only increases productivity as a whole, but also gives employees a chance to perform and succeed and ultimately improves the bottom line for an organisation.

TransLution Software can help

TransLution Software uses touchscreens and scanners on the warehouse floor that can be completely customised to each user’s preferred language. If you would like to learn more about how to address these language issues and how TransLution Software’s multilingual system can help, please contact us.